Editorial Policies | International Journal of Rural Law and Policy

Focus and Scope

Many excellent journals deal with legal doctrine and practice, policy and institutions. None, however, concentrate specifically upon the unique issues and features of rural and regional law and policy. Such issues are sufficiently distinctive and important to justify the specialist focus of this journal

We define 'rural' broadly, encompassing areas beyond major metropolitan areas and including areas often termed 'regional'.

Rural people encounter many of the same law and policy issues that challenge their urban counterparts: crime, the struggle for social justice, property and commercial transactions, and the pursuit of sustainability. However, more than those who live in cities or close to cities, rural people face these challenges from within environments that affect the character of the challenges themselves as well as the feasible responses to them. Out of such features arise many law and policy issues that are vital to rural people but which may be of marginal interest to the majority population clustered in large urban areas. Natural resources law and policy, indigenous social justice, and equity of access to services and transport are illustrative of such issues. There are also many issues that may not be uniquely rural preoccupations but which take on a particular character in a rural setting, including sexual freedom, personal reputation or professional ethics in a small community, and the challenges of creating viable enterprise networks when distant from urban centres where most consumers reside.

These special considerations for rural law and policy are relevant around the world. There is an opportunity to learn how to design better governance systems, innovative laws, and improved policies from each other. We offer the medium of this journal as a platform to explore and share the learning.

We have adopted an open access policy for this journal, with the intention of replicating some of the features of the modern community to benefit both readers and authors. We are taking advantage of the flexibility that modern technology provides, by publishing:

Editions, which comprise papers on a theme.
Regular publications of unsolicited, relevant papers on an ad hoc basis. Scholars and practitioners are invited to submit papers for peer review and inclusion.
Commentary. We invite comment (see the comment link to each paper) upon all papers published in the journal. On a periodic basis, the comments will be reviewed and a ‘commentary' published.

Editorial decisions are not affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race or religion of the authors. Decisions to edit and publish are not determined by the policies of governments or other agencies outside of the journal itself.

We hope that by these means the International Journal of Rural Law and Policy will generate a lively community of scholars of rural law and policy, as well as contributing innovative and useful ideas to the field.

Peer Review Process

Our editors are required to declare any potential competing interests in undertaking their editorial dutires.

In cases where a manuscript is submitted by a collegue at the editor's own institution or from their research networks, editors will remove themselves from the decision-making process. A co-editor, or an external trusted expert, with no such connections, is then asked to act as the editor for that particular paper.

Each article is peer reviewed by at least two reviewers (generally blind review) before publication.

An editor will have no input or influence on the peer review process or publication decision for an article they have authored and submitted to the journal. Should a member of a journal's editorial team submit a manuscript to the journal, a co-editor or external trusted expert will be assigned to manage the entire reiew process and act as editor for that particular paper. If the article proceeds to publication, it will explicitly state on the article that the editor who submitted the paper has had no involvement with the journal's handling of this particular article, along with the reasons for this, and the name of the assigned editor.

Each submitted manuscript is evaluated on the following basis:

the originality of its contribution to the field of scholarly publishing
the soundness of its theory and methodology given the topic
the coherence of its analysis
its ability to communicate to readers (grammar and style)

Normal turn-around time for evaluation of manuscripts if four to six months from the date of receipt.

For further information on best practice peer review processes, please see the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors and Publishers and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Responsibilities in the Submission and Peer Review Process.

Conflicts of Interest

Our editors are required to declare any potential competing interests in undertaking their editorial duties. In cases where a manuscript is submitted by a colleague at their own institution or from their resesarch networks, editors will remove themselves from the decision-making process. A co-editor, or an external trusted expert, with no such connections, is then asked to act as the editor for that particular article. Additionally, an editor will have no input or influence on the peer review process or publication decision for an article they have authored and submitted to the journal. Should a member of a journal's editorial team submit a manuscript to the journal, a co-editor, or external trusted expert, will be assigned to manage the entire review process and act as editor for that particular article. If the article proceeds to publication, it will be explicitly stated on the article that the editor who submitted the paper has had no involvement with the journal's handling of this particular article, along with the reasons for this, and the name of the assigned editor.

Publication Frequency

The International Journal of Rural Law and Policy comprises special editions and articles published as submitted.

The special editions are based around a theme submitted in a call for papers.

Articles submitted by authors on an unsolicited basis are assessed for suitability by the editor. Once accepted, articles are published as soon as the editorial process is complete.

All papers (except where specified) are sent to two reviewers (generally blind) for assessment. Authors will then be notified whether the intention is to publish the article and conditions for publication.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

This journal has no submission or article processing charges.

Authors of published articles remain the copyright holders and grant others the right to use, reproduce, adapt and share their articles according to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

Authors are permitted to self-archive works on their personal or institutional webpages and repositories.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this journal are those of the authors and do not, and should not, be considered representative of International Journal of Rural Law and Policy or UTS ePRESS or the University of Technology, Sydney.

Editorial decisions are not affected by the origins of manuscripts, including nationality, ethnicity, race, nor religion of the authors. In addition, editorial decisions are not determined by the policies of governments or other agencies outside of the journal itself.

Author Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the author/s to ensure:

Any conflicting or competing interest is disclosed on submission of their work and all sources of funding are declared.
They contact the Journal Managing Editor to identify and correct any material errors upon discovery, whether prior or subsequent to publication of their work.
The work is original, and all sources are accurately reflected. This means all individuals credited as authors legitimately participated in the authorship of the work, and all those who participated are credited and have given consent for publication. Authorship should be limtied to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution or interpretation of the work. Other contributors should be mentioned in the acknowldgement section of the paper and their contribution described.

Complaints Handling

Complaints related to International Journal of Rural Law and Policy should be directed in the first instance to the journal's Chief Editor. Complaints will be investigated according to recommendations by the Committee on Publication Ethics (see COPE Flowcharts). If complainants are unsatisfied with the response they may contact the Publisher, utsepress@uts.edu.au. Authors with complaints related to the peer review or editorial process should refer to the Author Guidelines.

Handling of Suspected Misconduct

Issues of suspected misconduct will be handled in accordance with the guidelines set out by the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors.

Corrections and Retractions

Corrections and retractions will be treated in accordance with the guidelines set out by the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors.

Other

Commercial (eg, advertising) consideration do not affect editorial decisions. Refer to UTS ePRESS APRC Sponsorship Guidelines.

Reprints are published as they appear in the journal unless a correction needs to be included, in which case it will be clearly identified.

Journal History

The first publication of the International Journal of Rural Law and Policy was launched in November 2011. The articles in that first issue resulted from a colloquim on water law held at the University of New England in January 2011. Since that time, the journal has published several special issues concerned with REDD+ and mangroves, soil governance, mining law and policy, and rural regional legal issues. The journal has also published a diverse range of articles, from the application of family violence law in rural Australia papers to policies on seed banks.