Editorial policies

Special editions

Law Text Culture is published annually, usually as a special edition around a theme. The editorial board welcomes proposals from guest editors for special editions. Proposals should include a draft call for papers, brief details of the guest editors, an indication of the intended authors and how they are to be contacted (eg whether the proposal arises out of a seminar series, conference or workshop). These should be sent to the Managing Editor early in the year before the proposed year of publication.

Once appointed, guest editors solicit and select all scholarly articles, images and creative writing contributions. Guest editors are expected to arrange any necessary copyright clearance for reproduction and to arrange refereeing of all scholarly articles in accordance with LTC policy on peer review.

As a guide, Law Text Culture regards 300 pages of text as a maximum size for the journal. Articles may vary in length: there is no minimum length; 9,000 words should be regarded as a maximum.

Timeframe

Year before publication

• October: Editorial board appoints guest editors
• December: Guest editors issue call for papers

Year of publication

• March: Authors send abstracts to guest editors
• June: Selected authors submit articles to guest editors
• July: Reviewers referee articles; guest editors advise authors of suggested/required changes
• August: Managing editor contacts authors; Authors revise articles
• September: Authors submit revised articles to guest editor and managing editor and ensure copyright clearance for any reproductions
• October: Managing editor passes all articles to production editor; liaises with guest editors on illustrations and placement of articles.
• November: Production editor sends journal to printers
• December: Printers return copies to managing editor, who arranges distribution.

Peer review

Before acceptance for publication, all articles are sent for review by two impartial referees having expertise relevant to the work in question. At least one of these referees is to be independent of the editorial process of the special edition.

The article is sent without identifying the author, and the referees are not identified to the author. Guest editors send a response to the author based on the review. This may involve acceptance of the article, with or without required or recommended revisions, or a decision not to publish in any form.

Copyright

Copyright in articles published in Law Text Culture is held jointly by the individual author and the journal.

The journal is registered with the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) in Australia. Authors are encouraged to register with that agency to receive royalties for any reproductions direct from CAL. If authors are not registered with CAL, the royalties are sent to the journal. The journal banks all royalties received from CAL without making further enquiries.

From time to time the journal receives requests for permission to reprint articles. While we make efforts to contact authors, that is not always possible. We are normally generous in granting permission for non-profit reproduction, whether electronically or in print. The overriding principle is that the author and the journal must always be credited as copyright holders in any reproduction.