Editorial Review Process

Unlike most journals, where the reviewers' opinion almost absolutely determines the publication of an article, in Journal of Global Trade, Ethics and Law the decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) after hearing from at least one Board Member and two Reviewers. In this way, the process does not concentrate the evaluation of the article in the hands of the external Reviewers, but fragments the evaluation among several individuals by dividing the weight according to professionalism and keeping most of the evaluation internally by the expert members of the Editorial Team. In this respect, the review follows four stages: From the receipt of the article, the EIC, with the possible support of a Deputy Editor, will have five days to assess whether the article is in line with the journal's objectives and whether it needs a more thorough review process. If this is not the case, the EIC will return the proposal to the author(s) giving reasons for the rejection. If the EIC decides that the article merits a full revision, the EIC will assign the article to a Council Member and two External Reviewers, according to their area(s) of expertise, within two working days, informing a Deputy Editor who will be assigned the task of monitoring the revision stages of the article. Upon receipt of the article, the Board Member and the External Reviewers have fourteen working days to evaluate the paper and recommend a course of action, i.e. to determine whether the article has the right academic and methodological qualities for consideration by the journal. Generally, the recommended course of action is expressed as: (i) accepting the manuscript, (ii) accepting it subject to some minor revisions, or (iii) rejecting it.

The Reviewers' and Board Member's evaluations must be collected by the Deputy Editor for review. Within seven days the EV may request a discussion with the BM who conducted the evaluation in order to get a clearer picture of the Article. Within always the seven working days of this phase, the VE has the duty to present the recommendations of the Reviewers and the BM to the EIC, followed by his own opinion based on the recommendations offered.Based on the recommendations, the EIC then has three days to inform the author(s) of the decision made. 

The Journal of Global Trade, Ethics and Law evaluation process does not follow the canonical principles of double-blind review, but adopts an innovative system of triple-blind review, whose evaluations are then calibrated according to the scientific expertise and role of the experts within the Journal. Although the final decision remains in the hands of the EIC, recommendations are fragmented between BMs and External Reviewers, following a line of expertise. In other words, during the evaluation each reviewer (both BM and External Reviewers) must assess the article submitted to them both in qualitative terms, by offering a written recommendation, and in quantitative terms, by determining the quality on a scale from 0 (very bad) to 100 (very good). For an article to be considered for publication, it must score at least 50%.

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Thus, while the qualitative recommendation offers a description of the Article, the rating scale offers an immediate framework for the journal's determination of publication.

In this respect, the following formula is used during the qualitative evaluation of the Article:

 Evaluation Process = (R1*0.25+R2*0.25)+BM*0.5 =

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The evaluation of the Board Member has a higher impact than those of the External Reviewers, so that in the review process most of the final decision is concentrated in the hands of the journal members.