How to Host a Conference or Special Issue (2026 Guide)

Conference Proceedings vs Special Issue: What Hosting Really Means

If you want to know how to host a conference or special issue with a journal, start by separating the two ideas. A conference is an event: people submit papers, the papers are reviewed, authors present them, and the best or all accepted papers are published afterwards as proceedings. A special issue is a themed collection inside a journal, built around one topic and usually managed by one or more guest editors. The two often meet: many conferences publish their selected, extended papers as a special issue of a partner journal.

In both cases, "hosting" means taking responsibility for the academic quality of a collection that will carry a journal's or publisher's name. The organiser brings the topic, the community and the reviewers; the journal brings its editorial standards, its publishing infrastructure, persistent identifiers and long-term archiving. Getting that division of work clear at the start prevents most of the problems organisers run into later.

Proceedings, special issue and edited volume compared
Feature	Conference proceedings	Journal special issue	Edited book of proceedings
Starting point	An event with sessions and presentations	A theme proposed to a journal	An event or theme, published as a book
Who leads	Conference chairs and technical programme committee	Guest editors under the editor-in-chief	Volume editors with the book publisher
Identifier	ISBN for the volume, ISSN if part of a series	The journal's ISSN	ISBN
DOI level	Each conference paper; optionally the volume	Each article	Each chapter; optionally the book
Typical paper length	Short to full papers	Full research articles	Chapters of varying length
Review standard	Programme committee review	Same peer review as regular journal papers	Editor and reviewer assessment

Each route is legitimate. The right choice depends on your discipline's habits, how long the papers are, whether authors need a journal article or a conference paper on their record, and how fast you need to publish.

Choosing the Right Publication Route for Your Event

Before you write a single email, decide what the end product will be. Organisers who promise "Scopus publication" or "journal publication for all papers" without a written agreement put authors and themselves at risk. Choose one of these four realistic routes, or combine two of them.

Proceedings volume

All accepted papers appear in one volume with an ISBN, with a DOI for each paper. Best for engineering, computing and applied sciences, where conference papers are counted as research output.

Special issue of a journal

Selected papers are expanded into full articles and reviewed again under the journal's normal process. Best when authors need journal articles and the topic fits the journal's scope.

Edited book

Chapters built around the event's theme, edited into a coherent volume. Best for humanities, social sciences and policy themes where depth matters more than speed.

Abstract book only

Abstracts are published for the record, and full papers are free to go to any journal. Best for early-stage work or large multidisciplinary events.

Tip: A two-tier model works well for many institutions: publish all accepted papers as proceedings, then invite the strongest five to fifteen papers to submit extended versions to a special issue. Ask authors to add substantial new material to the extended version and to cite the proceedings paper, so the two publications are not duplicates.

If your conference is in engineering, the Engineering Research Society handles engineering-focused journal articles, books and event proceedings with discipline-specific review. If you want a book of proceedings with ISBN handling and production, JW Book covers monographs, edited volumes and proceedings.

How to Write a Conference or Special Issue Proposal

Almost every journal and publisher asks for a written proposal before it agrees to host a collection. Editors use it to judge three things: does the theme fit the journal's aims and scope, is the topic original and timely, and do the organisers have the track record and network to deliver good papers on time. A strong proposal is usually two to four pages long and answers those questions directly.

What a complete proposal contains

Working title and theme statement: one paragraph on the topic and why it matters now.
Scope and sub-topics: eight to fifteen themes you will invite, plus what is out of scope.
Organisers or guest editors: names, designations, institutional affiliations, official email addresses and short CVs, with one named corresponding organiser.
Expected contributors: research groups or communities you will approach, and how many submissions you realistically expect.
Draft call for papers: the text you will publish, with all dates.
Timeline: submission deadline, review rounds, decision date, camera-ready date and target publication month.
Review plan: how many reviewers per paper, the review model, and who handles papers where an organiser has a conflict of interest.
Event details (for conferences): dates, mode (in person, online or hybrid), host institution and sponsors.
Promotion plan: mailing lists, societies, departments and platforms you will use to share the call.
Publication and fee terms: who pays any publication charges, and when.

