Peer Review Process

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 Managing Editor to determine if they are suitable.

1.2 Assignment

Having determined suitability, the Managing Editor assigns Articles to a Supervising Editor, who in turn assigns it to an Assistant Editor with particular experience and/or interest in the field. The Assistant Editor is responsible for sending 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 Managing Editor may be returned to Referees or may be assessed solely by the 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 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.