Journal Policies

Editorial Oversight

The Parish Review is run by three co-editors: Ruben Borg (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Paul Fagan (Maynooth University) and Maebh Long (University of Waikato). Borg and Fagan founded the journal and are founding members of the International Flann O’Brien Society; Long is a leading expert in Flann O’Brien studies and an active member in the Society. The composition of the editorial team reflects widely recognised standards of expertise and involvement within the Flann O’Brien community.

Guest editors either approach the journal with a special issue proposal or are invited to submit proposals for special issues. Proposals are evaluated by the chief editors.

All three editors are entrusted to run the day-to-day upkeep of the journal. The Editorial Board is set up for an indefinite period of time. In the event of a resignation by one of the editors, a potential replacement is discussed by all three co-editors and they are approached. Editors jointly field proposals for special issues, discuss changes to the journal's house style, answer queries, decide on the composition of each issue, decide on cover artwork for issues, manage the backlog of submissions, propose desk rejections of submissions, and find suitable peer-reviewers for various submissions. They also conduct copy editing and proofing work and, in the case of a special issue, provide support to guest editors. All decisions are taken by committee.

Editorial decisions are made by the chief editors, keeping in mind the readers’ expert recommendations. Following a successful double-anonymous peer-review process, the editors copyedit, proofread and assign the article to an issue. Articles are typically processed by one editor at submission and pre-production (review) stages, and by two editors at the copyediting and proofreading stages.

In the case of guest-edited issues, guest editors are entrusted to process submissions until the acceptance, rejection or revision stage. The chief editors handle the remaining workflow of the submission from the copyediting stage onwards. Chief editors reserve the right to query or halt publication of a paper submitted to a special guest-edited issue depending on suitability.

The Editorial Team, which is made up of two men and one woman, is based in Israel (Borg), Ireland (Fagan) and New Zealand (Long). The Editorial Board continues this gender and geographical diversity, containing members across countries, academic institutions, genders and demographics. Potential board members are approached by the editorial team with the retention of this diversity in mind.

Peer Review Process

The Parish Review publishes three broad types of articles: scholarly articles, book reviews and notes. Scholarly articles are peer-reviewed by two external readers and then copyedited and proofread by in-house editors. Book reviews and notes are not peer-reviewed but are meticulously copyedited and proofread in-house by members of the Editorial Team. If the quality is unsatisfactory, they are sent back for (sometimes extensive) revisions or are simply desk-rejected.

Submissions are received and assigned to one of the three editors by rotation. The editor is in charge of steering the article to publication, with some assistance from co-editors at the copyediting and proofreading stages. After a preliminary in-house reading to confirm suitability, each submitted article undergoes double-anonymous peer-review by two expert readers. In the case of starkly contrasting reviews the editors must first determine that both reviews are credible and procedurally valid. If either review seems “off” for any reason (far too lenient or harsh, in a way that suggests personal bias or a careless evaluation) then the submission is sent to a third reviewer. If both reviews are deemed procedurally sound (rigorous, competent, attentive), then the reports are collated. An article needs two acceptances to pass on to the production stage. In the event of an acceptance and a rejection, the article is rejected. In the event of an acceptance and a recommendation for major revisions the article is sent back for major revisions. In the case of an anonymity breach, a third reader is approached to replace the compromised reading. The expert readers’ reports include a recommendation to publish without revisions, reject, undertake minor revisions, or undertake major revisions. Editors’ reports are processed by the editor in charge of the particular manuscript. The revised manuscript is prepared for copyediting and proofreading by the editor in charge. Copyediting and proofreading usually involves the assistance of a second editor, who provides an additional layer of checks.

The journal uses double-anonymous peer review in order to ensure impartiality, and to allow the expert readers to deliver a fair and uninhibited evaluation. Double-anonymous peer-review is the standard process for all our scholarly articles and there is no variation for this process. The peer review process is expected to take between four to six weeks, but may take longer in exceptional cases.

Peer reviewers are selected by the editors based on their expertise. At times, reviewers are members of the Editorial Board, often they are participants in the wider Flann O’Brien Society, and frequently reviewers are found in Irish Studies or from scholarly networks associated with the specific content of the submitted article. The process is fully anonymous on both ends, ensuring the identity of the expert reader and that of the author of the article is not known to the other.

The journal does not invite authors to suggest peer-reviewers for their submission, nor does it consider any peer-reviewer recommendations that authors might provide. Peer-reviewers are chosen by the chief editors or guest editors who take pains to anonymise manuscripts as well as readers’ reports.

An anonymised copy of the submitted manuscript is shared with the peer reviewers along with any figures accompanying the submission. No further documentation is included in the process, but reviewers are invited to consult the standard guidelines specified in the review template on the online journal platform.

Organisation and Governance

The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies is owned and managed by the International Flann O’Brien Society, a not-for-profit scholarly association established in 2011 and funded by membership subscriptions. The society is dedicated to the promotion of excellent academic work on the twentieth-century Irish writer Brian O’Nolan (pseud. Flann O’Brien and Myles na gCopaleen), to the organisation of international academic conferences on the writer’s work and the fostering of an international community of scholars. The International Flann O’Brien Society is run by its founding president and members of the community in good standing with the help of an international advisory board.

Business Practices

Advertising

This journal does not permit any advertising on the journal’s website and will never consider requests of any kind from other parties wishing to advertise in the journal or on its webpages.

Direct Marketing

This journal does not engage in any direct marketing practices.

The publisher, the Open Library of Humanities (OLH), employs a Marketing Officer who undertakes general marketing activities for the publisher including the promotion of its journals. The Marketing Officer does not, however, engage in direct marketing for any OLH journals and this does not affect the editorial decisions of OLH journals in any way.

Other Revenue

The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies is funded by OLH’s Library Partnership Subsidy Model and does not generate any additional streams of revenue.

Preprint Policy

The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies does not publish preprints and will not consider work that has previously been made available on a preprint server.

Special Issues

The journal publishes special issues alongside regular issues. Scholars who wish to guest edit a special issue of The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies are invited to submit proposals. These proposals are evaluated by the chief editors and accepted or rejected on the basis of quality and thematic suitability. Unlike regular issues, special issues tend to promote or foreground a particular theme or avenue of research in Flann O’Brien studies. Contributions to special issues are often encouraged to enter in dialogue with other contributions from the same issue.

The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies is committed to ensuring that its special issues are safeguarded against malpractice such as citation cartels (groups of researchers agreeing to cite one another’s work), undisclosed competing interests, peer review fraud and identity theft, in line with the best practice guidelines by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The journal regularly reviews its own special issue processes to ensure it is compliant. The journal subjects all special issue proposals to rigorous scrutiny: the editorial team checks the proposing editor(s), their affiliation(s), and academic record alongside the scholarly content of their proposed issue before making a final judgement on whether to proceed with the special issue.