On this page, we have collected some instructions and guidelines about being a Guest Editor for International Journal of Ageing and Later Life (IJAL).

If anything remains unclear, do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Assistant and Editor-in- Chief. You can reach both of us at ijal@ep.liu.se

• Peer-review. All submitted manuscripts to IJAL that adhere to the journal’s aims and scope and are are of sufficient quality undergo a double blind peer review by two (sometimes three) referees who are experts in the field of research. As a Guest Editor, you are expected to maintain this standard of quality, by identifying and suggesting two referees who are anonymous to the author, of which at least one is an expert in ageing research.
• All guest editors are required to familiarize themselves IJALs AI policy. Editors safeguard the quality throughout the publishing process and must keep submissions confidential. Uploading unpublished manuscripts into Generative AI tools is not permitted.
• Articles authored or co-authored by the Guest Editor/s. If the guest editor/s is submitting a manuscript to the Special Issue they are editing, the selection of reviewers should be handled by the Editor-in-Chief.
• Coherence. It would be desirable if the Special Issue achieved a degree of coherence. This can be achieved, for instance, by asking the authors to address common themes, or by referring to each other’s texts.
• Author Guidelines. Guest Editors should ensure all authors of the special issue are following the author guidelines, that referencing follows the IJALs referencing style, and that manuscripts are proofread prior to acceptance by IJALs editors.
• Guest Editorial. Once all other articles are in place, you should write a short Guest Editorial in which you introduce the topic of the Special Issue as well as the individual articles. This text is much shorter than regular articles and does not use an abstract or keywords.

 

Practical issues

• Instructions for authors. All contributors to the Special Issue should follow the Instructions for Authors that are available at our homepage https://ijal.se/about/submissions

• The request to referee is managed by the Guest editors in the manuscript central OJS. When a manuscript is ready to send out for review, you should e-mail the Editor in Chief and the Editorial assistant with a suggestion for potential reviewers, of which at least one is an expert in ageing research. Provide the names, titles and e-mails of the potential reviewers to the Editorial Assistant. In the case that a request to referee the manuscript is denied, it is desirable that you provide several names for potential reviewers (3–5 names). Please note that the journal is double blind peer review and referees should be anonymous to the author/s of the manuscript AND authors to the referees.
• Manuscripts where referees demand major revisions (“revise and resubmit”) should be sent out to the same reviewers for a re-review. Normally all manuscripts are subject to two rounds of review, if you consider only one round please consult the Editor in Chief to discuss this.
• Accepted manuscripts.  IJAL makes the final decision of acceptance for publication, but usually follows the recommendation of the Guest Editor. The Guest Editors in the Special Issue should notify IJAL about manuscripts that are recommended to be accepted for publication by sending a message to ijal@ep.liu.se as soon as the decision to recommend acceptance has been made. The typesetting and copyediting processes can then get started right away so as to assure a speedy completion of the Issue as soon as all articles are finalised.
• If there is more than one Guest Editor, a Corresponding Guest Editor for communication with IJAL should be appointed.