Monday 29 June 2009

Copyright peer reviewers wanted

The Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLAP), the flagship IP title published monthly by Oxford University Press, is looking for peer reviewers for articles submitted to it. There are plenty of peer reviewers for articles covering patents and trade marks, but relatively few are available to offer their thoughts as to the suitability for publication of articles in the field of copyright.

Left: like pier review, peer review can be a long and lonely process ...

You don't need to be an expert on spelling, grammar or syntax (OUP has resources to handle those issues), but you do need the ability to tell whether an article is a good one or the other sort. There is no fame or glory for doing the reviewing; nor is there any pay. On the plus side, your identity is kept away from the author, who will never know who it was who recommended turning your article into a fleet of paper boats.

If you believe that you have the sort of commercial experience or academic or professional profile that would entitle you to opine on the issue of fitness for publication, and you have (i) the patience to read through bad manuscripts as well as good ones and (ii) enough time to be able to give an opinion -- which need not be long -- within ten working days, please email me here.

This appeal may be repeated from time to time. This is because peer reviewers generally burn out after they're reviewed three or four articles. This is quite normal, so if you do volunteer to review copyright articles you needn't feel that you are wedded to the commitment.

Great peer review cartoon by Nick here.

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