IVC Special Issue (Notes taken from an e-mail to Tony Pridmore from Keith Baker)
There is some flexibility in the way IVC process Special Issues . For the BMVC series it is usually the case that the Committee have some voice in the selection procedure. Generally IVC like to work to a final selection of some 10-12 manuscripts for the issue. That means you should aim to have the Committee pre-select about 15-18 of the best papers presented at the conference. Some will drop by the wayside for one reason or another during the processing so we should start with more. If there are some really good papers that require us to pre-select 20 or more that's OK. The key is to have quality as the top priority.
Authors need to be given the opportunity of extending their work to a full archival journal form. We do not want to just reproduce what is in the conference proceedings already published. It should give the authors the opportunity to provide the in-depth discussion of the work that is characteristic of Journals such as IVCJ. They can also take advantage of the IVC Annexes facility, the electronic publication that can be associated with the issue. This is especially useful for image sequences or additional images to illustrate the working of an algorithm freed of the limitations of the paper publication. If there are papers that could benefit from this then please draw this to the authors attention. The main publication is still the paper version but where appropriate the papers contain links to the electronic Annexe.
There are two main processing loops to be looked after in the preparation of the issue. The first is the refereeing cycle the second the revision cycle. With a Special Issue we have to try and orchestrate the processing more closely so that we arrive at a set of manuscripts that can be put together in the same issue. The Guest Editor can assist this by keeping in contact with the Referees and the Authors at the appropriate times.
When the Committee has assisted you with the pre-selection of say 15-18 papers I would like you to name at least two and probably three Referees for each manuscript. Some can be members of the Committee but at least one should be chosen from elsewhere and if possible from abroad. Once you have the list of pre-selected manuscripts and the list of Referees for each please let me know so that we can enter the details onto the database.
We then need to send the manuscripts and the Referee Report Forms to the Referees so that they can review and report on each. This can either be done from your office or from mine. Some Guest Editors like to handle the whole processing from their own office. If you want me to do it I will once I have the names of the referee associated with each paper.
Once the Report Forms come back from the Referees you will need to look through them carefully to see what each has to say. From the comments of the Referees we shall be able to draw up a list of the best papers to be considered further.
The Authors of those so selected should then be asked to revise their manuscripts in the light of the Referees comments. After the revised manuscripts are returned, and some will need to be chased, we shall be in a position to make the final selection for the issue. It is only at that time that we can give the Authors information about whether they have been selected for publication. For various good reasons some Authors do not get their revised papers back in time to be included in the issue. For these I usually say they can be published in a subsequent regular issue so that they do not miss out altogether.
Much of the work of the Guest Editor is to help with the selection of the referees and to keep an eye on the two main processing cycles so that things do not get out of step. There will also be the need for the Guest Editor to write the editorial and this should be ready at the same time as we expect the revised manuscripts to come in.
A copy of the letter sent to authors invited to submit papers to the Special Issue in 1999 is here.
A copy of the letter sent to authors invited to submit papers to the Special Issue in 2000 is here in WORD and in Email format.