Hydrology and Earth System Sciences

Special Issues

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS) and its discussion forum Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions (HESSD) offer an efficient new way of publishing special issues for measurement campaigns, conferences, etc. The individual papers are peer-reviewed & published as soon as available in regular issues, but then labeled as part of the special issue and linked electronically.

The specific advantages are:

• Publication date is not limited by the latest paper/slowest peer-review process: every individual contribution to the special issue is published as soon as available.
• Efficient interactive discussion of the common theme on the HESSD website.
• Pre-publication of discussion papers in HESSD allows efficient cross-referencing between the final revised papers in HESS.
• All contributions efficiently linked and coherently presented on dedicated special issue webpages (an appropriate logo is welcome as jpg file) easily accessible from the HESS/HESSD Online Libraries (chronological volumes and issues).
• Print-version available upon completed publication of all contributions. A minimum order of 20 copies will be needed, and the price will depend on the total number of pages in the special issue. Please contact the Copernicus Publications Production Office for a price calculation.

To make arrangements for a Special Issue, please contact an HESS editor covering the relevant subject areas and an HESS executive editor (see Editorial Board and Journal Subject Areas). Please provide the following information:

• Title for the special issue;
• Names & affiliations of the proposed special issue editors;
• Start & end of submission;
• A statement of the purpose of the special issue.

Responsibilities of special issue editors:

• Coordinate a rigorous peer-review process (at least two independent referees).
• Ensure that the English is at a high level, and request a copy-editing if necessary.

To browse existing special issues follow the links HESSD Special Issues and HESS Special Issues, respectively.

Policy on Special Issues

The executive editors have the following policy:

1. A special issue should be on a major advancement or innovation in hydrology.
2. It should not be merely a proceeding of a meeting. We do not want HESS to be a proceedings journal. But a meeting organised around an innovative subject with a collection of carefully selected papers (often invited) is welcome. It may also be the result of a meeting that summarizes a major step forward that has been achieved, leading to new perspectives.
3. The executive editors take the decision on the basis of a proposal by the envisaged guest editor(s) and appoint a responsible executive editor. It is important that the guest editor(s) have high qualifications (this speaks for itself). Preferably one of the editors of HESS is included in the proposal.
4. The papers will be reviewed through the normal HESSD system and evaluated on a paper by paper basis. One of the guest editors should become the handling editor of each paper. Clearly the guest editor(s) should suggest referees as well (as is normally the case).
5. The Copernicus Publications Editorial Office will make sure that the papers will appear as a special issue.