The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America intends to publish a special issue on Methods for Marine Mammal Passive Acoustics. Given that a sufficiently large number of papers are accepted, these papers will appear as a group in a separate publication which will be the second part of a regular issue. Examples of such special issues may be found in the Part Two's of the January 2002, March 2005, September 2008, and November 2011 issues. General Topic The use of passive acoustics has been successful over the last several decades in advancing the study of marine mammals in their natural environment. Because marine passive acoustic data are typically collected for months to years at a time, automated techniques for detection, classification, and localization are crucial for data analysis. Such techniques have advanced rapidly in quantity and quality in the last few years. Concurrently, passive acoustic monitoring has also incorporated techniques for population density estimation, which is now a rapidly growing field. Papers are encouraged that describe new techniques or report on developments in previously-existing approaches, and which detail the advantages and drawbacks of the described methods. Papers that offer singular insight from different research and academic fields including biology, physiology, acoustics, oceanography, signal processing, mathematics, electronics, and computer science are also invited. However, prospective authors should note that papers published in JASA must fulfill the requirement that the content be "truly acoustics," rather than merely applicable to acoustics. How to Submit Papers Papers should be submitted in the usual manner for JASA via the Peer X-Press site. Go to the site http://asadl.org/jasa/ and click on the item "Submit to Journal." When you submit a paper via the online submission process, you will fill out an outline form that is the same for all papers that are submitted. However, the form will include a new feature in the portion of the form that has a tab for "Keywords and PACS-43 Index Terms." There will be a drop-down list at the bottom of the page that is labelled as "Special Issues." All special issues currently in progress will be listed in this drop-down list. The special issue you should select is MMA (for Methods for Marine Mammal Passive Acoustics). To make doubly certain that your paper will be grouped with others intended for the special issue, you should upload a cover letter that identifies the paper as intended for the special issue on Methods for Marine Mammal Passive Acoustics. A footnote with such an identification should also appear on the title page of the manuscript. Authors should also send an e-mail to the Guest Editor, David K. Mellinger (david.k.mellinger@noaa.gov) informing him of the submission. The editor reserves the right of deciding whether the topic of the submission is appropriate for the special issue, but all submitted papers will be considered for publication in the Journal. Peer-review and editorial decisions of submitted articles will be handled with the usual processes, but those accepted for the special issue will be be grouped together for the publication in the special issue. Deadlines and Relevant Dates Papers intended for the special issue should be submitted before June 30, 2012. The intent is that all papers accepted on or before October 1, 2012, will be passed on to the production department for publication as a special issue. It is recognized that the progression of submitted manuscripts through the JASA Peer X-Press system takes a variable amount of time, sometimes as long as a year, although 3 months is the desired objective. If a manuscript is not fully accepted before November 1, 2012, it is unlikely that it will be possible to include it in the special issue. It is highly unlikely that any manuscript submitted after June 30 will be accepted sufficiently rapidly to be included. The best strategy, if one desires a manuscript to be included, is to submit it as soon as possible. Papers accepted after the deadline will be published in the Journal, but not in the special issue. Introductory Editorial A brief editorial introducing the topic and the papers will be written by the Guest Editor David K. Mellinger in collaboration with the authors of the accepted papers.