Submission Guideline

Peer Review Process

The editorial board of The Legal Express: An International Journal of Law Online Journal uses the following policies and procedures in reviewing, rating, and selecting manuscripts for publication.

Selection Process

In general manuscripts are accepted on the following factors:

• Originality of manuscript
• contribution to socio-legal knowledge
• utility and relevance to legal practice
• appropriateness for the journal
• adequate documentation
• clarity of presentation
• Style and readability.

Reviewers

Editorial board members and consulting editors act as reviewers for the journal. Their names appear on the journal masthead and, although the author can assume that the reviewers of his or her work are among those people listed on the masthead, specific reviewers remain anonymous.

Reviewers recommend whether to accept or reject a manuscript. In addition, they write comments that help authors improve their writing. These comments are forwarded to the author by mail, except in cases in which the manuscript is accepted outright. All information related to the review of manuscripts is confidential, with the exception of comments to the author.

Editorial board seeks original manuscripts that will stimulate professional dialogue. A manuscript will not be rejected for publication because it is controversial or presents an unpopular stance or position other than the prevailing view.

Decisions

The Editor-in-Chief of the journal makes the final decision on whether to publish a manuscript on the basis of the reviewers’ ratings, the balance of the subject matter, articles on similar topics already accepted or in the literature, and other similar editorial considerations. Decisions on manuscripts are released only to the authors and reviewers.

Accept for Publication: If a manuscript is accepted for publication, the author will receive an email of acceptance seeking final consent to publish the same. Author in response shall acknowledge his/her consent to publish the manuscript. Journal may edit all manuscripts according to its publishing style.

Reject, Request Minor Changes: The editorial board may be interested in accepting a manuscript provided that minor changes are made. In this case, the author receives comments from the reviewers specifying the changes to be made. The decision indicates a strong interest in accepting the submitted manuscript but does not assure final acceptance.

If the editor-in-chief accepts the revised manuscript, the author will receive an email of acceptance seeking final consent to publish the same. Author in response shall acknowledge his/her consent to publish the manuscript. Standard editing procedures, as discussed in “Accept for Publication” above, will then be followed.

Reject, Encourage Revisions: This decision is made when a manuscript holds promise but needs considerable work. It means that the editorial board has determined that there is interest in reviewing a revised manuscript. Reviewer comments specifying the changes that should be made are included with the decision letter.

When an author decides to resubmit a manuscript, the first page of the revised manuscript should be marked with the word “Revision” and be dated with the date that the revision is submitted. If the author chooses to revise and resubmit his or her manuscript, it must be returned to the editorial board within 90 days or the manuscript must be resubmitted as a new manuscript.

When editorial board receives a revised manuscript, it is sent to the original reviewers (if they are available to complete a review) with a copy of the reviewer comments provided to the author. If the editor-in-chief accepts the revised manuscript, the author will receive an email of acceptance seeking final consent to publish the same. Author in response shall acknowledge his/her consent to publish the manuscript. Standard editing procedures, as discussed in “Accept for Publication” above, will then be followed.

Reject: Editorial board have the prerogative to reject any manuscript submitted for publication. Editorial board will forward copies of reviewer comments to the author with the decision letter. Authors who receive rejection letters should be aware that editorial board is very selective in their decision process to maintain the high editorial quality and citation rate of the journal. As a result, acceptance rates are low. Editors hope that authors will find the reviewers’ comments helpful and will consider using them to revise and submit their manuscript to another journal for publication.

Referrals

The editorial board of each journal evaluates manuscripts independently. Although an editorial board will not initiate referral a manuscript to another journal, individual reviewers may suggest in their comments to the author that the manuscript may be more appropriate for another journal. A manuscript that is rejected by Legal Express.co.in editorial board may be submitted to another journal. Therefore, editorial board recommends that the author use the reviewers’ comments to revise the rejected manuscript before it is submitted to another journal.