This page states BMU-wide publishing principles. It does not replace journal-specific author guidelines, peer-review descriptions, fee schedules or discipline-specific ethical requirements. Operational claims apply only where implemented by the relevant journal or publisher system.
Proposal and approval
A special issue or collection should have a defined scholarly rationale, scope, proposed editorial leadership and realistic plan for review and production. Approval does not guarantee acceptance of individual submissions.
Guest Editor appointment
Guest Editors should be selected for relevant expertise, integrity and capacity and should declare material competing interests before appointment. The journal should describe their authority and the oversight retained by permanent editorial leadership.
Independent handling
A Guest Editor must not control the review or decision of their own manuscript or of work where a close relationship creates a material conflict. Independent handling should be documented.
Peer review
Submissions to special issues should meet the journal’s ordinary substantive requirements for peer review, ethics, authorship, disclosure and integrity unless a material difference in review is explicitly declared.
Sponsorship and conference relationships
Financial or institutional support for a supplement, collection or conference-related publication should be disclosed. Sponsors must not select reviewers or dictate scholarly outcomes.
Calls for papers
Calls for papers should link to the relevant journal policies, identify key dates accurately and avoid implying guaranteed acceptance. Any charges should be disclosed or linked clearly.
Conference content
Abstracts, proceedings and conference-derived manuscripts should be labelled accurately. Prior conference dissemination does not automatically prohibit journal publication, but originality, overlap and prior-publication rules should be assessed transparently.
Publisher oversight
BMU expects the journal’s senior editorial authority to retain the ability to reassign manuscripts, replace a Guest Editor, obtain additional review or discontinue a collection where review quality, conflicts, manipulation or other integrity concerns arise.
Policy basis and interpretation
Adapted principally from JHWCR Policy 9 and related governance provisions. The BMU version generalises journal-specific material into a publisher framework and removes details that should remain title-specific. Where a journal publishes a more specific requirement that is consistent with these principles, the journal-specific rule governs that journal's submissions.
Questions about this framework may be sent to info@bmuventures.com.