Guidelines for reviewers

 

The purpose of peer review is to ensure the accuracy and clarity of works published by Pacific Northwest Languages and Literatures (PNWLL) Press (formerly UBC Occasional Papers in Linguistics). PNWLL Press is committed to producing documentary works of high quality, that carefully and accurately represent the languages of the Pacific Northwest.

Peer reviews should provide constructive feedback to authors to help them improve their manuscripts and further their research. The peer review process is conducted as a double-blind process; the author is not identified to the reviewers, nor the reviewers to the author. This is to ensure that the process is as impartial as possible. In a small field, however, it may be inevitable that identity of the author and reviewers may be inferred.

 

Criteria

Reviewers should evaluate manuscripts according to the following criteria:

(1) Suitability: Works must be focused on languages of the Pacific Northwest.

(2) Originality: Only works contributing original content, especially original documentation, will be considered.

(3) Accuracy: Language documentation must be accurate and of high quality. It is also important that the author is accurate in referencing others’ work.

(4) Presentation: Works will also be evaluated on clarity of presentation argumentation, and organization.

 

Recommendations

Having considered a manuscript according to the preceding criteria, reviewers make one of the following recommendations:

(1) Accept without changes: Manuscript is clear, original, accurate, and suitable for publication with UBCOPL.

(2) Accept with minor revisions: Manuscript is generally clear, original, accurate, and suitable for publication with UBCOPL, but there are minor errors in accuracy or lapses in clarity.

(3) Revise and resubmit: Manuscript makes an original contribution and is suitable for publication with UBCOPL, but has major lapses in clarity or accuracy.

(4) Reject: Manuscript is not suitable for UBCOPL, is not original, or has errors in accuracy that are considered  too extreme to be corrected without significantly changing the content and character of the original manuscript.

Manuscripts accepted with minor revisions will be inspected by an editor following the re-submission of the revised manuscript. Manuscripts recommended to be revised and re-submitted will be sent again for review upon resubmission.

 

Review submission

Reviews should be sent to wpl.opl@ubc.ca. The editor will forward the reviews to the author without identifying the reviewers.