Modern Academic Publishing

Peer review procedure

Books published by Modern Academic Publishing are a result of exemplary PhD theses, especially selected as works of distinction that merit publication. The quality assessment process, for the PhD and MAP selection is as below:

Theses assessment criteria

  • A minimum of two subject experts are assigned to review the submitted PhD. One of these is likely to be the PhD supervisor who is affiliated with the author’s institution.

  • The reviewers independently assess the submission before providing their recommendation of acceptance, revisions or rejection, and an overall mark (see grading table, below). A reviewer may make objections against the research approach, data or results/conclusions. Acceptance may be dependant on specific revisions being completed by the author.

  • All reviewer reports, along with the submitted thesis, are made publicly available for two weeks, allowing members of the faculty the opportunity to add additional comments to the review. External experts may also be invited to provide comments during this public review process.

  • The thesis is accepted if all peers have voted for acceptance. If acceptance is proposed, the dissertation will be marked under one of the following grades:

    • Summa cum laude = with highest distinction (0,5)

    • Magna cum laude = with great distinction (1)

    • Cum laude = with distinction (2)

    • Rite = requirements are fulfilled (3)

MAP selection

Modern Academic Publishing (MAP) only considers theses that receive marks of summa cum laude or magna cum laude for publication. The selection of publication projects is made by a professorial council comprising of affiliates from the Universities of Munich and Cologne.

Authors are asked to prepare their manuscripts according to the formal criteria of MAP, to ensure that the published monograph is written to a high standard, formatted consistently and with maximum accessibility. The manuscript is processed through CrossCheck to ensure that the monograph does not contain plagiarised material. Professional copyediting of the whole manuscript is conducted. Once all edits have been finalised, the first supervisor of the dissertation (who was first reviewer) must sign-off (Imprimatur) the manuscript as acceptable for publication. Once this is provided the monograph is formally accepted for publication.