Submitting to a Special Issue

Special Issues are a collection of publications that typically concentrate on areas of high current interest that fall within the scope of the journal. Special Issues are targeted, timely, and insightful collections, meaning that they are often very well received.

By submitting your next manuscript to a Special Issue, you can contribute to the discussion amongst peers in an area of high interest.

This page provides further information and a short overview of the process of finding and submitting to a Special Issue.

Finding the right Special Issue for you

Special Issues offer more focused and specialized topics with high current interest—all Special Issue topic areas fall within the scope of the journal in which they are published and have been reviewed by the publishing team on the journal to ensure they are covering a new and important area of research.

Lithosphere actively promotes Open Special Issues to relevant researchers across multiple channels and discovery platforms, including email, social media, and search engines. This ensures your published paper will be highly discoverable and shared widely with readers around the world.

Special Issues - Article Processing Charges

Please note that all papers accepted for Special Issues are subject to an article processing charge (APC) if, after peer review, the manuscript is accepted for publication.

For more details on article processing charges, please see our Article Processing Charges page.

Peer Review for Special Issue submissions

All manuscripts submitted to Lithosphere, including all Special Issue manuscripts, will undergo full peer review by independent Academic Editors and reviewers. We only publish articles that have been approved by highly qualified researchers with expertise in a field appropriate to the topic of the article.

For more information, see our Reviewer Guidelines

Publication of Special Issues

Manuscripts for Special Issues are published upon acceptance, at which point they will be immediately made available online on the relevant Special Issue page from the journal website, regardless of the Special Issue publication date.

We typically allow 6 months from the initial Call for Papers to the final submission deadline. After the deadline, the Special Issue will no longer accept new submissions, but new articles will continue to appear in the Special Issue as manuscripts make their way through the review process.

The last articles in a Special Issue will typically appear 3 to 5 months from the submission deadline, depending on the speed of reviews. The Special Issue is considered complete once the Guest Editors publish their introductory editorial.

All completed Special Issues can be found on our Published Special Issues page.