AUTHOR GUIDELINES

SCRIPT-ed is pleased to consider submissions made via e-mail. Text should be in Microsoft Word format where possible, but all possible efforts will be made to accommodate other formats. A submission will only be considered where the author warrants that it has not already been published or offered for publication elsewhere in whole, in part, or in substance. Articles should not normally exceed 10,000 words (including footnotes). Analysis Pieces should normally not exceed 4,000 words. Case/Legislation Comments and Commentaries should not normally exceed 3,000 words. Book Reviews should not normally exceed 2,000 words. Any submission which exceeds the identified word counts may be accepted upon special consideration of the Editorial Board.

Authors are invited to make submissions in any language, though consideration of them is subject to the Editorial Board’s ability to locate an appropriate peer-reviewer in the subject language.  We will not accept submissions under consideration at other journals. If submissions are made in a language other than English, the Title and an Abstract not exceeding 250 words must be submitted in English. Authors may provide an English translation of their submission, in which case both versions will be published (if they wish).  All submissions will be subject to the journal’s Editorial and Refereeing Policies.  Attempts to accommodate all internationally recognised character sets will be made where feasible.

SCRIPT-ed publishes Articles, Analysis Pieces, Case/Legislation Comments, Commentaries and Reports. To ensure that only submissions of the highest quality are published, the journal employs the following referee system:

Initial Review: All submissions are first considered by the Managing Editor to determine if they are suitable.

Assignment: Having determined suitability, the Managing Editor assigns Articles and Analysis Pieces to an Associate Editor with particular experience and/or interest in the field. The Associate Editor is responsible for sending the submission to at least two recognised experts for review.

Peer Review: Referees are asked to consider the following: (1) overall quality; (2) originality (its contribution to the field); (3) timeliness and time sensitivity; (4) academic standards (argumentation and presentation, including adequacy of referencing, grammar, syntax etc.); and (5) success of synthesis between areas for those submissions purporting to be interdisciplinary. Referees will recommend one of the following options: (1) accept outright for immediate publication; (2) accept outright for future publication; (3) accept subject to minor modification; (4) accept subject to major modification; (5) reject outright.

Revision: Authors will be sent anonymised copies of Referee comments. Authors are responsible for ensuring that necessary amendments are carried out in light of Referee recommendations.

Reconsideration: Revised papers received by the Associate Editor may be returned to Referees or may be assessed solely by the responsible Associate Editor (having reference to the review and recommendations by the Referees).

Recommendation: Based on Referee Reports and his or her own assessment, the Associate Editor will make a recommendation on disposition to the Editorial Board, which has final responsibility for each decision on each submission.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submission conforms to SCRIPT-ed’s formatting style, and for ensuring that all citations are accurate. Authors are encouraged to use the word processor’s styles. For example, Title should always appear as Heading 1 under Style, and body text should appear as "Normal". Use the footnote style for footnotes, and do not include page numbers. Endnote 6 is acceptable for end-noting. You can use this document as a template.

While the Copy Editor does NOT check the accuracy of citations, s/he reserves the right to make amendments considered necessary to achieve SCRIPT-ed stylistic and formatting standards, and may make changes with a view to (1) eliminating errors of typing, grammar, syntax, punctuation, spelling, and idiom, (2) eliminating ambiguity, illogicality, tautology, circumlocution and redundancy, (3) producing accuracy and coherence, and (4) improving the mode of expression and style of writing. Changes will be sent to the author for approval.

SCRIPT-ed’s in-house formatting style should be followed for all submissions (eg: Articles, Analysis Pieces, Case/Legislation Comments, Commentaries), and is as follows. For Book Review formatting, see the Books for Review page.

TITLE

Main Title: The main title should appear centred at the head of the first page, not in capitals. The author’s name should appear below the title, also centred, in lower case italics. There should be an asterisk after the author’s name, referring to the first footnote (also asterisked), giving the author’s current position(s) of employment.

Secondary Titles: Headings within the text are encouraged, to make the structure of the argument clear. It is recommended that no more than three degrees of heading be used as follows:

Title

1. Principle Heading

1.1. Second grade heading

1.1.1. Third grade heading

TEXT

Abstract: Authors should provide an abstract of not more than 250 words, which will appear under the listing of the published version.

Contents: A table of contents is not required, as one will be generated automatically by the Technical Editor.

Paragraphs: Except in the case of the opening paragraph and paragraphs following a heading, new paragraphs should be indented.

Capitalisation: Capitaisation should be used sparingly, e.g. for names of persons, places, institutions and intellectual movements (Viscount Haldane, Court of Session, European Union, Scottish Enlightenment, Ius Commune), but not for “member states” of the EU. Common Law should be capitalised when referring to the Anglo-American legal tradition, but lower case when referring to rules of law not derived from statute. Similarly, Civil Law should be capitalised when referring to the Romanistic-European legal tradition, but lower case when referring to private law.

Spacing: Single spaces should be used after full stops and other punctuation marks.

Quotations: Quotations longer than three lines of text should be presented as independent, fully-indented paragraphs without quotation marks; quotations within such quotations should be presented within double quotation marks. Other quotations should be presented within double quotation marks, with single quotation marks for quotations within quotations. Quotations from foreign language texts should normally appear in English translation, but the original text may also be reproduced if it is necessary that the text be examined closely.

