Special Issue Guidelines

Special issues should align closely with the mission of Trainers of School Psychologists (TSP) by advancing scholarly “innovation and excellence in graduate training programs for specialist and doctoral school psychologists.” Articles published in special issues may be either data-driven or conceptual; however, they must not solely comprise overviews of contributors’ previous work and should be written to the same standards of quality and significance as articles published in general issues. There are two mechanisms for generating special issues:

• Invited Special Issues are initiated by the Senior Editorial Board based upon topics identified as timely and relevant to the readership of SPTP. In this case, a member of the Senior Editorial Board will identify a Guest Editor(s) with expertise in the selected topic and invite him/her to submit a special issue proposal.

• Unsolicited Special Issues are initiated by prospective Guest Editors based upon a topic deemed relevant to the readership of SPTP. Individuals interested in guest editing a special issue of SPTP are encouraged to contact the Editor prior to submitting a proposal. 

Special Issue proposals must be reviewed and approved by the Editors before papers are solicited or submitted. 

Proposals should be submitted via the SPTP proposal form (see form below). All proposal should include the following information: 

• Title of the Special Issue

• Proposed Guest Editor(s), their titles, affiliations, and contact information. Usually no more than three guest editors will be identified per special issue 

• A statement of the significance of the Special Issue topic to the readership of SPTP, and the alignment of the topic with the mission of TSP 

• Proposed topic areas and types of contributions

  • List of potential topics for articles to be solicited

  • Populations that will be addressed

  • Types of contributions that will be considered

• Timetable for completion and publication of the special issue 

General Information

• Length: Four to six articles comprise a Special Issue. Proposals may include 8-10 potential topics or contributors, to allow for rejections or withdrawals.

• Timetable: Authors should work closely with the Editorial Liaison to identify and adhere to a workable timetable. When the Special Issue is accepted, the Guest Editor(s) will be informed of the tentative publication date for the Issue. Typically, from the acceptance of the Special Issue to publication will be no more than one year. As SPTP is currently published twice annually, it is particularly important that submissions, reviews, and revisions are completed in a timely manner. 

Special Issue Development and Review

1. The Senior Editorial Board will consider whether the initial proposal is of interest to the readership of SPTP and will inform the proposed Guest Editor(s) whether or not the proposal will be accepted as submitted, accepted with revision, or not accepted. It should be noted that the Editor can reject individual manuscripts or, in consultation with the Senior Editorial Board, the Special Issue as a whole, if it does not meet quality and significance standards. If fewer articles than anticipated are accepted, the Senior Editorial Board may opt to publish a partial special issue or group of articles with or without an introductory article.

2. Once a Special Issue proposal is accepted, one member of the Senior Editorial Board will be assigned to work with the Guest Editor(s) as an Editorial Liaison to facilitate the solicitation, review, revision, and publication of articles in the Special Issue.

3. Guest Editors are responsible for distributing a call for papers, soliciting and identifying articles to be included in the special issue, and working with prospective contributors to ensure submissions meet the standards of quality and significance appropriate to publication in SPTP. Guest Editors should clearly communicate to prospective authors that submission of a manuscript does not guarantee acceptance for publication.

4. The Guest Editor will submit a list of names of possible peer-reviewers to the Editor. Guest Editors should submit two (2) reviewer names per issue article. No recommended reviewers may be a current author of a manuscript being submitted to the Special Issue.

5. Submissions for the Special Issue should be submitted directly to the Guest Editor(s) who will determine if manuscripts are suitable for, and within the scope of, the Special Issue. The Editorial Liaison is available for consultation if there is uncertainty regarding the most appropriate course of action. The Guest Editor(s) will also make sure the submissions have met all the Manuscript Preparation guidelines

   • • Manuscripts selected for inclusion in the Special Issue by the Guest Editor(s) will be forwarded to the Editor of the SPTP to be sent out for a double-masked peer review.

     • Manuscripts not selected for further review by the Guest Editor(s) will be returned to the author. The Guest Editor may elect to notify the manuscript author(s) that they may choose to forward their manuscript to the Senior Editorial Board for consideration in a future general issue of SPTP.

     • Double-masked peer reviews will be completed using the same procedure as manuscripts submitted for general issues. However, given that the purpose of the Special Issue, double-masked review is only to ensure a manuscript meets the publication quality standards of SPTP; therefore, reviewers will not be asked for a publication recommendation (i.e., accept/reject). The Editor will forward manuscript reviewer feedback to the Guest Editor(s) after removing all identifiable reviewer information. The Guest Editor(s) will forward the reviewer feedback – verbatim – to the manuscript author(s) for revision. Manuscript revisions will be returned to the Guest Editor(s) who will forward the revision to the Editor; the Editor will send the revised manuscript to the reviewers for comment and then communicate their response to the Guest Editor(s). The Guest Editor will consider the reviewer remarks and communicate to the Special Issues Editor and the Editor whether the manuscript is ready for publication or if it needs further revision. If deemed ready, the Special Issues Editor and the Editor will conduct a final review of the manuscript. The purpose of that review will be twofold: (a) to check for heading format continuity and (b) ensure the section on “implications for school psychologists” has strong, well-articulated, specific, feasible implications that can be implemented by those who train school psychologists at all levels of training. If the Special Issues Editor and the Editor feel the implications/recommendations are weak, too broad, too generic, or too impractical, they will notify the Guest Editor(s) who will ask the author(s) to revise this section.

     • If a Guest Editor, or one of the Special Issues Guest Editors, authors a manuscript for inclusion in the Special Issue, the Editor of the SPTP will conduct the double-masked review process, communicate reviewer feedback, monitor the revision process, and determine whether the manuscript is ready for publication as noted above. If the Guest Editor(s) disagrees with the decision of the Editor, an appeal to the full Senior Editorial Board may be made at any time.

6. As manuscripts are accepted for inclusion in the Special Issue, the Guest Editors are responsible for preparing an original introductory article that provides the context and rationale for the Special Issue and references the articles included in the Special Issue. The introductory article should be submitted within two weeks of acceptance of the final article in the Special Issue. Review and feedback on the introductory article will be provided by the Senior Editorial Board