Over the last year, Legal Theory has continued to improve its operations. Last year we noted impending changes to our online system. With the help of our managing editor, Ginger Clausen, and technology assistance from the Press, the editor interface has been streamlined and made more user friendly. This has enabled the editors to see more readily what tasks need to be completed, and it has improved communications between the editors and Professor Clausen. The result has been an improvement in our turnaround time and communications with authors.
Since the improvements were made to the online system in July 2018, the average time for the editors’ review of submissions has been reduced to about 16 days. The average time to receive a rejection without review for 2018 as a whole was about 52 days. We are currently investigating ways to improve our timing at stages just after submission, as well as to address delays that may occur in the editors’ and reviewers’ handling of manuscripts. For submissions that are sent out for external review, the average time from submission to completion (with either acceptance or rejection) is about four to five months, down from the seven months reported for 2017.
Unfortunately, a few authors experienced frustrating delays in the last year. Because their papers were submitted before the improvements to the online system, their submissions sometimes fell through the cracks. We very much regret this. Our records indicate, however, that all papers submitted under the old system have now been handled to completion. We will continue to work on our processing of manuscripts as we discover ways in which the system might be further improved. Professor Clausen will be working with the press's new technology person over the next year to refine how Legal Theory’s website records statistics on various stages of the process.
We continue to have difficulty finding capable reviewers for manuscripts. Even so, the time frame adopted by Professor Clausen for handling reviewer invitations has improved the journal's timely receipt of reviews. Over the coming year, we will continue to update our reviewer list to manage the problem—one that all journals are experiencing as submission rates climb.
The current acceptance rate for the journal in the last year was approximately 9%, including conditional acceptances that led to publication. So the journal has been able, through various changes and improvements, to maintain its high standards. We congratulate all of our authors for their excellent articles and thank all of those who submitted papers for the opportunity to consider their enlightening work. And we thank our readers for their patience as we have labored to improve our operations.
We look forward to reading more of your work and welcome your comments and suggestions.
The Editors,
