Edited books are currently one of the most popular book formats due to their ability to house varied and diverse perspectives on a central theme, making them a valuable acquisition to libraries worldwide. However, edited books rely completely on an editor’s ability to recruit enough relevant submissions to fulfill the requisite number of chapters needed to produce a high-quality title. While this alone can present a challenge, it is also important to ensure the book has global relevance and considers viewpoints from around the world—items that can only be accomplished by ensuring diversity is displayed throughout the chapters of the book. Below are tips to help editors find and receive diverse chapter contributions for an
impactful publication.
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Developing the Call for Chapters
Upon acceptance of an edited book project, the editor(s) of the project will be asked to develop a Call for Chapters that they will then distribute, using a link, through a variety of channels in order to solicit content for the book. The Call for Chapters is the first impression of the book and really the first time that it is being promoted amongst the academic community. Therefore, it is important that editors carefully craft the Call for Chapters in order to receive relevant submissions.
Some good practices editors can use to make their Call for Chapters more inclusive include: 
- Detailed Introductions and Objectives: Editors should provide detailed explanations of the themes the book intends to explore and clearly portray what the book intends to contribute to current literature. This will help authors to understand if their research is relevant. It also reveals a higher level of commitment on the part of the editor who has clearly put time and thought into the development of the book.
- Specific Topics: Editors can provide specific topics that they would like any submitted chapters to explore. This helps maintain the focus of the book and reduces the potential that a chapter is submitted outside the intended scope.
- Identifying Appropriate Research Methods: It can be helpful for an editor to specifically mention the various research methodologies that he/she/they is looking to include. For example, books that are looking specifically for empirical research, case studies, practical applications, etc. can state this outright.
- Avoiding Jargon: Using regionally specific language and jargon can limit the number of submissions to a book by making it too narrow and confusing. Prospective authors who otherwise could have contributed to the book may avoid such calls, assuming that they are not relevant to their research.
- Avoiding Repetition: While Call for Chapters should be detailed, they should also be concise, ultimately revealing what the book intends to cover and contribute to the academic community without being exhaustive or overly repetitive.
- Provide Equal Opportunities: The Call for Chapters should avoid being too regionally specific, instead allowing all qualified authors the opportunity to submit their work for consideration. Proclamations that place limitations on who is allowed to submit a chapter should be avoided.
Distribution Channels and Ideas
For a book project to be successful in garnering the requisite number of chapters, editors must actively promote the Call for Chapters and distribute it directly to those with a vested interest in contributing. Naturally, the way to ensure diversity among chapter authors is by recruiting individuals from diverse regions to contribute their research. However, reaching individuals from all regions of the world is not always a simple feat. Here are a few channels and avenues editor(s) of book projects can distribute their Call for Chapters link to and through that can help them overcome regional limitations of their network and garner a large amount of high-quality submissions:
- Peers and Colleagues
- Conferences
- Personal Networks
- Email Lists
- Social Media
- University Departments
- Societies
- Research Institutes and Groups
- Associations
- Academic Databases
- Forums
- Research Gate
- LinkedIn
- Listservs
IGI Global understands that it can be a challenge to brainstorm and decide the best channels to disseminate the call for chapters to ensure robust and diverse content. Because of this, IGI Global hosts each book’s Call for Chapters on the official IGI Global website which reaches our ample network of scholars, researchers, instructors, practitioners, librarians, etc. from around the world who write and research in countless categories and topics. Chapters may trickle in naturally this way, which assists the book editor(s) in ensuring they have collected enough relevant and scholarly content.
About IGI Global
Founded in 1988, IGI Global, an international academic publisher, is committed to producing the highest quality research (as an active full member of the Committee on Publication Ethics “COPE”) and ensuring the timely dissemination of innovative research findings through an expeditious and technologically advanced publishing process. Through their commitment to supporting the research community ahead of profitability, and taking a chance on virtually untapped topic coverage, IGI Global has been able to collaborate with over 150,000+ researchers from some of the most prominent research institutions around the world to publish the most emerging, peer-reviewed research across 350+ topics in 11 subject areas including business, computer science, education, engineering, social sciences, and more.
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