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Editorial Process Guide for Guest-Edited Issue/Volume
Women, Gender, and Families of Color is a multidisciplinary journal that centers the study of Вlack, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian American women, genders, and families. Within this framework, the journal encourages theoretical and empirical research from the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities. It welcomes comparative and transnational research as well as analyses of domestic social, cultural, political, and economic policies and practices. The journal has a rolling submission policy and invites manuscripts, book reviews, and proposals for guest-edited special issues at any time.
Guest-edited issues provide the journal and its readers with fresh ideas and exciting new scholarship from experts in their fields. Guest editors, generally, should be advanced scholars, associate professors or faculty with a record of published scholarship. New and junior scholars are welcome but should identify an advanced scholar to serve as their co-guest editor.
Guest editors are the primary liaison with authors and peer reviewers though they will work closely with the managing editor to establish publication timelines, facilitate manuscript reviews, communicate with authors, copyedit final manuscripts, and write an introduction to be included in the issue. Beyond the introduction, guest editors may serve as author or co-author for one full-length manuscript that will appear in the special issue. Guest editors may not serve as reviewers for any submission on which they are author or co-author.
Guest editors can either submit completed manuscripts that have been collected previously from authors (with their permission) or work with the journal to create a call for papers to solicit abstracts and manuscripts. All work submitted to WGFC should be original contributions not published nor under review elsewhere.
Single issues of WGFC are generally composed of four to six, 25- to 35-page manuscripts, though this may vary depending on the focus of the issue. If fewer are accepted for a guest-edited issue, then the journal may still publish them but as a special section of an issue, rather than as a full special issue.
To propose an issue, guest editors should submit a CV and a proposal statement (a maximum of two double-spaced pages) to wgfc@ku.edu with the following information:
- A brief overview of the issue’s proposed theme and its importance for advancing scholarly work on women, genders, and/or families of color;
- A brief statement on how the theme either advances scholarship already represented in WGFC or fills a gap in the journal’s coverage and/or the guest editor’s respective field;
- A list of proposed contributors with abstracts (if already collected) and/or a list identifying relevant mailing lists, websites, departments, conferences, or listservs to which guest editors and the journal can circulate a call for papers, target key scholars, and share announcements about the special issue.
Proposals will be vetted by the editorial staff and approved by the executive board. Notification of a decision, or suggestions for revising the proposal, will follow in four to six weeks. After the proposal for a guest-edited issue has been approved, guest editors will work with the managing editor to establish a timeline for production. Guest editors should be available to respond promptly to all journal emails throughout the production process to ensure timely publication of the issue.
After WGFC collects manuscripts or abstracts from authors, guest editors will be the first reviewers of each piece and dictate whether or not essays should be sent out for peer review. Guest editors are responsible for ensuring that contributions adhere to the journal’s submission guidelines, including Chicago Style citations, an author biography (100 words), and an abstract (200 words). Full submission guidelines can be found on the journal’s website.
Conditionally accepted manuscripts for guest-edited issues are processed through the journal’s online system and evaluated by at least two external anonymous reviewers. Guest editors are responsible for identifying potential anonymous reviewers. Based on reviewers’ comments, guest editors will assign each manuscript a decision of either 1) accept with minor revisions; 2) revise and resubmit if the manuscript needs modifications but has strengths; or 3) decline. WGFC has the final editorial decision over articles published in guest-edited issues.