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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.

Cite Decisions thus:
Commission Decision 239/96/EC on emergency measures to protect against bovine spongiform encephalopathy OJ 1996 L78/47.

Cite Regulations thus:
Commission Regulation (EC) 3223/94/EC of 21 December 1994 on detailed rules for the application of the import arrangements for fruit and vegetables) OJ 1994  L 337/66.

Other official publications

Cite Hansard thus:

HC/HL Deb 23 Apr 1996, col(s) 198(-203)

Cite Command Papers thus:

Title (Cmnd/Cmd/Cm number: year)

Cite Scottish Law Commission materials thus:

Report on Incapable Adults (Scot Law Com No 151, 1995)
Mentally Disabled Adults, Legal Arrangements for Managing their Welfare and Finances (Scot Law Com DP No 94, 1991)

Cite English Law Commission materials thus:

Legislating the Criminal Code - Offences against the Person and General Principles (Law Com No 218, 1993)

Foreign Law: Cite using the conventional abbreviations of the legal system whose sources are being cited: e.g. BGB; BGHZ. (Please use the mode of citation conventional in that system.)

Institutional Writers and Old Authorities: The following works are customarily cited by book number, chapter or title, and paragraph or section:

Craig, Jus feudale, 1.5
Stair, Institutions, 1.10.3
Bankton, Institute, 2.3.6
Erskine, Institute, 3.3.36

The numbers used for such citations should be Arabic and divided from each other by stops: e.g. Stair, Institutions, 1.1.12. The Digest of Roman law and other old authorities should also be cited in this way as appropriate: e.g., D 1.9.3; C 2.12.26; J Inst 1.4.1.

It normally will not be necessary in citations to give the editions used of the Corpus iuris civilis, of classical works such as Cicero or Tacitus, or of the Bible. But if an unusual edition is being used (e.g. not the Krüger/Mommsen) then this should be noted, and it will be assumed that there is a special reason for such use.

Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia: The first reference to this work in an article should be as follows:

The Laws of Scotland: Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia (henceforth SME)

Citation should then be by volume number (vol 18), year of publication in brackets, and paragraph number (para 16). The names of editors and authors in this work should not be cited, although they may be referred to in the text as holding the views expressed in their contributions to the Encyclopaedia. Similar principles should be applied to other encyclopaedic works.

Books: Give the author’s initial(s) and surname, the title (italicised), the number of the edition (abbreviated "edn") if not the first, and the year of publication in round brackets.

T B Smith, A Short Commentary on the Law of Scotland (1962)
E M Clive, The Law of Husband and Wife in Scotland, 4th edn (1997)

For edited books, give the editor’s name(s) as above for the author, with "ed(s)" following immediately in round brackets.

D L Carey Miller and D W Meyers (eds), Comparative and Historical Essays in Scots Law: a Tribute to Sir Thomas Smith QC (1992)

See below for citation of articles in edited books. At the first of repeated references to a book, give a shorthand reference consisting of author’s surname and keywords from the title, introduced by "hereafter referred to as".
Example:

T B Smith, A Short Commentary on the Law of Scotland (1962) (hereafter referred to as Smith, Short Commentary). This reference will be used in subsequent citations.

Articles in Journals: Give the author’s initials and surname, the full title of the article within double quotation marks but with minimum necessary capitalisation, the year of publication (in round brackets unless there is no volume number), the volume number in Arabic numerals, the full name of the journal in italics, the first page of the article, and, if a more specific page reference is being given, the page number(s) in the form at 26, 112-116, 599-601, etc.

A D M Forte, "Marine insurance and risk distribution in Scotland before 1800" (1987) 4 Law and History Review 394.

Standard form abbreviations may be used for the titles of journals. Abbreviations and citation must conform to the particular journal's house style. In the absence of a house style, we suggest the following format:

D Ravicher, "Facilitating Collaborative Software Development: The Enforceability of Mass Market Public Software Licences", (2000) 5 Va JL & Tech 11.

Articles in Book Collections: Give the author’s initials and surname, the full title of the article within double quotation marks using minimum necessary capitalisation, then say "in", and give the editor’s initials and surname followed by "(ed)", the title of the book in italics, the year of publication in round brackets, the first page of the article, and, if a more specific page reference is being given, the page number(s) in the form at 26, 112-116, 599-601, etc.

W A Wilson, "The importance of analysis", in D L Carey Miller and D W Meyers (eds), Comparative and Historical Essays in Scots Law: a Tribute to Sir Thomas Smith QC (1992), 162.

At the first of repeated references to an article, give a shorthand reference consisting of author’s surname and keywords from the title, introduced by "hereafter referred to as", as with book citations above.

Electronic Journals: Cite articles from electronic journals thus:

H L MacQueen, “Scots Law and the road to the new Ius Commune” (2000) 4 Electronic Journal of Comparative Law @: http://law.kub.nl/ejcl/44/art44-1.html

When citing other types of document from websites, it is not necessary to include the date on which the site was visited at the end of the URL. It would be good practice to specify at the start of the work when was the last date when all of the cited links were last accessed, either at the very first footnote, or the very last.   

Websites: URLs should be italicised and placed within brackets. When a case or article available in printed form is cited reference should always be made to the printed source.  If there is no printed equivalent, e.g. for a recent case obtained from the Scottish Courts Administration website, give the date of the judgment and the relevant URL.

Multiple Authors: For publications that have multiple authors, you should use the last name and initial(s) for up to three authors, separated by a coma and "and", thus:

E P Ellinger, E Lomnicka and R Hooley, Modern Banking Law (2002)

For more than three authors use the last name and initials of the first author, and then et al, thus:

A Andreson, et al, Universal Access to E-mail: Feasibility and Societal Implications (1995).

This is a revised version of the notes that have been reproduced with the kind permission of Edinburgh University Press, publishers of the Edinburgh Law Review