Peer Review Process
Each eligible article submitted will be double-anonymous peer reviewed prior to publication by between two and three postgraduate reviewers carefully selected from those based at the University of Edinburgh. The final decision lies with the co-editors. Authors submitting to the journal can expect to receive the results of the review process within two months of the submission deadline for the relevant issue (please see the relevant cfps for dates). All eligible submissions will receive feedback from reviewers. Reviewers are asked to comment on submissions with particular regard to the following criteria:
- Thematic suitability
- Engaging, interesting topic
- Consistent, logical argument
- Coherent structure
- Interaction with the field
- Theoretical framework
- Style and language
- Presentation
- Accordance with MLA style
Peer reviewers must attend peer review workshops before being assigned articles within their field to review. The aim is thus to provide professional development and a forum for learning new academic skills for postgraduates involved in all levels of the process.
The advantages of this system for both reviewers and authors were recently highlighted in an article by William Christopher Brown, a contributor to Issue 1 of FORUM. Brown writes:
"Of all of the CFPs for journals that I found, I kept coming back to a then-new peer-reviewed online journal called Forum: The University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts. Their CFP on Origins and Originality closely matched the last essay I wrote for the last class of my coursework. Recognizing a connection between my own research interests at the time and the interests of my peers at another institution allowed me to push beyond the psychological blockages. Instead of focusing on myself and my own apprehensiveness at the idea of publishing, I began to think in terms of communicating with peers I had never met. I no longer viewed my writing as a part of the classroom or as a potential line on a curriculum vitae. Instead, I viewed my writing as an opportunity to connect with others."
William Christopher Brown. "Developing Professionally through Graduate Student Publications." In Progress 2 (2012). <http://inprogressjournal.net/current-issue/developing-professionally-through-graduate-student-publications/>
