Special Issues Policy

MENTOR Revista de Investigación Educativa y Deportiva may publish special issues as part of its editorial planning. The publication of special issues must be approved by the Director and the Editor-in-Chief of the journal and will not modify the established publication frequency of regular issues.

Special issues must remain within the journal’s stated aims and scope and are subject to the same editorial, scientific, and ethical policies that apply to regular issues.

The Editor-in-Chief retains editorial responsibility for all content published by the journal, including special issues, and oversees compliance with the journal’s procedures for peer review, editorial decision-making, and publication.

Manuscript Evaluation

Manuscripts submitted for special issues follow the same editorial process established for regular issues.

Each manuscript is first subject to an editorial screening to verify its alignment with MENTOR’s aims and scope, compliance with the author guidelines, formal requirements, and the journal’s research integrity policies.

Manuscripts that successfully pass this stage are submitted to external peer review using a double-blind review system. Each article is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers with academic or research expertise relevant to the subject of the manuscript.

Editorial decisions are made individually for each manuscript, taking into account the reviewers’ reports, the academic and methodological quality of the work, its alignment with the journal’s aims and scope, and compliance with MENTOR’s editorial and ethical policies.

Submission of a manuscript to a special issue does not imply or guarantee its acceptance or publication.

Editorial Independence

The creation of a special issue does not alter the criteria for manuscript evaluation, selection, or acceptance established by MENTOR.

Editorial decisions must be based exclusively on academic, scientific, methodological, and ethical criteria. No institutional relationship, funding source, sponsorship, academic collaboration, or other external interest may influence the selection of reviewers or decisions regarding acceptance or rejection.

Where a potential conflict of interest exists in relation to a manuscript, the individuals involved must refrain from participating in its evaluation or editorial decision-making, and the manuscript will be managed by an editor who has no such conflict.

Guest Editors

The participation of guest editors is not a requirement for the publication of special issues in MENTOR.

When one or more guest editors are exceptionally appointed, their academic credentials and relevant expertise must be verified and approved in advance by the Editor-in-Chief.

Guest editors perform their duties under the supervision of the Editor-in-Chief or members of the editorial team designated for this purpose and must comply with MENTOR’s editorial, ethical, and peer-review policies.

Guest editors may not modify the journal’s evaluation procedures or guarantee the acceptance of manuscripts.

If a guest editor submits a manuscript as an author or co-author to the special issue in which they participate, they will be completely excluded from its editorial handling. The manuscript will be assigned to an independent editor and will undergo the journal’s standard external peer-review process. Articles authored or co-authored by guest editors may not represent more than 25% of the total content of the special issue.

Identification and Transparency

Each special issue will be clearly identified as such on the MENTOR website.

Articles published in special issues are subject to the same conditions established for articles published in regular issues regarding peer review, publication ethics, authorship, conflicts of interest, open access, copyright, licensing, digital preservation, corrections, and retractions.

The publication of special issues does not exempt any article from compliance with MENTOR’s current editorial policies.