A special issue is one that has identified the authors and papers for the issue. It is
organized around a specific content area or methodology that may represent a large scale
intervention project or national initiative, or a collection of papers presented at a national
conference. The special issue does not involve a call for papers. All manuscripts receive
blind peer review and reviewers are expected to work with authors until the manuscript meets
the standards of papers published in the journal.
Proposal submissions are reviewed by the Journal editors. Content, timeliness of the topic,
thoroughness of the proposal, relevance for the Journal readership, and production schedule
are among the criteria used for selection. In order to be considered for a special issue guest
editors need to submit a proposal that includes the following information:
1) Issue description
A 2-3 page description of the issue contents that describes the significance of the issue,
its relevance for health behavior and health education, and the linkages among the papers
that will be included.
2) Special Issue guest editor biosketches
A 2 page biosketch of all guest editors should be included in the proposal. Most special
issues have 1 or 2 guest editors. Guest editors assume full responsibility for the special
issue including: making final determination of the merit of the articles, correspondence with
all authors and reviewers, assurance that correct review procedures are carried out, handling
of all manuscripts from initial submission for review to final routing to the Journal office,
and typically writing the introduction to the issue.
3) Manuscript information
The title, authors, and a 200 word abstract of each proposed article should be submitted.
Manuscripts can be empirical, theoretical analyses, or review papers. In most cases, the
special issue should include some empirical papers (these may include qualitative,
quantitative, or combined methodologies). The abstracts should provide information that
adequately describes the contents of the proposed manuscript (e.g., research design, data
collected, theories analyzed, perspective and organization of literature reviewed).
4) Editorial board
A list of tentative guest editorial board members should be included. Special issues
typically have 8-12 editorial board members. Some of the authors may be guest editorial
board members, but they may not review their own manuscript.
Guest editorial board members should represent diverse professional interests, but
some academics should be included. Each manuscript should receive at least 2 blind reviews.
Three additional issues that are relevant for individuals considering submission of a
special issue proposal are described below. Further details about these issues will be
provided after a proposal is accepted.
Practice notes
Practice Notes are a regular feature of the Journal and will be included in all special
issues. They are approximately 250 word descriptions of health education programs
(they do not include evaluation results). Three to 4 descriptions are included in
every issue. Guest editors may either arrange for these in collaboration with the
Practice Notes editor, or leave them up to the Practice Notes editor to obtain.
Issue length
Special issues, like all issues of the Journal, should contain a total of 220-225 manuscript
pages (this includes title page, abstracts, text, references, and tables). This turns out
to be roughly 136 printed pages. Please note that an additional 3-5 pages are reserved for
Practice Notes.
Costs
The special issue will be included in the regular distribution to all subscribers of the
journal. The only costs associated with a special issue are for additional copies that
may be purchased by the Guest Editors/sponsoring organizations. The exact costs for
additional copies are negotiated by Sage.
Please submit 3 copies of all the materials described in 1-4 above to:
Marc
A. Zimmerman, Editor
Health Education & Behavior
Department of Health Behavior and Health Education
School of Public Health
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029
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