Assessment and Editorial Review Process

Table of content

Description
Types of decision
Galley proof
BLASTAL Editorial and publishing process

Description

Submissions should be prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines. The manuscript may be returned to authors without a scientific assessment if they do not meet all submission requirements, if they are not in the correct format, or cannot be downloaded reliably.

Submissions must represent the original and independent work of the authors. Each new submission is assessed by one or more editors to determine whether it falls within the general remit of BLASTAL. We will reject a manuscript without review if it contains insufficient content; it exceeds our word limit or is incorrectly formatted; it is poorly presented and unclear.

Manuscripts that pass the initial assessment are handled by the Principal Editor or an Associate Editor. BLASTAL uses an editorial review process: every manuscript is evaluated by the handling editor and at least one further member of the editorial team, who assess scope, originality, contribution, methodology, accuracy of the legal analysis, quality of sources and citations, and presentation. Manuscripts are also screened for similarity, and use of generative AI must be disclosed (see the Generative AI Policy). Authors can expect a decision, or an explanation for the delay, within 2 months of receipt. If a revision is invited, the corresponding author should submit the revised manuscript within 2 weeks. The final decision is taken by the Principal Editor based on the editorial review.

BLASTAL does not currently apply external double-blind or single-blind peer review as its standard procedure. At the editors' discretion, an external expert may be consulted on a specific manuscript; where this happens, the expert's comments are confidential and are disclosed only with the expert's agreement. Editors who are authors or co-authors of a manuscript, or who have a conflict of interest, take no part in its review or decision (see the Conflict of Interest and Editor-Authored Manuscripts policy). Manuscripts are treated confidentially before publication, as explained in publication ethics.

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Types of decision

There are four types of editorial decisions during the editorial review process, which are:

Decline submission
Following editorial review, the paper is judged not to be acceptable for publication in BLASTAL and resubmission is not possible.

Resubmit for Review
The submitted version of the paper is not acceptable and requires major revision, but there is clear potential in the work, and BLASTAL is prepared to consider a new version. Authors are offered the opportunity to resubmit their paper as a new submission. Concerns will remain regarding the suitability of the paper for publication until the editors are convinced by the authors that their paper fits the scope and standards of BLASTAL. The resubmitted manuscript will be returned to the original associate editor if at all possible.

Revision
The paper requires changes before a final decision can be made. Authors are asked to modify their manuscript in light of comments received from the editors and to submit a new version for consideration within 2 weeks of receiving the decision letter. A point-by-point explanation of how comments have been addressed must be supplied with the revised version of the paper. Revisions may undergo further editorial review and papers may undergo more than one round of revision. If the authors do not revise their papers to the satisfaction of the editors, the paper can still be declined from publication in BLASTAL.

Accept submission
The paper is accepted for publication, subject to conditions that need to be addressed in producing a final version of the manuscript. These may include sub-editing changes and the minor amendment to ensure the paper fully matches our criteria. After final checking in the editorial office, acceptance is confirmed and the paper is forwarded to the publishers for publication.

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Galley proof

Page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for final checking. Corrections to the proofs must be restricted to printer’s errors: any other changes to the text, in equations or grammar, may be charged to the author. Proofs should be returned to the editors within three days of receipt to minimize the risk of the author’s contribution having to be held over to a later issue. The editors do not accept responsibility for the correctness of published content. It is the author’s responsibility to check the content at the proof stage.

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