Pitch your idea to the editor Ulrike Muller (umuller@csufresno.edu) or the managing editor Suzanne Miller (icbjournal@sicb.org). You can request a (virtual) meeting to pitch  and brainstorm ideas. 

ICB welcomes special issues on topics relevant to our SICB community. We are especially interested in special issues that are at the interface of science and society, science and equity, and science on non-academic entities. To support such integrative issues, ICB supports a wide range of manuscript types, and we encourage organizers to invite a range of manuscript types to create a rich special issue.

Decide the publication year that you aim for. This decision will lock in deadlines that you need to communicate to prospective authors. Authors typically expect 6 to 12 months to first submission and 2  to 3 months for revisions. 

A typical timeline is (see also example time line - its own section on this page)

• 18 months to submission (August to October 2025): ideation and planning

• 12 to 16 months to submission (October to December 2025): invitations

• 8 to 10 months to submission (January to February 2026): write papers

• 0 to 6 months to submission (Oct 2026 to April 2026): manuscript submission

• 2 to 6 months after submission (June 2026): publication

You need to recruit authors, and possibly also editorial reviewers and editors.  

Invite prospective contributors to submit a manuscript, or to act as editorial reviewers, who will handle multiple manuscripts within a collection if they are unable to contribute as an author. 

We encourage you to invite a diverse range of contributors along multiple axes of diversity (such as  gender, ethnicity, career stage, type of institution, geographic location). 

Strategies to recruit authors 

• Use your professional network to identify prospective contributors. 

• Who is active in the topic area of your bundle? Are there colleagues at your university who  would like to contribute? 

• Has there been a recent or is there an upcoming workshop, symposium, or conference relevant  to your bundle whose participants might look for a way to publish their contributions? 

• Are there people you follow on any of your social media platforms who may like to contribute as  they’re in the same field? 

Tip

• Offer multiple options for contributing (author, reviewer, guest editor). You can propose those  additional options (editorial peer reviewer, guest editor) if a prospective author turns you down in  response to their reason for turning you down.

ICB and its team are happy to handle all editorial work, but we are also happy to involve bundle  organizers in the editorial process. 

Who’s who in an editorial team? 

The main task of the Assistant Editor is to handle the peer review process for manuscripts. Assistant  Editors are responsible for the quality, consistency, and impact of ICB by selecting qualified and  independent peer reviewers. Assistant Editors make recommendations about manuscripts based on  peer reviews to the Associate Editor, who makes the final decision on manuscripts.  

More information on the roles of Associate editors and Assistant editors 

● Associate editor: ICB will consult with you to assign an associate editor from the ICB team.  

● Assistant editor: Bundles are handled by one to three assistant editors; they may be members of the ICB editorial board, members of the bundle organizational and author team, or experts brought in especially to act as guest editor for this bundle (see options below). Aim for a workload of 3 to 7 papers per assistant editor.

Option 1: ICB editorial team

Discuss with ICB editorial leaders (editor and managing editor) who should be the assistant editor(s)  handling your paper bundle. 

Option 2: collaboration between a guest editor and ICB editors 

A member of the bundle (typically the organizer) teams up with an editor from the ICB board. Discuss with ICB (editor and managing editor) who should be the assistant editor(s) handling your bundle. You may bring in an expert as guest editor who is not a bundle organizer or author. Please keep conflicts of interest in mind when selecting editorial teams (editors cannot edit papers that they coauthored or that are coauthored by their collaborators). 

Option 3: guest editorship 

Members of the bundle (typically the bundle organizer) act as guest editors. Again, you may bring in an expert as guest editor for your bundle who is not a bundle organizer or author. Please keep conflicts of interest in mind when selecting editorial teams (editors cannot edit papers that they coauthored or that  are co-authored by their collaborators).

Dear Dr. XX,

I hope this email finds you well. I am organizing a special issue for Integrative & Comparative Biology (ICB) focused on ____________. ICB is interested in publishing a series of papers surrounding  _________that can provide exciting insights into biology. We welcome research with a strong ____________.

 XXXX Personalized Statement XXXXX 

Would you be interested in contributing a paper?

We are interested in both shorter Perspective-style manuscripts and longer original research. ICB will publish 12 to 15 pages free. While the submissions will not be open access, all articles will be free to read one year after publication; you may also choose immediate open access and pay the associated fees.

The deadline for submission is April 1st , _______; we anticipate publishing this collection of articles online in advance of the June ____ print issue. 

Please let me know if you are interested and feel free to reach out with any questions that you might have.  If you are interested, please email me a preliminary title or topic statement (your email________), the names of anticipated contributors to your manuscript, and the type of article that you intend to write (Perspective or original research) by July 16th, _________(year prior to publication) .

Thank you for considering this invitation.

Best, ______________

[your name and role]

• Meeting minutes template for bundle organizers - Suzanne will also email the template

• Check out the Symposium organizer resources for additional tips and resources