At Legal Issues Journal (LIJ) we greatly appreciate the contribution of our peer reviewers. It is only with the help of our reviewers that our editors can ensure that we publish high-quality research.

Ethics: Reviewing Considerations 

Confidentiality

We operate a double-blind reviewing process: the identities of authors and reviewers are not disclosed during the review process.  Editors, authors, and reviewers are required to keep confidential all details of the editorial and peer review process on submitted manuscripts.

If a reviewer wishes to seek advice from colleagues while assessing a manuscript, the reviewer must consult with the editor prior to involving other reviewers.

Fairness and Promotion of Quality Research 

LIJ encourages Reviewers to assess the articles thoroughly and to provide helpful comments to authors, to ensure:

• no paper is unfairly rejected
• only useful research is published
• authors obtain useful advice on how to improve their research

Criteria for publication

LIJ has as a priority publishing research that is useful to those in the specific fields, to other disciplines, and ultimately to society in general. Therefore, it is important that: publications add to the research available, and they are written in a way that is accessible across disciplines. To be published in the LIJ, articles should meet the following criteria:

• Contribute knowledge (e.g. research, idea) that is lacking in the specific field
• Provide strong evidence for its conclusions
• Novelty (conference abstracts, course or program assignments, summaries of the existing research (unless it is a comprehensive review, meta-analysis, or a novel evaluation) are not considered novel)
• In addition, articles that contribute to interdisciplinarity are preferred (e.g. be useful to other disciplines)

All papers should:

• be well-structured, with logical and clear flow and argumentation (minor problems may be remedied after acceptance)
• use a minimal number of headings
• provide appropriate citations, unless a statement is an opinion or recommendation, and is clearly expressed as being so
• use clear, grammatically correct language
• Use a consistent referencing style, with references easily locatable with the information provided