Proposal Template

Guidance for Guest Editors

RP Materials: Proceedings provides the materials science community with a fast and flexible route to the publication of research presented at national and international scientific conferences in the field of materials science research and its applications.

The following details provide suggestions to potential guest editors.

Preparing a Proposal

Thank you for your interest in publishing with RP Materials: Proceedings. Potential guest editors must submit our Application Form (download here) in order for their conference proceedings to be published with RP Materials: Proceedings. This proposal should then be sent to editormp@researchplateau.com, with the subject line as follows:

RP Materials: Proceedings – Conference Proposal - Conference Short Name

We can more effectively direct proposals for consideration by using this subject line.

Before submitting your proposal, kindly take note of the following guidelines and regulations:

  • Aims & Scope: Our full aims & scope text can be found on the journal homepage. If your event is broad in scope, please specify the topic areas for which you are applying.
  • Conditions of publication: RP Materials: Proceedings only publishes conference proceedings for conferences that have taken place, i.e. not in advance of the event. You should make your proposal before your conference happens, and if approved, we will ask you to supply a list of accepted papers (oral presentations), and a copy of your timetable.  The timetable must make clear who was delivering the presentation.  Publication of your proceedings will be contingent on delivery and approval of these documents.  With this in mind, you will need to ensure you have planned for the review of abstract submissions, as Editorial Manager will only be made available after the conference.
  • Timelines and Planning: When a conference is accepted, we will indicate a timeline for (i) the submission of the programme and oral presentation list, (ii) when we will open the online portal for submissions, (ii) the dates by when all revised manuscripts should be submitted and (iv) the anticipated finalisation date of the completed proceedings.  
  • Institutional Email Addresses: Submissions sent from a non-institutional email address will be reviewed, but an institutional email address will be required for contract signatures. Please do not send your proposal anonymously or 'from the committee': submissions from conference email addresses without further identifying information may be rejected outright.  We recommend that the person making the application is the person who will be responsible for editing the proceedings.
  • Conference Website: All applications should include a live conference website.  Conferences who do not yet have this should defer application until the website is finalised.
  • Paper limit: We will only accept conferences of up to 100 papers. Individual authors may each publish a maximum of two papers in the proceedings (in any authorship position).
  • Time for Review: We aim to review all proposals in 4-6 weeks: please allow for this in your planning, as we are unable to accommodate requests for accelerated review owing to the volume of applications we receive.

In the event that your conference proposal is approved, guest editors must comply with our regulations, which are designed to ensure the ethical integrity and quality assurance of conference proceedings: these requirements are stipulated in our contract agreement. 

Managing Submissions for a Conference

In the preparation of conference proceedings, we anticipate that organisers with follow a workflow broadly along the following lines:

  • Submission of Abstracts
  • Review of submitted abstracts by committee
  • Decision notifications to authors (oral presentation, poster, reject etc.)
  • Conference takes place
  • Preparation and submission of conference paper to partner proceedings title
  • Peer review of prepared by paper by conference committee and/or external reviewers
  • Rounds of review/revision as required
  • Final decision

Authors and guest editors should note that presentation at a conference or acceptance of an abstract does not guarantee publication of a paper in proceedings if the work does not meet required standards or is found to have breached ethical guidelines.  While conference proceedings aim to create a record of the academic work and ideas shared at a conference, these papers must meet required standards. 

Peer Review of Conference Proceedings

Submitted conference proceedings papers must be subject to peer review by at least two independent, qualified reviewers in addition to the guest editor.  These reviewers should be experienced in the field of study, and the reviews should offer meaningful feedback to authors. The general information about Peer Review Process can be found on the journal homepage.

Open Access and Pricing

All the papers published in RP Materials: Proceedings are open access. The publication fee can be found on the journal homepage under heading "Article Processing Charges".

Author Guidelines and Templates

Author guidelines can be found on the journal homepage under heading "Author Guidelines". Authors can download the Manuscript Template (download here).

Contact

If you require assistance with any aspect of your proposal, or with production matters, please use the contact email addresses below.

RP Materials: Proceedings Editorial Office – editormp@researchplateau.com