On the occasion of the end of his 20-year tenure as the Director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, we are organizing a Festschrift – a collection of writings published in honor of an influential scholar – to celebrate Robert Stickgold’s long and impactful career in sleep and circadian science. The Festschrift will be published as a special issue of the peer-reviewed, open access journal SLEEP Advances.

All sleep and circadian researchers and researchers from related fields are invited to submit an article for the Festschrift that builds on or is inspired by Bob’s work. We welcome joint contributions with colleagues and trainees as coauthors. The article, in addition to highlighting one or more of Bob’s seminal contributions, should contain original research that is based on or an extension of Bob’s foundational work. We will also allow a small number of critical and insightful reviews of the relevant literature, opinion, and theoretical pieces with pre-approval from the associate editors. A non-exhaustive list of some of the areas that Bob has contributed to over the course of his career can be found at the bottom of this email.

The initial deadline for submission of an article to be included in the Festschrift special issue is June 30, 2024. The cover letter should indicate that the submission is for inclusion in the Festschrift in honor of Robert Stickgold and all submissions will go through the standard peer review and publication process through Sleep Advances (see below for additional details). Instructions to authors can be found here.

After peer review, manuscript revisions will be due within 60 days (30 days for minor revisions). Articles that pass peer review and are accepted for publication will be made available online immediately. Please note that SLEEP Advances is an open access journal supported by publication fees (click here for SRS member and non-member OA fees in Sleep Advances based on article type).  We hope that you will also help us to publicize that opportunity to other peers and colleagues in the field that may have been inspired by Bob’s work and legacy.

Working with the journal editor-in-chief, Dr. Mary Carskadon, and the special issue guest editors, Tony Cunningham will be the primary contact person for the Festschrift special issue of SLEEP Advances. The official submission portal for this Special Issue Festschrift will be available and distributed soon. You can also email Tony Cunningham and let him know of your interest at acunnin4@bidmc.harvard.edu.

We look forward to your contribution to the Festschrift in honor of Robert Stickgold!

Sincerely,

Tony Cunningham                                

Jessica Payne                                  

Erin Wamsley         

Instructions for Authors:

Instructions for authors and types of manuscripts can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/sleepadvances/pages/general_instructions

Peer Review and Publication:

Peer review is handled by SLEEP Advances editors. All articles will go through the typical rigorous peer review process of SLEEP Advances and must reach the same acceptance criteria as regular articles in the journal. Articles in the collection will be published when ready into the issue that is open at the time and presented in a dedicated virtual collection once all the articles have published. Articles will not be delayed so they can publish with other collection articles.

Open Access:

Please note that SLEEP Advances is an open access journal supported by publication fees. Please see the current fees on the Author Guidelines. Sleep Research Society and Australasian Sleep Association members are entitled to a discount when they are the corresponding author. Additionally, there are provisions for authors in developing countries. OUP also has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia that provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

Potential topics may include but are not limited to:

• Sleep-dependent memory processing; forms of memory consolidation that are absolutely dependent on post-training sleep

• The functional role of dreams and dreaming — especially with relation to memory processing and consolidation

• The NEXTUP model of dreaming

• Targeted dream incubation

• The role of naps in memory processing and their relationship and comparative influence to nocturnal sleep

• The role of sleep in enhancing the emotional elements of memories

• The topography of sleep spindles and slow waves

• The timing of sleep spindles in relation to slow waves

• Neural network models of sleep-dependent memory consolidation

• The role of sleep in rule and gist extraction

• The role of reward in sleep-dependent memory consolidation

• Sleep induced changes in brain regions activated during the performance of previously learned skills.

• Sleep and memory re-consolidation

• The disparate and overlapping impacts of sleep loss, recovery sleep, and circadian rhythms on the perception, consolidation, and retention of emotional and neutral information

• The effect of sleep and neurocognitive disorders (e.g. obstructive sleep apnea, schizophrenia, Charles Bonnet syndrome, etc.) on procedural and declarative memory tasks.

• Deficits in sleep-dependent memory consolidation in patients with schizophrenia and their relatives

• Sleep spindle deficits in early course, antipsychotic medication-naïve schizophrenia patients, as well as in first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia.

• Addiction to cocaine (and other substance use disorders) and its effects on sleep-dependent memory consolidation

• The relationship between hypnagogic dreams and hippocampally mediated episodic memory systems

• Sleep-dependent memory consolidation in patients with bipolar disorder

• The demography of sleep and sleep disturbances

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