Graduate Journal of Social Science

The transparency, accountability and efficiency of the peer review process are the top priority of the GJSS board. This is because, as an academic journal run by research students, we aim to monitor the high academic quality of our publications, while at the same favouring innovative, interesting research pieces written by post-graduates who dispose of very few other spaces for publication. Both our Student Editorial Board and our Academic Advisory Board is committed to striking a successful balance between those two aspects.

Papers submitted to GJSS undergo an initial selection by the managing editor with the purpose to assess and eventually improve their relevance to the GJSS research focus. After being accepted for peer review, the papers are evaluated as follows:

1. Student Editors Review: depending on their fields of expertise, two student editors review each paper and provide comments as well as indications on whether the paper should be published or not. Papers selected by at least one of the two student editors and by the managing editor move on to the next stage. Rejected papers are sent back to the authors with the commentaries provided by the editors and indications as to whether they can be re-submitted.
2. Academic Editors Review: depending on their fields of expertise, two academics review each paper that passed the first stage of review and provide comments. In order to be approved for publication, a paper needs to be approved by both academics.

Because of its focus on graduate work, the GJSS is committed to providing rich and constructive commentaries to all prospective authors. In return, authors are asked to be ready for revisions and re-writing throughout the review process. The managing editor has responsibility for advising on improvements and re-structuring of papers and for deciding which students and which academics will review them. All decisions by the GJSS board, as communicated by the managing editor, are final.

Please note: Short papers submitted for the ‘Research Notes’, ‘Discussion Notes’ and ‘Research Proposal’ sections will be refereed by two student editors and one academic.

Advisory Boards

The Graduate Journal of Social Science uses a double review process. Papers received by the editors are first sent to members of the Students Advisory Board and if papers pass that review phase, the editors next send them to the Academic Advisory Board.

Plagiarism

All submissions are checked for plagiarism. Any concerns will be picked up during the double blind peer review, and the editorial review. If concerns are raised, we will process the submission through plagiarism checking software.