Editorial process
Process
Upon submission of an article, authors will receive an acknowledgement from the submissions officer. The submissions officer distributes articles to two or three members of the Limina editorial collective (the readers). Readers will not necessarily have any specialist knowledge of the subject. They will assess the article in terms of organisation and strength of argument, quality of prose, clarity of expression, and use of source and reference material.
Provided that the article satisfies these criteria to a high standard, it will then be sent to at least two referees. At least one referee is a qualified academic who is recognised as an expert in the subject area. The referees will read the article anonymously and will rate the quality of scholarship and the originality of the article.
Upon acceptance by the referees, the article will be edited by two editors selected from the readers. Usually, this will consist of minor copy-editing (commas, spelling, punctuation) or the correction of minor grammatical issues.
Authors should receive confirmation of the rejection or provisional acceptance of their article within six weeks of submission. Articles will remain anonymous, until this decision is made. The Collective will endeavour to keep authors informed of an article's progress at regular intervals throughout the reviewing process. While this process is normally completed within the production time of one volume, occasionally articles will be carried over to the next volume.
Publication of an article in Limina will be at the discretion of the editors and is conditional upon:
- Positive acceptance by the readers
- Positive acceptance by the referee
- Satisfactory completion of any revisions requested by either the readers or the referee
Revision and rejections
It is unusual for the readers to accept an article on its first reading. Authors may be asked for revisions at various stages of the process, and both the readers and the referee may request changes.
The readers may reject an article outright and the editors will endeavour to provide brief but specific and constructive feedback explaining the decision.
If the readers can identify a specific area which would improve the article, the editors will provide detailed feedback and the author will be given the opportunity to re-submit.
Where the referee has requested revisions, these comments will be forwarded to the author. Upon re-submission, it will be left to the editors' discretion to determine a) if the author has addressed the referee's concerns, and/or b) if the article should be read by a second referee.
The Limina editorial collective reserves the right to reject any article, at any stage of the process, should requests for revisions be unsatisfactorily addressed.
Common reasons for rejection
The article lacks a strong, succinct central argument. It is not clear what problem the article is attempting to solve or what question the article is trying to answer.
- The argument is not presented in a logical order.
- The article is too complicated, confusing or complex. The author has attempted to cover too many ideas, and none is dealt with adequately. The article appears to be the condensation of a larger project.
- The article lacks a solid theoretical basis, or it presents facts without significant argumentation or analysis.
Editing
Articles submitted to Limina should only require minor copy-editing; that is, the correction of minor errors of grammar and punctuation. Articles will be returned to the author in the first instance if prose and expression are poor, or sentence structure is clumsy. To be reconsidered, substantial re-working is required, and articles will be rejected outright if significant improvements are not made.
Articles requiring heavier editing will normally be rejected, particularly if the author is unable to make significant improvements. However, the editors reserve the right to make changes which will improve clarity and flow. Authors will be sent the edited version prior to publication, and will have the opportunity to contest any changes which the author feels do not improve the quality of the prose, or have substantially altered meaning.
Conforming to style
Conform to the style guide - even minor variations can mean a great deal of tedious work. In particular, check that footnotes are presented according to the Style Guide, and that all the necessary reference information has been included.
Articles should be between 5000 and 7000 words (including footnotes). Articles under 5000 words or over 7000 words will be returned to the author for revision.
If English is a second language, we recommend that an English language editor reviews the article, prior to submission. The submissions officer may recommend this before distributing the article.
Limina has a generalist readership. We welcome articles on a wide range of topics, but enough contextual detail should be included to make the article accessible to a non-specialist audience.