Never advertise a journal or publisher as your publication partner until the proposal has been approved in writing. An unlicensed call for papers misleads authors and can end the partnership before it starts.

At JMVRA, conference and institution organisers can send a request through the conference proceedings proposal page. Every request receives editorial review, and papers are published only after they meet the journal's standards of originality, quality and relevance.

Building the Organising Committee and Guest Editor Team

A collection is only as good as the people who run it. For a conference, the core team is the general chair, the technical programme committee (TPC) chair, the TPC members who review, a publication chair and a local or online logistics lead. For a special issue, it is normally two to four guest editors with complementary expertise and, ideally, different institutions and countries.

Core roles and what each one owns
Role	Main responsibilities	Good practice
General chair / lead guest editor	Overall direction, partner communication, final sign-off	One accountable contact for the journal
Programme chair / handling guest editors	Desk screening, reviewer assignment, recommendations	Split papers by sub-topic, not by friendship
Reviewers / TPC members	Independent assessment of each paper	At least two reviewers per paper, with declared conflicts
Publication chair	Formatting, copyright forms, metadata, proofs	Collect author details in a structured form from day one
Editor-in-chief of the journal	Approves the proposal, oversees standards, makes or confirms final decisions	Handles any paper submitted by a guest editor
Logistics / registration lead	Venue or online platform, schedule, certificates, payments	Keeps registration separate from acceptance decisions

Write these roles into a one-page terms-of-reference document and share it with every member. It should state who can accept a paper, who can reject it, and what happens when a committee member submits their own work.

A Realistic Planning Timeline for Conferences and Special Issues

Most organisers underestimate time. A well-run conference with published proceedings typically needs nine to twelve months from first proposal to publication; a special issue often needs a similar span because of revision rounds. The timeline below is an illustrative plan you can adapt.

Months 1–2
Agree the theme, form the team, approach the journal or publisher and get the proposal approved in writing.
Month 3
Publish the call for papers on the event website and the journal's site, open the submission system and start promotion.
Months 3–6
Submissions arrive. Run desk screening and similarity checks within a week of each submission, so authors are not kept waiting.
Months 5–7
Peer review and first decisions. Allow three to five weeks per review round, plus time for revisions.
Month 8
Final decisions, camera-ready files, copyright or licence agreements and registration close.
Month 9
The event itself, for conferences. Presentation is a condition of publication if your policy says so.
Months 9–11
Copy-editing, typesetting, proofs, front matter, DOI registration and publication of the proceedings or issue.
Month 12
Post-publication: promotion of the published papers, certificates, and a short report to the journal on numbers and lessons.

Note: These durations are general ranges, not fixed rules. A small online workshop can move faster; a large international conference with two review rounds usually needs longer.

Writing a Call for Papers That Attracts Quality Submissions

The call for papers (CFP) is your public promise to authors. It decides who submits, so it deserves the same care as the proposal. A good CFP is specific about the theme, honest about the review process and clear about every cost and date.

Do

State the theme in two or three plain sentences.
List concrete sub-topics so authors can self-assess fit.
Name the guest editors or chairs with their affiliations.
Give all dates: submission, decision, camera-ready, event, publication.
Explain the review model and the number of reviewers per paper.
Publish all fees, what they cover and when they are payable.
Link the author guidelines, template and ethics policy.

Avoid

Promising indexing in any database you do not control.
Promising acceptance, fast publication or "guaranteed" outcomes.
Vague themes such as "all areas of science and technology".
Hidden charges that appear only after acceptance.
Using a journal's name or logo without written approval.
Repeated deadline extensions that signal low interest.

Researchers increasingly check events against the Think. Check. Attend. conference checklist before they submit. Warning signs on that list include very fast acceptance with little real review, fees revealed only after acceptance and an event that promotes its destination more than its programme. Design your CFP so that a careful researcher running those checks finds nothing to worry about.

Where to share the call

Publish the CFP on the event website and the partner journal's call-for-papers page, then send it to subject societies, department mailing lists, previous attendees and research groups working on the theme. A personal invitation from a guest editor to a known researcher still brings in more strong papers than any mass email.