Foreign Words: If foreign words have been taken in to normal English usage then they should lose their accents: e.g. "role" in preference to "rôle"; "naive" in preference to "naïve". Note that there are exceptions to this general rule because of pronunciation: e.g. "cliché", "café". If a foreign word has not been taken into English usage, then it should be in italics. (Note that quotations in foreign languages should not be italicised.) Wherever possible the plurals for foreign words in normal English usage should be in English form, except where English usage dictates otherwise: thus prefer "syllabuses", "gymnasiums", "octopuses" "indexes", "encomiums", but also "genera", "hypotheses". "crises", "phenomena".  

Numbers: Give numbers under 100 in words (except in percentages - and then use %).

Dates: Give dates in the form 25 December 2002.

Abbreviations: No stops are used with abbreviations other than e.g. and i.e. (e.g. Mr, Lloyd LJ, SCC, QC, Co, Ltd, Trs, Exrs).

Tables: The author is also free to include tables and figures.

Bibliography: The author is free to include a full bibliography after the main body of the text, but a comprehensive footnote section will suffice.

FOOTNOTES

All footnotes should be used principally for the vouching of sources rather than additional text. They should only be produced by means of the word processor’s automatic footnote function. Arabic numerals are to be used, apart from the asterisked footnote recording the author’s details. References to footnotes in the text should appear after, not before, punctuation marks. Footnote text should follow the rules stated above, save that all numbers should be given as figures and the months in dates may be given in abbreviated form (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec). Terms such as op cit, supra, and idem should not be used, but ibid and id can be used strictly for consecutive citations, and should not be italicised. Cross-reference to other footnotes should take the form “see note XX above/below”. Use “ch” for “chapter” and “vol” for “volume”. Page references use the following forms without the abbreviations “p” or “pp”:
1-5, 11-13, 64-65, 112-119, 567-571, 599-601, 132F-H, 16A-17C.

Case Citations: A case name should be given as it appears in the most authoritative report of the case, and should be printed in italics, with the "v" roman. Citations should follow the conventions established in the Oxford Standard Citation of Legal Authorities (available at http://denning.law.ox.ac.uk/published/oscola.shtml). A full citation need only be given at the first reference to the case, which should also provide the shorthand reference to be used in subsequent citations, e.g.

Junior Books Ltd v The Veitchi Co Ltd 1982 SC (HL) 244 (henceforth Junior Books).

Such shorthand references should enable ready recognition of the case referred to. References to dicta within the case should follow the form

Robertson v Forth Road Bridge Joint Board 1996 SLT 263 at 265 per Lord President Hope; or, Robertson, at 265 per Lord President Hope.  

Where neutral case citation is available, this should be given, and paragraph rather than page numbering should be used to identify dicta within the case.  

Cite EC cases thus:
Case 6/60 Humblet v Belgium [1960] ECR 559
Case C-213/89 R v Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame [1991] ECR I-3905

If the case is not yet reported it should be cited with a reference to the relevant notice in the Official Journal. 
Case C–134/89 EC Commission v Ireland [1989] OJ L145/1 

Cite ECR in preference to CMLR. Please pay attention to the fact that since 1992 ECR is divided into I and II, and that a "C" should precede the number of a post-1989 decision of the European Court of Justice and a "T" that of the First Instance Court.
 
Note that there is no use of the abbreviation "p" for "page", and see also the forms for page references given in the section above ("Footnotes").

Statute Citations: Statutes should normally be referred to by their short titles only, together with the calendar year, as in the example below. No comma should be inserted between the word “Act” and the date. "Section" should be abbreviated as "s" (no stop) except where it is the first word in a sentence or footnote, "sections" as "ss", "Schedule" as "Sch" unless the Act contains only one Schedule. "Part" is not abbreviated, but “chapter” is abbreviated as “ch”. E.g.

Finance Act 1965, s 19(1), Sch 7
Companies Act 1985, part V, ch VI

Cite Acts of the Scottish Parliament thus:
Mental Health (Public Safety and Appeals) (Scotland) Act 1999 asp 1

Statutory instruments should be referred to by name and date, followed by the number, thus:
Duration of Copyright and Rights in Performances Regulations 1995, SI 1995/3297
The Parking Attendants (Wearing of Uniforms) (City of Glasgow Parking Area) Regulations 1999, SSI 1999/62 

Rules consist of rules, abbreviated "r" (or "rr" where more than one rule is referred to); Regulations of regulations (abbreviated "reg" or "regs"); and Orders and Orders in Council of articles (abbreviated "art" or "arts").

European Community Legislation: Use the style “OJ” for the Official Journal. Thus: OJ 1993 C166/1

Cite Treaty Articles thus:
Article 234 EC Treaty
This may also be cited, in order to incorporate reference to the previous Article number, as Article 234 EC Treaty (ex Art.177)

Paragraphs of Articles should be cited thus: Article 177(5) EC Treaty

Cite Directives thus:
Council Directive 2001/89/EC of 23 October 2001 on Community measures for the control of classical swine fever OJ 2001 L 316/5.