Theme Issues and Guest Editors
JMIR reaches tens of thousands of readers interested in information and communication technologies in health, and is therefore the preeminent knowledge translation venue in this area. We are happy to support, produce and co-edit JMIR Theme Issues as major knowledge translation activities in important and emerging areas of ehealth, with leaders in the respective fields as guest editors. We are looking for guest editors who wish to compile a theme issue on a special topic (for example: electronic publishing, telemedicine, quality of health information, patient education, decision-support, Internet in psychiatry, theory in ehealth, mobile technologies, Web 2.0, ...). This may be particularly interesting for workshop and conference organizers putting together a grant-funded event (e.g. with invited experts) on an eHealth-related topic. JMIR is an excellent dissemination vehicle of ehealth-related workshop results. Theme issues may also be used as a knowledge dissemination vehicle for results from large collaborative grant-funded projects. Theme issues may contain for example state-of-the-art papers from selected/invited experts, research results from a large grant proposal (e.g. a series of connected studies), or simply articles submitted in response to a specific open call for papers. The task of the guest editor(s) is generally
- to solicit manuscripts from colleagues/experts concerning the selected topic,
- to select peer-reviewers for incoming manuscripts,
- to make decisions (together with the editorial board) on article revisions and acceptance,
- to write an editorial for the theme issue
- to secure funding to sponsor the APFs (Article Processing Fees) for published papers (usually in the $10-25k range, please budget $1590 per paper). If the guest editor has a network of colleagues who have indicated that they can carry the APF themselves, then author-funded theme issues are also possible.
Funding through grants or other sources is usually required and should be budgeted for in grant proposals. In the past, funding agencies such as NIH/NCI, CIHR, or private foundations have successfully been approached by the Guest Editor(s) to secure the funds. For example, CIHR has launched a new program called "End of Grant Knowledge Translation Supplement," worth $25k, which enables the funding of a theme issue (more information here). Peer-reviewers at granting agencies also expect a portion of the budget devoted to knowledge dissemination and knowledge translation, and JMIR theme issues can be proposed to facilitate dissemination of research results (due to the Open Access policy, results reach a broader audience beyond the research community). We urge principal investigators of any larger team grant proposals related to health and information/communication technology to budget for a theme issue (or at least a series of JMIR papers). Letters of support and quotes from JMIR are available on request (please contact the editor-in-chief). Another possible funding venue are workshop funding programs. Again, that granting agencies such as NIH or CIHR usually expect to see some sort of knowledge dissemination activities in workshop proposals, and have in the past funded the JMIR APFs.
The editor of JMIR is happy to support and actively help with any knowledge translation component in grant proposals incorporating some of the ideas listed above (as well as novel ideas e.g. mutlimedia, podcasting etc., cobranded with JMIR).