Managing Submissions and Peer Review Without Chaos

Running review by email and spreadsheet works for ten papers. Beyond that, papers get lost, reviewers are double-assigned and authors receive conflicting messages. A conference management system or journal management system keeps every submission, review and decision in one record.

A simple, auditable review pipeline for conference and special-issue papers.

Desk screening comes first

Before any paper reaches a reviewer, a handling editor checks scope, basic quality, formatting and similarity. Papers that are out of scope, incomplete or heavily overlapping with published work are returned within days. This protects your reviewers' time, which is the scarcest resource in any event.

Review model and reviewer load

Use at least two independent reviewers per paper, and a third when they disagree. Decide in advance whether review is single-blind or double-blind, and apply the same model to every paper. Keep each reviewer's load reasonable, typically three to six papers per round, so reviews stay thoughtful rather than rushed.

JWCMT runs a conference end to end, covering the call for papers, submissions, reviewer allocation, decisions, registration, the schedule and proceedings, and it moves accepted papers into publication without re-typing. For a special issue inside a journal, JWJMS provides the online submission portal, author dashboard, desk screening, reviewer invitations and reminders, revision rounds, decisions and issue building, with a full record of each step.

Protecting Integrity: Conflicts of Interest, Paper Mills and Similarity

Special issues and conference collections have become a known weak point in research integrity. Publishers have retracted whole special issues after investigations found compromised peer review, irrelevant citations or papers outside scope. Most of these failures share the same causes: guest editors handling their own or their friends' papers, reviewers suggested by authors without checks, and pressure to fill an issue quickly.

A guest editor or chair handling a paper they wrote, co-wrote or have a close relationship with.
Accepting author-suggested reviewers without verifying their identity and institutional email.
Reviews that are a few lines long and arrive within hours.
Clusters of papers with similar wording, templates or reference lists from unrelated authors.
Citation requests that push authors to cite the organisers' own work.
Publishing papers that have nothing to do with the stated theme.

Rule to adopt: any paper submitted by a guest editor or committee member is handled by the journal's editor-in-chief or another independent editor, and the submitting organiser has no access to its reviews or reviewer identities. Limit such submissions to a small number and declare them in the issue's editorial.

Run a similarity check on every submission before review. JWSCAN checks a manuscript for similarity using iThenticate (by Turnitin) and returns an overall similarity index with a source-by-source report. Remember that a similarity score is evidence for an editor to read, not a verdict: matches to methods sections and references are normal, while large blocks matching another paper are not.

Ask every author for a conflict-of-interest declaration, a statement that the work is original and not under review elsewhere, ethics approval where human or animal subjects are involved, and the role of each author. These are the same expectations that apply to regular journal papers; a themed collection does not lower the bar.

Producing the Proceedings: Formatting, Front Matter and Identifiers

Once decisions are final, the publication chair turns accepted papers into a professional volume. This stage is where many good events lose months, usually because author files arrive in mixed formats or author details are incomplete.

What every proceedings volume needs

A single author template, enforced at the camera-ready stage.
Signed licence or copyright agreements for every paper (JMVRA publishes under CC BY 4.0).
Front matter: title page, preface or editorial, committees, reviewer acknowledgement, table of contents.
Complete author metadata: full names, affiliations, ORCID iDs where available and corresponding email.
Abstracts and keywords for every paper, ready for metadata deposit.
Page numbers or article numbers, and a consistent citation style.
A statement on the peer review process used, published with the volume.

ISBN, ISSN or both?

A one-off proceedings volume is a book, so it takes an ISBN, not an ISSN. In India, ISBNs are issued by the national ISBN agency through its official ISBN portal. A recurring conference that publishes proceedings every year can also be treated as a series and receive an ISSN for the series, with an ISBN for each year's volume. When proceedings are published as a special issue of a journal, the papers carry the journal's ISSN instead.

If you prefer a book of proceedings, JW Book publishes monographs, edited volumes, textbooks and proceedings with ISBN handling and production. See also the JW Book ISBN publication page.

How to Get a DOI for Conference Proceedings and Special Issue Papers

A DOI makes each paper permanently citable and resolvable, even if a website moves. Crossref, the main DOI registration agency for scholarly content, supports conference proceedings with a dedicated record type. Its documentation describes a three-level model: an optional series, the proceedings volume and the individual conference papers.

The three metadata levels Crossref uses for conference proceedings.

According to Crossref's markup guide, the conference name is the only required event field; the theme, acronym, sponsor, location and dates are optional but worth adding. A series needs a series title and an ISSN. Each paper needs a title, its contributors and a DOI, and Crossref encourages abstracts, page numbers, publication dates, reference lists, funding, licence and relationship metadata. The Crossref conference proceedings markup guide is the authoritative reference.

Proceedings DOIs or journal DOIs?

If papers appear in a journal special issue, they are registered as journal articles under the journal's records. If they appear in a proceedings volume, they are registered as conference papers. Do not register the same content twice; when an extended journal version follows a proceedings paper, give it its own DOI and link the two with relationship metadata.

JWDOI registers Crossref DOIs and deposits article metadata for journals, books, chapters and proceedings, and gives journals a sponsored DOI prefix without joining Crossref directly. Read more in the JWDOI sponsored membership guide.

Editing and Publishing the Special Issue

Guest editing does not end with the last acceptance. The issue still needs to read as a collection, not a pile of papers. Three tasks make the difference.

The guest editorial

Write a two to four page introduction that explains the theme, summarises each paper in a sentence or two, shows how they connect and names open questions for future work. It is often the most cited piece in a special issue.

Ordering and grouping

Group papers by sub-theme or method so a reader can follow the argument of the collection. Put a review or framing paper first if you have one.

Transparency statement

State how many papers were submitted and accepted, the review model used, and which papers were handled independently because of an organiser's conflict of interest.

Many journals now publish special-issue papers continuously as they are accepted, then gather them into a collection page, rather than holding every paper until the last one is ready. This is fairer to authors whose papers are accepted early. Agree with the journal which model it uses, and tell authors in the CFP.

See how JMVRA presents a themed collection on its special issue on Computer Science and Engineering page, and its conference publication service on the conferences page.

Budget, Fees and Where the Effort Goes

Organisers often budget only for the venue and forget the publishing side. Plan for every line, and publish the author-facing charges in full in the CFP.

Typical cost and effort lines for a conference with proceedings
Item	Who usually bears it	Planning note
Event registration	Attendees and presenters	Keep it separate from publication charges
Publication charge per paper	Authors or the host institution	Payable only after acceptance, never at submission
DOI registration	Publisher, sometimes passed on per paper	Confirm with the publishing partner in writing
Similarity checking	Organiser or publisher	Budget one check per submission plus re-checks of revisions
Typesetting and proofs	Publisher or organiser	Strict templates reduce this cost sharply
Conference platform	Organiser	Compare features, not only price

Peer review and decisions35%

Submissions and screening20%

Production and DOI20%

Promotion of the call15%

Post-publication10%

Illustrative example only: the share of effort varies by event size and discipline. It shows why review management deserves the most planning time.

For JMVRA proceedings and special-issue terms, see the proposal page or contact the team at [email protected] to discuss your requirement. For regular papers, JMVRA's publication fee is ₹971 for Indian authors and US$41 for international authors, payable only after acceptance.

Hosting a Conference or Special Issue with JMVRA

JMVRA (Journal of Modern and Versatile Research Approach) is a monthly, online, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed open access journal published by JMVRA Publication since June 2023, with online ISSN 2984-8911. Because its scope is multidisciplinary, it can host themes that cross departments, which suits institutional conferences with several tracks.

2984-8911online ISSN

Monthlypublication frequency

CC BY 4.0open access licence

June 2023established

Send the requestUse the conference proposal form with your theme, dates and committee.
Editorial reviewThe journal checks fit, organisers and review plan.
Agree termsTimeline, review model and publication terms in writing.
Run the callSubmissions, screening and peer review.
PublishAccepted papers appear open access under CC BY 4.0.

Within the wider Journey & Wisdom network, organisers can combine JWCMT for the event workflow, JWDOI for DOI registration, JW Book for an ISBN proceedings volume and the Engineering Research Society for engineering events. For anything not described on these pages, email [email protected] or message WhatsApp +91 91063 65667.

Common Mistakes Organisers Make, and How to Host a Conference the Right Way

Most failed conference collections fail for predictable reasons. Check your plan against this list before you publish the call for papers.

Announcing a publication partner, index or DOI before anything is agreed in writing.
Letting registration payment influence acceptance decisions.
Accepting papers outside the stated theme to fill the volume.
Skipping similarity checks because "the authors are known to us".
Collecting author details by email, then re-typing them at production.
Publishing extended journal versions that add little to the proceedings paper.
Leaving the editorial and committee lists until the last week.

The best special issues and proceedings are small enough to review properly, focused enough to be read as a collection, and transparent enough that any reader can see how each paper was judged.

To sum up: knowing how to host a conference or special issue comes down to a clear proposal, an honest call for papers, independent peer review, careful production and correct DOI metadata. Get those five right, use a proper management system, and your event will leave a permanent, citable record that authors are proud to list.

How Journey & Wisdom Helps

JMVRA is published within the Journey & Wisdom group, which runs four shared services — similarity checking, journal management, DOI registration and conference management — and thirteen publication platforms. These are the ones that matter most for this guide. For anything not listed here, email [email protected] or message WhatsApp +91 91063 65667 to discuss your requirement.

JWCMT

Conference management & tracking

Runs a conference end to end — call for papers, submissions, reviewer allocation, decisions, registration, schedule and proceedings — and moves accepted papers into publication without re-typing.

jwcmt.org

JWJMS

Journal management system

Runs the editorial workflow: online submission portal, author dashboard, desk screening, reviewer invitations and reminders, revision rounds, decisions, issue building and publication scheduling — with a full record of every step.

jwjms.org

JWDOI

Crossref DOI registration

Registers Crossref DOIs and deposits article metadata, and gives journals a sponsored DOI prefix without joining Crossref directly — for journals, books, chapters and proceedings.

jwdoi.org

Engineering Research Society

Engineering society

Engineering-focused journal articles, books and event proceedings, with discipline-specific review.

er-society.org

JW Book

Book publication

Monographs, edited volumes, textbooks, proceedings and thesis-to-book projects, with ISBN handling and production.

jwbook.org

See every Journey & Wisdom product and platform · JW ecosystem map

How to host a conference or special issue: step by step

Define the theme and route
Decide whether the output is a proceedings volume, a journal special issue, an edited book or a combination, and confirm that the theme fits the partner journal's scope.
Form the organising team
Appoint chairs or guest editors from more than one institution, write their roles down, and name one corresponding organiser.
Submit a written proposal
Send the theme, sub-topics, organiser CVs, draft call for papers, timeline and review plan to the journal, for example through the JMVRA conference proposal page.
Get written approval
Do not advertise the journal or publisher until the proposal, timeline and publication terms are approved in writing.
Publish the call for papers
Post it on the event site and the journal's site with all dates, fees, the review model and author guidelines, then promote it through societies and mailing lists.
Open a submission system
Use a conference or journal management system such as JWCMT or JWJMS so every submission, review and decision is recorded.
Screen every submission
Check scope, completeness and similarity within days of submission, and return unsuitable papers early.
Run independent peer review
Assign at least two qualified reviewers per paper, and route any paper by an organiser to an independent editor.
Finalise accepted papers
Collect camera-ready files in the template, licence agreements and complete author metadata.
Produce and register
Typeset, proof and publish the papers, then register a Crossref DOI for each paper with full metadata.
Write the editorial and promote
Publish the guest editorial or preface, share the published collection and send a short report to the journal.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I host a conference with a journal publication partner?

Prepare a written proposal with the theme, organisers, review plan and timeline, and send it to the journal before you announce anything. Once the journal approves the proposal in writing, publish the call for papers, run independent peer review on a management system, and send accepted papers in the journal's format. At JMVRA you can start through the conference proceedings proposal page.

How do I propose a special issue to a journal?

Check the journal's aims and scope first, then write a two to four page proposal covering the title, theme statement, sub-topics, guest editor CVs and affiliations, expected contributors, draft call for papers, timeline and review plan. Contact the editor-in-chief or managing editor with it. Do not circulate the call until the journal approves the special issue.

What does a guest editor do in a special issue?

A guest editor shapes the theme, invites authors, screens submissions, assigns reviewers, makes recommendations on each paper and writes the introductory editorial. The editor-in-chief normally keeps final responsibility for standards. Guest editors must declare conflicts of interest, and papers they submit themselves are handled by an independent editor.

Can conference proceedings get a DOI?

Yes. Crossref supports conference proceedings as a record type, with metadata for the event, the proceedings volume and each paper. Each paper needs a title, its contributors and a DOI, and the conference name is the only required event field. The DOI is registered by the publisher through Crossref membership or a sponsoring organisation such as JWDOI.

Do conference proceedings need an ISBN or an ISSN?

A single proceedings volume is treated as a book and takes an ISBN. A conference that publishes proceedings regularly as a series can also obtain an ISSN for the series, while each volume keeps its own ISBN. If the papers are published inside a journal special issue, they carry the journal's ISSN instead.

How long does it take to organise a special issue?

A typical special issue takes nine to twelve months from proposal approval to the last published paper, because it includes a call for papers period, one or two review rounds and production. Small, focused issues with an engaged reviewer pool can move faster. Build in time for revisions rather than shortening the review itself.

Can a guest editor publish a paper in their own special issue?

Many journals allow it only in limited numbers and only when the paper is handled entirely by the editor-in-chief or another independent editor, with the guest editor excluded from its review. Several retractions of special-issue papers have involved guest editors who handled their own manuscripts, so independent handling is essential.

What should a call for papers include?

A clear theme statement, a list of sub-topics, the names and affiliations of chairs or guest editors, all key dates, the review model, every author fee and when it is payable, links to the author guidelines and template, and contact details. It should never promise acceptance, specific indexing or a fixed publication outcome.

How can I tell if a conference is predatory?

Warning signs include acceptance within days with little real review, fees disclosed only after acceptance, an unclear or very broad theme, organisers with no verifiable affiliation, promises of indexing the organiser cannot control, and more promotion of the location than the programme. The Think. Check. Attend. checklist helps researchers test an event before submitting.

Is a conference management system necessary?

For more than a handful of papers, yes. A system keeps submissions, reviewer assignments, reviews, decisions and author communication in one auditable record, prevents lost files and double assignments, and lets accepted papers move to production cleanly. JWCMT covers the call for papers, submissions, reviewer allocation, decisions, registration, schedule and proceedings.

What is the difference between proceedings and a special issue?

Proceedings collect papers presented at a conference, usually as a volume with an ISBN and a DOI per paper. A special issue is a themed set of full research articles inside a journal, reviewed under the journal's normal process and published under its ISSN. Extended versions of strong conference papers often move on to a special issue.

Can an extended conference paper be published in a journal?

Usually yes, if the journal's policy allows it and the extended version adds substantial new material such as more data, analysis or discussion. The author must disclose the earlier proceedings paper, cite it, and confirm that copyright or licence terms permit reuse. The extended version receives its own peer review and its own DOI.

Who pays for publishing conference proceedings?

It depends on the agreement. Some host institutions cover publication costs, some pass a per-paper charge to authors, and some include it in registration. Whatever the model, publish it in full in the call for papers and make any publication charge payable only after acceptance. For JMVRA terms, contact [email protected].

How many reviewers should each conference paper have?

At least two independent reviewers per paper is the common standard, with a third reviewer when the first two disagree. Reviewers should declare conflicts of interest, be verified through institutional email or ORCID, and carry a manageable load, typically three to six papers per round, so their reports stay careful and specific.

Publish Your Research in JMVRA

Peer-reviewed, open access (CC BY 4.0), monthly and multidisciplinary · ISSN 2984-8911 · ₹971 for Indian authors and US$41 for international authors, payable only after acceptance.

Submit Paper Call for Papers [email protected]