IEEE Security & Privacy Special Issue Proposals

S&P aims to stay abreast of the fast-changing security and privacy field, and special issues (SIs) on timely topics are an integral way we achieve that. S&P SIs are managed by top researchers who act as guest editors (GEs).

Please read the IEEE Computer Society’s Guest Editor Guidelines for detailed information on GE responsibilities and SI workflows. Additionally, please review the following information specific to S&P.

We invite proposals for SIs that focus on a topic of broad interest. Topics that will involve contributors from academia, industry, and government are particularly encouraged. We encourage consideration of research, practice, and policy-focused contributions as part of all SIs. SIs focused on technical conferences are welcomed if they are focused on particular topic areas, with submissions that will be substantially different from published conference papers recognizing the different audience and length.

GEs should be known leaders in the SI’s subject area. There should generally be two primary GEs, ideally one from the editorial board and one domain expert. There may be additional GEs to help with soliciting and attracting paper submissions. We suggest at least one GE from industry and one from academia. We also encourage geographical diversity of the GEs. We encourage inclusion of one GE who has already been a GE for S&P, or an Associate Editor in Chief (AEIC) to support the subject-matter GEs.

When drafting an SI proposal, please use this template, which includes space for your call for papers (CFP). (See example CFPs here.) Email SI proposals to sp-special-issues@computer.org.

The AEIC will perform the initial check of the proposal. If a proposal has potential, the AEIC will submit it to the S&P editorial board for evaluation. The evaluation will be based on technical accuracy, objectivity, balance, GE capability, proposal quality, and relationship to other recent and planned SIs. On the basis of the board members’ comments, the AEIC will decide whether the proposal should be accepted, revised, or rejected. 

An SI can have from 3 to 7 papers, depending on the quality and timeliness of submissions. The total number of papers should be coordinated with staff and the EIC in terms of total page count for the issue.