University of London Press

Peer review procedure

All University of London Press books go through the same rigorous editorial and peer review processes, whether published open access or not.

Your proposal will initially be assessed by the UoL Press editorial team (and series editors/series advisory board members, where relevant). If it fits with our publishing programme and we decide to proceed with your proposal, we will send it out for peer review. We have a robust and supportive peer review process for all our books, and keep authors updated throughout the process.

The review process is single blind, and proposals and sample material are sent to a minimum of two external peer reviewers.
Reviewers are selected for their scholarly expertise and experience in the proposal’s field. Suggestions for reviewers may be made by UoL Press and/or series editors and series advisory board members if the book is intended for a specific series.
If any suggestions for potential reviewers provided by authors are taken on, they will not make up the full review panel and at least one additional reviewer will be sought.
It is expected that peer reviewers will declare any potential conflicts of interest to UoL Press prior to accepting a review invitation.
Reviewers are asked to provide feedback on: the academic contribution the book would make to the field; the need for such a book and the likely readership; the methodologies/arguments presented; the coverage; the factual accuracy of the content; the structure and organisation; the clarity of presentation; any other points or issues; and their overall recommendation on the suitability of the proposal for publication.
If the two reviewer reports differ considerably, or are uncertain in their recommendations, a third review will usually be sought.

When peer reviews are in, these are anonymised and sent to the author/ editor. Usually we will ask for a response to the reviews, which is then considered alongside your proposal and the peer reviews by the UoL Press editorial team and series editors/series advisory board. A decision is made on whether to recommend the proposal for acceptance, to request revisions to the proposal (which may necessitate a further round of peer reviews of the revised material), or to decline the proposal for publication
If your proposal is recommended for acceptance, it would then be taken to the next UoL Press Publishing Committee meeting. The Publishing Committee makes the final decision on whether to approve a project for publication by UoL Press. The core membership of the Publishing Committee consists of UoL Press staff in key roles (across editorial, sales and marketing and production) and senior academic and library staff within the School of Advanced Study. If your proposal is approved, you will then be offered a contract for your book.

We send all final manuscripts out for a final round of peer review once submitted, to ensure that you receive expert feedback on your book.

Once your final book manuscript has been written and submitted, a clearance review of the full text will be carried out by one or more external peer reviewers (and/or the series editor, where relevant). Reviewers are invited to comment on: the quality and factual accuracy of the content; the organisation of the book; the clarity and quality of presentation; any issues or essential revisions that may be required; and their overall recommendation on whether the book is ready for production work to begin.
The anonymised review feedback is communicated to the author and any final revisions to the manuscript requested and implemented. Following UoL Press approval, the manuscript is prepared for production by the editorial team.

Proposal and final manuscript reviewers are offered a selection of books published by UoL Press by way of compensation for completing reviews.