Acta Astronautica    

                                   Instructions for Guest Editors of Special Issues  

 Introduction

The International Academy of Astronautics generates each year from 10 to 16 standalone conferences and also 13 Symposia inside the International Astronautical Congress, totalling 25 to 30 scientific events. Each of those events is the occasion to extract the best papers for publication in Acta Astronautica journal, the journal of the Academy. One (or more) Guest Editor is usually appointed for selecting the papers to be published. A special form is used for achieving this selection and must include potential reviewers names and emails. The journal being a peer reviewed journal to maintain a high scientific standard, each selected author must fullfill the instructions to submit electronically via the EES system of our publisher Elsevier. The Guest Editor is also invited to write a preface for the paper version of the journal.

Guest Editors

Every year, several issues of Acta Astronautica, the Journal of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), are dedicated to one single subject. Such issues, named Special Issues, usually include papers presented at either stand alone IAA conferences or symposia or symposium of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC). They may also include papers which are specially invited for the Special Issue. A table of all the Special Issues in preparation is accessible at http://iaaweb.org/content/view/367/515/ and the current instructions are available at http://iaaweb.org/content/view/366/516/ Organizers of IAA standalone conferences or IAC symposia have to submit to the Academy nomination of Guest Editors (optimally one responsible person per Special Issue). This nomination has to be done at least 3 months prior the symposium. The Secretary General of IAA, Dr. Jean-Michel Contant ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) will clarify with the standalone symposium/conference organizers if purchasing printed copies are needed or not and will provide them with the budget input accordingly. If there are needs for purchasing printed copies/CDs of the special issue, an item of the contract between the organizer and the Academy will be added no later than 3 months prior the standalone symposium/conference. Dr. Jean-Michel Contant will inform Tracy Chen immediately and IAA will transfer the money to Elsevier after receiving appropriate invoice no later than three months after the special issue is available. The cost agreed between IAA and Elsevier includes usually the mailing from the Elsevier production centre to each final customer. The IAA provides the labels. When the nomination is accepted and the appointment is made the guest editor receive from the Academy formal instruction letter to contact the Editor-in-Chief of Acta Astronautica, Professor JS Chern ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) before the editorial process starts. Prof. Chern will then inform Tracy Chen ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) & Heather Pitt ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for EES configuration. Guest Editor(s) will subsequently be assigned a “Guest Editor Role” by Elsevier and will have the task to organize the reviewing process and make the respective decisions on the papers within EES.  NOTE: the final acceptance of papers rests with the Editor-in-Chief of Acta Astronautica. They will also be responsible for setting the editorial timeframe (between submission of papers and publication) and adhering to it. They will receive an online training on EES if necessary. 

Pre-Selection of Papers for Publication 

The Guest Editors are free on how to preselect and invite Authors of manuscripts to be included in the publishing process of Special Issues. However, because of timeliness of publication, they are encouraged to act similarly to the process established for the annual IAC: All participants of the respective Conference are invited to provide a manuscript for possible publication (this often doesn’t apply since usually it is mandatory to prepare a manuscript in order to participate to the respective conference/symposium). The session chairs then preselect – based on the presentation and on the prepared manuscripts, whom they invite to submit a paper for the Special Issue. The session chairs should also suggest two different possible reviewers for the respective papers.  

Preparation and submission of Papers 

Papers from IAA Symposia should contain original material that has not been published before. Papers should be prepared according to the rules that apply to regular manuscripts submitted to Acta Astronautica. As all papers will be reviewed by two independent reviewers, only papers recommended by these reviewers will finally be published. In order to be able to have a rapid reviewing process, also authors of papers should provide the names and addresses of two possible reviewers with their submission. For each Special Issue, there will be a specific Article Type on the “submit paper” page of EES, which the authors can then follow (e.g., Special Issue: Space Elevator Conference Miami). 

Review Process 

Reviews will be done using the regular reviewing process of Acta Astronautica. The Guest Editors will be responsible for this process. 

Printing 

Once all papers are finally reviewed and the printing process is initiated, Editors should prepare an Editorial and order the respective reprints of their special Issue.

                                                                     Appendix   

                    Preselection of Papers for the Peer Review Process of Acta Astronautica  

To be filled out by the representative Session Chairs (or by the Rapporteur) and to be returned to the Guest Editor of the Conference/Symposium with copy to the IAA Secretariat.   

Dear Colleagues, As session Chairpersons/Rapporteur you are invited to pre-select from your session excellent papers for inclusion in the peer reviewing process for a Special Issue of Acta Astronautica. In addition, we would appreciate if you could also name potential reviewers (e.g., yourself) for the respective papers.  

Conference or Symposium Title:   

Session (if any):  

Preselected Papers:  

First Author name       Potential Reviewer 1       Potential Reviewer 2 

and Paper ID.             incl. e-Mail address         incl. e-Mail address                  

Selecting person/s:                                                                    Signature/s: 

Date: