Author Guidelines

Articles, Analysis Pieces, Case/Legislation Comments and Conference Reports should be written using our Article template. Book Reviews should be written using our Book Review template.

SCRIPTed is pleased to consider submissions sent via e-mail to editors.scripted@ed.ac.uk. Manuscripts must be in Microsoft Word format using the template files above. A submission will only be considered where the author warrants that their manuscript has not already been published or offered for publication elsewhere in whole, in part, or in substance (including on publicly accessible websites, such as SSRN). We will not accept submissions under consideration at other journals.

Note that SCRIPTed does not charge authors any fees to submit, process, or publish a manuscript.

Articles should not normally exceed 10,000 words (including footnotes). Analysis Pieces should normally not exceed 4,000 words.

Case/Legislation Comments and Conference Reports should not normally exceed 3,000 words. Book Reviews should not normally exceed 2,000 words.

Any submission which exceeds the identified word counts may be accepted upon special consideration of the Editorial Board.

Authors are invited to make submissions in any language, though consideration of them is subject to the Editorial Board’s ability to locate an appropriate peer-reviewer in the subject language.   If submissions are made in a language other than English, the Title and Abstract (not exceeding 250 words) must also be submitted in English. Authors may provide an English translation of their submission, in which case both versions will be published (if they wish).  All submissions will be subject to the journal’s Editorial and Refereeing Policies.  Attempts to accommodate all internationally recognised character sets will be made where feasible.

1 Referee system

SCRIPTed publishes Articles, Analysis Pieces, Case/Legislation Comments, Book Reviews, and Conference Reports. To ensure that only submissions of the highest quality are published, the journal employs the following referee system:

1.1 Initial review

All submissions are first considered by the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor to determine if they are suitable.

1.2 Assignment

Having determined suitability, Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor send the submission to at least two recognised experts for independent, external peer review.

Analysis pieces and Case/Legislative comments are internally peer reviewed (one reviewer) by either a member of the SCRIPTed Editorial Board or Edinburgh Law School faculty/PhD candidates with particular experience and/or interest in the field.

Analysis pieces and Case/Legislative comments only go to an external peer reviewer if internal Edinburgh Law School faculty and/or PhD candidates lack the expertise to provide an adequate review.

Conference Reports and Book Reviews are not externally peer reviewed; they are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and/or Managing Editor only.

1.3 Peer review

Referees are asked to consider the following: (1) overall quality; (2) originality (its contribution to the field); (3) timeliness and time sensitivity; (4) academic standards (argumentation and presentation, including adequacy of referencing, grammar, syntax etc.); and (5) success of synthesis between areas for those submissions purporting to be interdisciplinary. Referees will recommend one of the following options: (1) accept outright for publication; (2) accept subject to minor modification; (3) accept subject to major modification; (4) reject outright.

1.4 Revision

Authors will be sent anonymised copies of Referee comments. Authors are responsible for ensuring that necessary amendments are carried out in light of Referee recommendations.

1.5 Reconsideration

Revised manuscript submissions received by the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor may be returned to Referees or may be assessed solely by the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor (having reference to the review and recommendations by the Referees).

1.6 Recommendation

Based on Referee Reports and his or her own assessment, the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor will make a recommendation on disposition to the Editorial Board, which has final responsibility for each decision on each submission.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submission conforms to SCRIPTed’s formatting style (see below and our Article and Book Review templates), and for ensuring that all citations are accurate.

While the Copy Editor does NOT check the accuracy of citations, s/he reserves the right to make amendments considered necessary to achieve SCRIPTed stylistic and formatting standards, and may make changes with a view to (1) eliminating errors of typing, grammar, syntax, punctuation, spelling, and idiom, (2) eliminating ambiguity, illogicality, tautology, circumlocution and redundancy, (3) producing accuracy and coherence, and (4) improving the mode of expression and style of writing. Changes will be sent to the author for approval.

Once approved by the author, the manuscript will be treated by SCRIPTed as final and ready for publication. No further changes will be allowed to the text absent compelling justification.

2 SCRIPTed format and style guidelines

SCRIPTed’s in-house  Article template should be used for all submissions except Book Reviews, i.e. Articles, Analysis Pieces, and Case/Legislation Comments. For Book Reviews, our in-house  Book Review template should be used.

2.1 Language

Authors are invited to make submissions in any language, though consideration of submissions is subject to the Editorial Board’s ability to locate an appropriate peer reviewer in the subject language.  If submissions are made in a language other than English, the Title and Abstract must also be submitted in English. Where English is used, please comply with British English (see Spelling below).

2.2 Article title

Each primary word should begin with a capital letter (e.g. Intellectual Property Law in Scotland).

2.3 Author’s name

The author’s name should be centred under the title and in lower case italics (e.g. John Smith). There should be an asterisk (*) after each author’s name, which corresponds to an asterisked footnote, giving the author’s current position(s) of employment, department where appropriate, university, city, country, and email address (e.g. “Lecturer, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, name@institution.ac.uk”). There is no need to list the author’s qualifications.

2.4 Abstract

Authors should provide an abstract of 250 words or fewer, which will appear under the listing of the published version.

2.5 Keywords

Authors should provide between three and six keywords highlighting the field(s) and topic(s) of their submission.

2.6 Headings

Headings within the text are encouraged. It is recommended that no more than three levels of heading be used, as follows (numbering and font sizes are automatically set by our template):

1 Principal heading

1.1 Second level heading

1.1.1 Third level heading

2.7 Text

2.7.1 Spelling and punctuation

SCRIPTed uses UK, not American spelling (e.g. analyse, not analyze; criticise, not criticize; characterise, not characterize). The following website is a useful reference: http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/us/?view=uk. Please also consult the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for correct spellings.

A “z” can be used in official names of organisations (e.g. World Health Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization) and when quoting text that uses the American spelling. Do not use conjunctions (e.g. use cannot, not can’t; do not, not don’t, etc).

A single space should be used after full stops and other punctuation marks.

SCRIPTed uses the Oxford comma, e.g. “Dove, Chen, and Diver”.

2.7.2 Paragraphs

Paragraphs following headings are not indented, but continuing paragraphs are. Paragraph text should use 1.5 line spacing.

2.7.3 Capitalisation

Capitalisation is appropriate for names of persons, places, institutions and intellectual movements (e.g. John Smith; Edinburgh; European Union; Scottish Enlightenment), but not for other terms. “Internet” may be capitalised, or not, at the author’s discretion.

2.7.4 Acronyms and abbreviations

Acronyms and short titles should only be used after the full title has appeared once in the text (e.g. “Ms X became Director of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)…”). This rule applies for all conjunctions (including IP, IT, ICT, etc).

No full stops are used with abbreviations other than e.g., i.e., vs., and etc. (e.g. Brown J/Green MR/Yellow LJ/SCC/HL/CA/QC/Co/Ltd/USA/USSR/WTO/UN/UNESCO/IT/AI).

2.7.5 Hyphens and dashes

A hyphen “-” should be used as a word separator (e.g. twenty-four). A longer dash “–” is used to separate a sentence from a side remark (e.g. “These remarks – made by the Director of company X – indicate that…”).

2.7.6 Quotations

Quotes less than 3 lines of text should appear in the body and be identified with double quotation marks (” “), with quotes within such quotes identified with single quotation marks (‘ ‘). Ensure that all punctuation is within the quotes (e.g. “Blah, blah.”).

Quotes longer than three lines of text should be styled using the ‘quotation’ style within the in-house template (independent, fully-indented paragraphs) and should not have quotation marks. Quotes within such quotes should be presented with double quotation marks (” “). Quotes in a foreign language should normally appear in English translation, but the original text may also be reproduced if it is necessary that the text be examined closely. Be sure that quotation marks are consistent (e.g. “x” and ‘x’, not ‘x” or “x’). Make sure that all original punctuation marks are within quotation marks.

To indicate that words have been omitted from a quote, please use ellipses (…) without any spaces around them, e.g. “His Lordship opined that…the pursuer’s case failed.”

Please use double quotation marks (” “) when defining a term for use in the article (e.g. “concept X”, not ‘concept X’).

2.7.7 Numbers

Number under 100 are written in full (e.g. eighty-four), unless they refer to a percentage, in which case it appears as, for example, “25%”.

2.7.8 Dates

Provide dates in the form “25 January 2018”.

2.8 Footnotes

Generally, footnotes should be used for citation of sources, rather than for additional text. They should only be produced by means of the word processor’s automatic footnote function (with Arabic numerals, consecutively numbered).

The footnote reference should appear after punctuation marks, not before (e.g. “X argues that Y.”¹ – NOT “X argues that Y¹.”). Footnote text should follow the rules stated above in Text, save that all numbers should be given as figures.

Use “ch.” when referring to a chapter and “vol.” for a volume. Page references should use the abbreviations “p.” or “pp.”, adopting the following style: “Supra n. 24, p. 3″.

Please ensure there is a full stop at the end of every footnote.

2.8.1 Latin abbreviations

Ibid., in italics, should be used for consecutive citations. If referring to a different page in the same source, use Ibid., followed by a comma and the number of the relevant page (e.g. “Ibid., p. 25″). The terms op cit and idem should not be used. Cross-references to footnotes above should take the form “supra n. 25″, and cross-references to footnotes below should take the form “infra n. 25″. Ensure that every footnote corresponds correctly with the footnote that it references (e.g. when footnote 34 says, “supra n. 25″, make sure that footnote 25 contains the information that it should). Do not use italics for text in the footnote unless it is a Latin abbreviation or a reference to a case or book requiring italics (e.g. do not write “See n. 12.”).

2.8.2 Subsequent citations in case of ambiguity

If a footnote references more than one work by the same author or authors, or refers to a prior footnote containing more than one work, please cite the surname(s) of the author(s), a shortened title of the work being cited, and the footnote where it first appears, e.g. “Laurie, Genetic Privacy, supra n. 24, p. 3″ or “Laurie and Dove, “Consent and Anonymisation”, supra n. 25, pp. 35-36″. For subsequent citation of cases, please cite the name of the first party only and the relevant paragraph, e.g. “ABC, para. 25″. For subsequent citation of statutes or regulations (including EU legislation), please cite the shortened name (if commonly used), and relevant section or article, e.g. “GDPR, art. 6”.

2.9 Citations

Unless otherwise specified below, SCRIPTed follows the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA). The journal does not follow the Bluebook, Harvard, Vancouver, or Chicago citation styles. The author must change any references in these formats into the SCRIPTed house style, and use footnotes accordingly.

2.9.1 Cases

A case name should be given as it appears in the most authoritative report of the case. The full citation need only be given at the first reference to the case, which should also provide the shorthand reference to be used in subsequent citations. The case name should be printed in italics, including the v, and the v should not be followed by a full stop. Make sure that the citation number is not italicised. Note the different rules for annual case reports as compared with ongoing reports. When referencing dicta from a case, either paragraph or page numbering can be used.

Examples:

• Chatterton v Gerson, [1981] 1 All ER 257 (QB) (hereinafter Chatterton).
• Sidaway v Board of Governors of the Bethlem Royal Hospital, [1984] 1 All ER 1018 (CA) (hereinafter Sidaway).
• Re T (adult: refusal of medical treatment), [1992] 4 All ER 649 (CA).
• Rose v Melanson (2005), 194 OAC 186 (Ont CA).
• Canada (Human Rights Commission) v Canadian Airlines International Ltd, [2006] 1 SCR 3.
• R v Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame, [1991] ECR I-3905 (ECJ).

If the case is not yet reported it should be cited with a reference to the relevant notice in the Official Journal:

• EC Commission v Ireland, Case C-134/89, [1989] OJ L145/1.

2.9.2 Statutes

The first time a statute is cited its full title should be used, together with the calendar year. Subsequent citations may use the abbreviated form. Citations of statutes should not be italicised. No comma should appear between the word “Act” and the year.

Citations of provisions should be abbreviated as follows:

• “Article” to “art.”; “articles” to “arts.”
• “Section” to “s.”; “sections” to “ss.”
• “Chapter” to “ch.”; “chapters” to “chs.”
• “Part” to “pt.”; “parts” to “pts.”
• “Paragraph” to “para.”; “paragraphs” to “paras.”
• “Schedule” to “sch.”; “schedules” to “schs.”
• “Regulation” to “reg.”; “regulations” to “regs.”

Where the reference is the first word in a sentence or footnote, the full word should be used, e.g. “Section” instead of “s.”.

References to Recitals in EU legislation to retain the full word “Recital”, e.g. “GDPR, Recital 25”.

Examples:

• Finance Act 1965, sch. 7, s. 19(1)
• Companies Act 1985, pt. V, ch. VI
• Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, sch. 3, s. 2 (hereinafter ‘HFEA 1990’)
• Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001
• Duration of Copyright and Rights in Performances Regulations 1995, SI 1995/3297
• Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (hereinafter ‘GDPR’)

2.9.3 Journal articles

Please include:

1. The author’s/authors’ forename and surname with no full stops (no middle initials are required). Subsequent citations use only the surname
2. The full title of the article within double quotation marks (” “) and capitalisation of all primary words
3. The year of publication in round brackets (unless there is no volume number)
4. The volume number in Arabic numerals followed by the issue number in brackets (see examples below)
5. The full name of the journal (in italics)
6. The first and last page of the article (without “pp.”)
7. If a more specific page reference is being given, the page number(s) (including “p.” or “pp.”)

For articles with multiple authors, use the first name and surname for up to three authors, separated by an (Oxford) comma and “and” (e.g. “Edward Dove, Jiahong Chen, and Laurence Diver”). Do not use an ampersand (“&”). For articles with four or more authors, use the first name and surname of the first author followed by “et al.” which is not italicised (e.g. “Abbe Brown et al.”).

Examples:

• Mireille Hildebrandt, “Law as an Affordance: The Devil is in the Vanishing Point(s)”  (2017) 4(1) Critical Analysis of Law 116-128, p. 124.
• Trevor Bench-Capon, “Transition Systems for Designing and Reasoning about Norms” (2015) 23(4) Artificial Intelligence and Law 345-366.
• Langdon Winner, “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” (1980) Daedalus 121-136, pp. 125-127.
• Michel Foucault, “The Subject and Power” (1982) 8(4) Critical Inquiry 777-795.

For forthcoming articles, please include the title of the publication and “(forthcoming)”, e.g. Laurence Diver and Burkhard Schafer, “Opening the Black Box: Petri Nets and Privacy by Design”, International Review of Law, Computers and Technology (forthcoming). Where available, include the DOI and the URL of the original publication, including “available at”.

2.9.4 Books

Please include:

• The author’s forename and surname with no full stops;
• The title (italicised);
• The number of the edition (abbreviated “ed.”, e.g. “4th ed.”) if applicable; and
• In round brackets, the city of publication, followed by a colon, the publisher, followed by a comma, and the year of publication (e.g. “(Oxford: OUP, 2018)”). The names of publishers other than Cambridge University Press (CUP) and Oxford University Press (OUP) should be written in full.

For specific references, include a comma, followed by the chapter or page number, including “ch.” and/or “p.”. For multiple authors, follow the rules outlined in Journal Articles, above.

Examples:

• Frank Pasquale, The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms that Control Money and Information (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2015).
• Lorenzo Magnani, Morality in a Technological World: Knowledge as Duty (Cambridge: CUP, 2007), p. 25.

2.9.5 Edited books

Give the editor’s or editors’ name(s) as above for the author, with “ed.”/”eds.” following immediately in brackets. Otherwise, follow the rules for Books. For multiple authors or editors, follow the rules outlined in Journal Articles, above.

Example:

• Alan Wright and Nicholas Hastie (eds.), Genes and Common Disease: Genetics in Modern Medicine (Cambridge: CUP, 2007).

When referencing a specific article in a collected work please provide the author(s) name and chapter title (with all primary words capitalised), in double quotation marks (” “). This should be followed by the word “in”, which in turn should be followed by a reference to the collected work itself (see Books, above). Finally, the first and last page of the article should be cited, including “pp.”.

For specific references, include a comma, followed by “p.” and the page number.

Examples:

• Gary Blasi and John Jostin, “System Justification Theory and Research: Implications for Law, Legal Advocacy, and Social Justice” in Jon Hanson (ed.), Ideology, Psychology, and Law (Oxford: OUP, 2012), pp. 81-131.
• Bert-Jaap Koops, “Criteria for Normative Technology: The Acceptability of ‘Code as law’ in Light of Democratic and Constitutional Values” in Roger Brownsword and Karen Yeung (eds.), Regulating Technologies: Legal Futures, Regulatory Frames and Technological Fixes (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2008), pp. 157-174.

2.9.6 Other sources

When referencing a source that is online other than a journal or book, cite the name of the author (or institution), followed by the title of the webpage. Follow this with the title of the website and the date of publication in brackets, if available. Follow this by the phrase “available at”, followed by the URL, which should be hyperlinked. URLs should not be italicised, put within <brackets> or within (parentheses). The author should identify the date of last access within parentheses after citing the URL, e.g. “(accessed 25 January 2018)”.

For example:

• Satoshi Nakamoto, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” (2008), available at http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (accessed 11 May 2017).
• Mike Morel, “A Brief Chance for Better UK Data Protection Law” (Open Rights Group, 8 May 2017), available at https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2017/a-brief-chance-for-better-uk-data-protection-law (accessed 9 May 2017).
• Sarah Butler and Gwyn Topham, “Uber Should Lost its Licence if it Doesn’t Improve Worker’s Rights, Say Drivers” (The Guardian, 9 May 2017), available at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/09/uber-licence-drivers-gmb-transport-for-london (accessed 11 May 2017).

Submission Guidelines > Artist Guidelines

SCRIPTed covers a broad range of topics relating to law and technologies. SCRIPTed is pleased to consider cover art submissions made as a high-resolution (minimum 1200×800 pixels) JPG image attached to an e-mail. Images should be accompanied by the Artist’s Name and the Title of the Work. The image may also be accompanied by an Abstract of up to 150 words which will be published in the journal.

All cover art submissions are considered by the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor to determine suitability. Where appropriate, the Editor-in-Chief will present the Work to the Editorial Board for confirmation of acceptance. The Editor-in-Chief will confirm acceptance with the Artist.

Submission Guidelines > Book Reviewer Guidelines

Book reviews should follow our in-house  Book Review template.

Deadline: We expect reviews at the latest three months after the book has been shipped.

Word limit: Book reviews ​should be between 1000 and 2000 words.

Footnotes: The maximum number of references (if any) should be five. References should follow the SCRIPTed format for other manuscript types.

Submission Guidelines > Blog Guidelines

The SCRIPTed management team are pleased to announce that we have introduced a blog section to our website, to allow for legal researchers at any stage in their career to share their ideas on recent developments in their field. We welcome submissions in a variety of formats, including, but not limited to: analysis of recent developments in law, technology and society; case comments; book reviews; and conference reports. Any blog submissions or queries should be sent to editors.scripted@ed.ac.uk.

Guidelines for Submission

We have very few criteria for blog submission, so that we may enable the free-flow and communication of authors’ ideas. We do, however, ask that your submission be:

• Between 500 and 1000 words long (including references);
• Fully referenced, and follow our footnote guidelines;
• Not published elsewhere, or in consideration for publication elsewhere;
• Written in English;
• Topical (i.e. concerning recent developments in your chosen topic); and
• Within the ambit of SCRIPTed (law, technology and society).

Submissions that do not follow these guidelines shall not be considered for publication.

Formatting Guidelines

We have no formatting guidelines for blog submissions, but please note by submitting a blog to SCRIPTed the article might be formatted by our Technical Editor in order to conform with other texts on our website.

Review and Publication

Blog submissions shall be reviewed by one of our Editorial Board. We anticipate that the review process will take 4-5 weeks. Blog submissions shall be simply ‘accepted’ or ‘rejected’, if any major modifications are deemed necessary it shall not be accepted for publication in the first instance.

If accepted, the submission will be sent back to the author for approval of any spelling or grammatical changes made before publishing it on the SCRIPTed website. Formal feedback shall not be provided for any blog submissions.

SCRIPTed are happy to include links to academic profiles, academic works, and social media pages, where appropriate, at the request of the author.

Submission Guidelines > Copyright policy

SCRIPTed is an open access journal built on the principles of sharing academic works for the benefit of the wider community. As such, authors retain the copyright to their submission and submissions can be published by SCRIPTed in two ways:

• the author releases the work under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence, which allows users to reuse, copy, publish, perform or communicate the work, provided attribution is given, no commercial use is made of it, and it is republished/re-used in full (excepting quotation); or
• the author grants SCRIPTed the non-exclusive right to publish the work online and reserve all his/her rights.

For self-archiving purposes, and only after the submission is accepted for publication on SCRIPTed, the author may reuse the original (un-copy-edited) manuscript, provided that a statement is included indicating that the work is to be, or has been published on SCRIPTed.

Authors reserve the right to republish their submissions without prior consent from SCRIPTed, on the condition that it is clearly acknowledged that the work is first published in a specified issue of SCRIPTed.