Special Issue Proposal Guidelines

Of the issues Refuge publishes annually, at least one must be a general issue. In addition, Refuge typically publishes one special issue each year or one general issue with a special focus.  Special focus/issues often emerge from panels, workshops or specific research projects/groups. A Special Issue contains at least five peer reviewed academic papers and a Special Focus contains four academic papers.  Both require the guest editors to write an introduction which can be peer reviewed or not. In exceptional circumstances, we may make room for an additional special issue, resulting in three issues in the same year. 

All individuals wishing to publish a special issue with the journal must submit a proposal with the following components here: 

• A proposed title
• Names, titles and email addresses of all guest editors
• A 1-paragraph summary of the topic; its relevance to forced migration studies; and the proposed contribution to knowledge
• A list of authors, titles and abstracts for papers being proposed for publication OR  A draft call for papers 
  • A minimum of 5 publishable papers is required for a special issue and 4 papers for a special focus of a general issue
  • We recommend that all authors who wish to publish a Special Issue submit at least 8 paper abstracts as some will likely be eliminated in peer review 
  • We recommend that all authors who wish to publish a Special Focus submit at least 6 paper abstracts
• A proposed list of 2-4 books to be included in a book review essay and a name of a potential book review essay author
• A proposed list of other recent books related to the topic, as well as potential book review authors, for consideration by the book review editor
• We please ask authors to consider both French and English books 
• Any funding that could be used to offset publication costs 

The proposal can be submitted by email to refuge@yorku.ca. The Refuge editorial team will review the proposal and will, within approximately one month, respond to the guest editor(s) with their decision and/or with requests for further information. 

Please note that all manuscripts submitted as part of a special issue undergo the same anonymous peer-review process as our regular articles and that the Refuge editorial team, lead by the editor-in-chief, remains the final decision-making authority when it comes to the publication of a manuscript.