Invited and Commissioned Papers

Some Journals have a pre-submission phase, during which time Authors are invited to submit articles.  The invitation may be for a specific subject area, a symposium in print, or a festschrift honoring a distinguished colleague (e.g. a retiring Editor from an eminent Journal).  There are two general scenarios in which Author solicitations may occur:

1)     Commentaries:  A Journal may solicit commentaries on a submitted article (that may or may not have yet been accepted for publication).  This feature provides a way to invite an author to submit a paper and link the existing (‘parent’) submission to the associated commentaries.

2)     Proposals:  A Journal invites a leading expert (or experts) to submit a manuscript about a particular topic; or a Journal devotes an entire issue (special issue) to invited manuscripts for a particular topic(s).  This feature provides a way to invite authors to submit papers and link the submissions for the purpose of tracking.