Special Collections: Proposal and Guidelines for Potential Guest Editors Special Collections are an important component of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine. They are an opportunity for the journal to cultivate a collection of articles around a specific topic, meeting/conference, or newsworthy development that falls within the scope of the journal. They should be organized by recognized experts in the area and attract articles of the highest quality.

Special Collections are highlighted on the homepage for increased visibility and in most cases receive their own dedicated marketing efforts.

Special Collections can be a continuously published section in a journal, or exist as a fixed set of articles. As the Guest Editor, you have the chance to shape the content, define the aims & scope of the collection, and collaborate with colleagues around a topic of particular interest to your personal research.

Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine Aims and Scope Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine (GGM) is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal where scholars from a variety of disciplines present their work focusing on the psychological, behavioral, social, and biological aspects of aging, and public health services and research related to aging. The journal addresses a wide variety of topics related to health services research in gerontology and geriatrics.

GGM seeks to be one of the world’s premier Open Access outlets for gerontological academic research. As such, GGM does not limit content due to page budgets or thematic significance. Papers will be subjected to rigorous but will be selected solely on the basis of whether the research is sound and deserves publication. By virtue of not restricting papers to a narrow discipline, GGM facilitates the discovery of the connections between papers.

The Proposal Proposals for Special Collections should be submitted by the Lead Guest Editor of the Special Collection and must include the following:

 A suggested title for the Special Collection (up to 10 words)  A short version of the title for system and social media purposes (5 words max)  A brief explanation of why you feel the collection topic is important and timely  Proposed Aims and Scope, giving an overview of the Special Collection’s intended focus and a list of the topics to be covered. The topic should be of high current interest, broad enough to attract a

reasonable number of submissions, and yet narrow enough to keep a strong focus for the Special Collection  A list of potential articles/authors you have already approached, if applicable  Six succinct keywords or MeSH terms that reflect the key themes of the collection  The name, email, affiliation and a short biography of the Guest Editor(s)  If applicable, a list of Guest Editors who will join the Lead Guest Editor, along with their emails and affiliations. The Guest Editorial team should be as geographically dispersed as possible to ensure maximum dissemination and recognition within the scientific community  Date you are available to start  Your CV

All proposals are subject to approval by the editorial team. If approved, a call for papers for the Special Collection will be issued and posted online. The Lead Guest Editor’s name may be used in promotional activities for the collection.

Guest Editor’s responsibilities  Commission quality papers o The Guest Editor will be expected to commission articles for the collection. To ensure the success of the Special Collection, we generally aim to have 10 or more submissions.  Ensure timely and rigorous peer review, including making decisions on manuscripts, while adhering to the high quality standards expected of all SAGE journals o The Guest Editor will be responsible for overseeing the peer review of the articles submitted to the collection. Each must be reviewed by at least two independent referees. Guest Editors may not act as reviewer for any of the collection’s manuscripts. This is to ensure a high-quality, fair, and unbiased peer-review process of every manuscript submitted to the journal. Guest Editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest relating to the submitting authors or submitted manuscripts. In such cases, the manuscript may be handled by another Editor. o Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine operates using a double-blind peer-review process, whereby reviewer and submitting author names are kept from each other.  Recommend decisions on manuscripts to the Editor-in-Chief o Final editorial decisions remain with the journal’s Editor.  Promote the journal at conferences and/or meetings, on social media, to colleagues, and wherever else it may be appropriate.

Timeline Given the unique nature of open access and continuous publication, Special Collections offer infinite flexibility in terms of a timeline. Unlike a special issue where all content must be published at once, special collection content goes online as it is ready. As the editor, you set your own timeline. You can limit yourself by number of papers (by say, setting a goal of 10 published papers), by time (maybe you want to work on the project for six months and then stop), or just keep at it indefinitely for as long as you like.

Discount and waiver policy Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine is an open access journal and as such, authors will be asked to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) of US $1200, should their manuscript be accepted for publication. Special collections have the following discounts and waivers available:

 The editor may write an editorial for the collection, with no fee  Articles that are actively commissioned by Guest Editors will receive 50% off the APC  The editor may contribute up to two of their own original research or review articles, with the first one receiving 50% off the APC, and the second at full price  Review articles are highly encouraged and one (whether written by the editor or by an invited author) will have the fee waived in full