Guest Editor Q&A: Becoming a Springer Nature Guest Editor

Author: Siobhan Bates

Behind every Springer Nature Collection are guest editors whose expertise and dedication transform ideas into impactful academic resources. In this blog, we go behind the scenes and ask two early career researchers, Carlton J. Fong and Christopher S. Rozek, what it takes to guest edit a Springer Nature Collection.

From recruiting diverse voices to navigating peer review and promoting the final work, Carlton J. Fong and Christopher S. Rozek share what it really means to be a guest editor. They reflect on the challenges, the rewards, and the career-shaping impact of curating a Collection that spans educational, developmental, and cultural psychology. 

Whether you're an early career researcher or a seasoned academic, their insights offer a valuable look into the editorial journey and might just inspire your own. 

Fong and Rozek came together through their shared passion for school belonging—a field that focuses on how accepted, respected, included, and supported students feel in educational settings.  

Fong is an associate professor of post-secondary student success in the College of Education at Texas State University. And Rozek is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at Washington University in St. Louis.  

The Collection brings together new literature on primary through to post-secondary level school belonging, and includes perspectives from educational, developmental and cultural psychology, and beyond.  

We spoke to Fong and Rozek to learn more about their guest editor journeys and to ask what advice they had for other early career researchers who share the ambition to create a Collection in their own areas of expertise. 

What did the guest editor role entail day-to-day? 

Fong: There were a lot of moving pieces throughout the process. Some of the more practical things were guiding the authors, keeping them engaged, and making sure they were following through with their revisions and their timelines. We also worked closely with peer reviewers; they played a huge role. As guest editors we recruited the reviewers, answered their questions, and had them provide critiques and constructive feedback for authors. A special part of the role was taking all the reviewer comments, reading and evaluating the manuscripts, and synthesising all the feedback into actionable steps for the authors on how to improve their work. 

Rozek: There were different phases. At the beginning, we were doing the recruiting and planning; we were doing the intentional thinking about what we wanted the Collection to be and what kind of impact we wanted it to have. We were very conscious about inviting people who would cover a wide variety of topics; we also had an open call for papers. Once we started getting the papers in, we were in the editorial phase. We had very specific ideas about topics we wanted covered and perspectives we wanted included. We worked closely with our author teams to ensure that the papers they were contributing would relate to those topics and perspectives. Another part was promotion. As guest editors, we wanted to get the word out; we wanted people to know we were building a resource where they could find all these different perspectives and great theories about school belonging. 

Has the role influenced your career goals?  

Fong: It’s impacted my personal goals on multiple levels. I want to become an expert in this area and what better way to achieve that goal than by being an editor? You’re reviewing so much of the literature, so many ideas. You’re thinking critically about the topic over long periods of time, you’re working with authors and their ideas. It’s really sharpened my thinking and deepened my expertise. A secondary goal has been to network—to connect with scholars that I might not otherwise have had the opportunity to work with. 

Rozek: It’s been very rewarding for me and my career goals. I’ve been an author and a reviewer, and I’ve been on editorial boards, but this was my first big editorial experience. It’s been great to see what it’s like to be a journal editor, to really understand what the process is like. Another nice part—as an early career researcher—is that it increases your visibility in the field; it’s an opportunity to work with big-name scholars. 

What did you learn from this experience that you didn’t expect when going into it?

Fong: We had a diverse set of peer reviewers, and I was surprised to see how these scholars had different perspectives when they were reviewing the work; how they had disagreements about certain things. It was a good learning experience—peer reviewers bring different perspectives to the table and that enriches scholarly discussion. 

Rozek: Perhaps the most surprising thing I learned was just how big a project it was—it’s something that you’re committing to for a long time. Carlton and I came up with this idea back in 2023, and we wanted to play a role in helping to shape some of the papers in our Collection. That’s been a big but very rewarding commitment 

What did you enjoy most about the role and how did it fit with your other research and professional commitments?  

Fong: I beam with joy when I see the final articles—in print or online—in their final form; see the growth from the original submissions; see how the papers have evolved by integrating and taking on different comments and perspectives. Truly, feedback does make something much better. 

Rozek: The best way to balance the commitment is to ensure that the topic is something that is intertwined with your research. When your research has connections to, and overlaps with, the Collection topic, it makes that commitment a lot easier.

What advice would you give early career researchers who are interested in becoming guest editors? 

Fong: Have a bold and clear vision. That guided us through every step of developing our Collection. We wanted it to be a one-stop-shop for current and future belonging researchers; we had that vision and we stuck to it. That helped us through what can be a long process. 

Rozek: Reach out to people who’ve done it before, it’ll help demystify the process. I didn’t know much about doing this beforehand, but I have learned a lot and feel much more confident about being able to do it again. Also, make sure that it’s something that you’re really interested in and passionate about, something you’re very knowledgeable about. 

And finally, would you take on the role again? 

Fong: I would do it again in a heartbeat. There are just so many benefits. I recommend it to all scholars. We become scholars because we want to generate and curate knowledge. There’s no better way—in my mind—to deepen your knowledge and share knowledge with others than to edit a Collection. 

Rozek: It would need to be the right topic, but it has been an extremely rewarding process, and I would be really excited about doing it again. 

If you are interested in becoming a guest editor or publishing your research in a Springer Nature Collection visit our new Collections hub to find out more.

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