hypatia

a journal of feminist philosophy

  
   
     
 
Guidelines for Proposing Thematic Special Issues, Clusters, and Symposia

Follow this link for a pdf of these guidelines.

Special Issues

**Special Issue Proposal Submissions have been suspended until February 2013.**

Our editorial term ends in June 2013 and the Associate Editors are in the process of searching for a new editorial team. They expect to make this appointment by the end of the year (late Fall 2012), so we are suspending the review of any new special issue proposals until the new editorial team has been identified and can participate in the review process. The next review cycle will be Winter 2013, submission deadline February 1st, 2013.

The editors:
Alison Wylie (editor)
Linda Alcoff and Ann Cudd (area co-editors)
Sharyn Clough (book review editor)  

Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy is a quarterly journal that typically publishes two thematic special issues each year, in addition to regular (open submission) issues. The topics for special issues and their guest editors are selected by the Editors and the Board of Associate Editors on the basis of a proposal review process. For the details, please see the Hypatia governance document.

If you are interested in guest editing a special issue, please first contact the Editors to discuss the topic you are considering and the availability of openings for special issues in the journal’s publication schedule. The Editors will provide you with a set of “Guidelines for Guest Editors” that outlines what is involved in editing a guest issue. If your topic seems viable for a special issue, there is space available within a reasonable time period, and the role of guest editor is feasible for you, the Editors will invite you to draft a detailed proposal for consideration by the Board. For examples of proposals that have been accepted under the current review process, please click here.

Special issue proposals are reviewed by the Board of Associate Editors three times a year: in early Winter, Summer, and Fall. Please contact the Editors well in advance to discuss the feasibility of your proposal, and plan to submit it by February 1st, June 1st, or October 1st. Your proposal should include:

  • a narrative that explains why there ought to be a special issue of Hypatia on the topic you propose, and an account of the kind of work you would expect to include in the issue;

  • a list of the feminist philosophers and theorists who are working on this subject or in this field who might contribute to the issue and/or review submitted manuscripts;

  • a draft of the call for papers for the issue and a list of places where the call could be posted or published;

  • a short 3-5 page C.V. and a statement about your qualifications for, and interest in, editing such a special issue.

The editors will circulate your proposal to the Board of Associate Editors for review and provide you with a decision and feedback as quickly as possible.  Please submit your proposal and all supporting documents to the Managing Editor at: hypatia@uw.edu.

Clusters and Symposia

Hypatia periodically publishes thematic clusters or symposia that make up a partial issue. These typically include 3 to 5 regular length papers (8,000 words) or up to 6 or 8 shorter discussion pieces (3,000-4,000 words) on a particular issue or clearly specified topic. In some cases clusters take shape spontaneously; we receive a number of independently submitted papers on a common theme and, if the referees recommend accepting them, we will try to publish them together. More often they originate in conference sessions or workshops, or they arise from discussions among a network of corresponding authors.

If you would like to propose a cluster or symposium, please assemble a set of papers that address your focal theme and submit them to Hypatia as a group, along with a brief rationale explaining how they fit together. We will review individual papers submitted for a cluster or symposium in the same way as we do open submissions; if accepted, we will publish them together and invite you to provide a brief introduction to the cluster. While we cannot make a commitment to publish a cluster in advance, we welcome the opportunity to review thematically integrated sets of papers.

Periodically, the Hypatia editors find that they have several manuscripts under review that are thematically convergent, and may undertake to publish them together as a "found cluster." All the manuscripts considered for such a cluster will be reviewed in the normal way and accepted on same the basis as any other open submission. If an accepted manuscript is a good fit for an emerging cluster but its publication would have to be deferred longer than normal to be included in the cluster, the editors will consult with the author about scheduling options.  Such manuscripts will be published online, on Early View, typically within 4 months of acceptance, so this is only a matter of deferring print publication.