Bute Geographies

Referee Review Process

The independent referees’ review is an accepted marker of writing quality. Introducing a student publishing project – with a referee’s review – encourages students to edit and revise their work and affords them the opportunity of producing work of the highest quality. It is hoped that the discipline of working with an external review will, more generally, encourage these student authors to take cognisance of coursework feedback and to introduce a round of thorough editing of coursework prior to submission for assessment.

The StuP project enlisted the support as referees of non-academic members of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (for briefing papers) and school teachers of geography (for resource packs).

• Guidance Notes for Student Authors on ‘Writing for a Refereed Publication’. Separate notes are provided for briefing papers and teachers’ resource packs.
• Guidance Notes for Referees on ‘Refereeing Papers for Publication’. Separate notes are provided for briefing papers and teachers’ resource packs.
• Administrative Cover Letters for Student Authors (Mail Merge Masters using shared Data File). Five letters have been drafted: (i) feedback for revision of coursework prior to submission for publication (ii) confirm receipt of publication (iii) feedback from referee’s report (iv) Editor’s review on submission of post-referee’s report manuscript (v) notification of publication
• Administrative Cover Letters for Referees (Mail Merge Master using shared Data File) Three letters have been drafted: (i) invite to review (ii) confirm receipt of review (iii) notification of publication
• Referee’s Review Proformas. Separate notes are provided for briefing papers and teachers’ resource packs.
• Editor’s Administrative Record of the Review Process. This record maintains a record of contact details for student authors and referees. These data are kept apart from the ‘Run-On’ record, given that this could be made publicly available.
• Editor’s Run-On Record. A system for tracking the progress of individual papers through each stage of the publication process.

Updated: 25 November, 2005