| Before You Apply | Eligibility | Evaluation Criteria | What to Submit | How to Submit | After Approval | Documents |
Before You Apply
The Conference Collaboration Programme receives proposals from academic conference organisers working across a wide range of disciplines and institutional contexts. Not all conferences are suitable candidates for collaboration, and the application process is designed to identify those that are. Organisers are encouraged to read these guidelines in full before preparing a proposal, and to consult the Programme Documents — particularly the Guest Editor Guidelines and the Special Issue Review Protocol — to ensure a clear understanding of what the collaboration entails before an application is submitted.
A collaboration proposal is an academic document. It will be evaluated by the editorial board of Galaxy against structured criteria covering academic credibility, thematic relevance, research quality, ethical compliance, and operational feasibility. Proposals that are prepared with care, that articulate a genuine research rationale, and that demonstrate familiarity with the programme’s governing principles are significantly more likely to succeed than those submitted as a preliminary enquiry. The editorial office does not provide informal pre-assessment of proposals before submission.
Submission of a proposal does not constitute an agreement to collaborate, and approval of a proposal does not constitute a commitment to publish a special issue. Both outcomes remain contingent on the editorial assessment process and, where a collaboration is approved, on the scholarly quality of the manuscripts ultimately submitted for peer review.
Eligibility
Conference Requirements
To be eligible for consideration under the Conference Collaboration Programme, a conference must satisfy the following conditions. It must be organised by, or formally affiliated with, a recognised academic institution, department, research centre, or established scholarly society. It must have a clearly stated research purpose and a defined thematic focus aligned with the scope of Galaxy. It must operate a credible academic review or screening process for presentations. And it must be organised and conducted independently of the journal, with the journal’s involvement limited to the special issue process as defined in the Collaboration Agreement.
Organiser Requirements
The Primary Convenor named in the proposal must hold a current academic or research position at a recognised institution and must be the individual who will serve as the principal point of contact with the editorial office throughout the collaboration. The organising committee must include academics with verifiable publication records in fields relevant to the conference theme. Proposals in which the organising committee cannot be independently verified will be assessed accordingly in the evaluation process.
Guest Editor Requirements
Every approved collaboration requires a Guest Editor, nominated by the conference organiser and formally appointed by the journal. Nominated Guest Editors must hold a doctoral degree or equivalent scholarly qualification in a field relevant to the proposed special issue theme, must hold a current academic or research position, and must have a demonstrable publication record in the relevant area. They must have no undisclosed conflict of interest with anticipated submitting authors. Nomination does not constitute appointment; all nominations are assessed by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final. Full eligibility criteria are set out in the Guest Editor Guidelines.
How Proposals Are Evaluated
The editorial board evaluates proposals against four domains: academic credibility and institutional standing, scholarly and thematic quality, ethical reliability and programme compliance, and operational readiness and collaboration viability. Each domain comprises specific criteria assessed on a structured scale. The overall evaluation produces a recommendation that is subject to final decision by the Editor-in-Chief.
The editorial board will assess the legitimacy and standing of the hosting institution, the academic profiles of the organising committee and Primary Convenor, the conference’s prior track record, and the suitability of the nominated Guest Editor. Strong proposals present a clearly affiliated, credentialled organising body with a committee whose scholarly profile can be independently verified.
The proposal must present a compelling research rationale — not a description of its topic, but an argument for its scholarly significance. What research question or disciplinary problem does the conference address? What contribution will the resulting special issue make to the relevant field? The proposed special issue theme must be specific enough to function as a coherent scholarly focus for a peer-reviewed publication.
The editorial board will assess whether the proposal reflects a clear understanding of the Scholarly Curator Model — in particular, whether the organiser demonstrates that conference participation does not guarantee publication. Proposals that assume, imply, or structurally require a publication service rather than an independent editorial process will not be approved.
The proposed timeline must allow adequate time for the submission, review, revision, and production processes required to produce a published special issue. The editorial board will assess whether the conference dates, submission deadlines, and target publication timeline are realistic given the journal’s review cycle.
What a Proposal Must Include
A complete proposal submitted through the Conference Collaboration Programme must address all of the following. The Conference Proposal Template, available for download from this site, provides the full structured format that proposals must follow. Incomplete proposals may be returned before evaluation or assessed at a disadvantage where essential information is absent.
Submitting a Proposal
Proposals are submitted electronically through the RCELL online application portal, accessible via the Apply for Collaboration page. The Conference Proposal Template must be completed in full and submitted together with all required supporting documents. Incomplete submissions will be acknowledged but may not proceed to evaluation until outstanding materials are received.
After Approval: Next Steps
Where a collaboration proposal is approved, the editorial office will initiate the process of formalising the collaboration through a Collaboration Agreement — an academic memorandum of understanding that sets out the responsibilities of both parties, the ethical framework governing the collaboration, the approved branding and communication arrangements, and the agreed timeline for the special issue. The Collaboration Agreement must be signed before any public announcement of the journal collaboration is made.
Following execution of the Collaboration Agreement, the Guest Editor appointment will be confirmed and the Programme Documents will be shared with the organiser and Guest Editor. The editorial office will establish the submission portal, confirm the submission deadline, and provide approved template language for communication with conference participants. All communications to participants regarding the journal collaboration must use approved language and must make clear that submitted papers are subject to full independent peer review and that acceptance is not guaranteed.
The full workflow governing the submission, review, and publication process is set out in the Special Issue Workflow and Policies page, which organisers and Guest Editors are expected to read before the collaboration commences.
Programme Documentation
Ready to Apply?Submit your formal collaboration proposal through the application portal.
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