Author Guidelines
A Call for Contributions
7.1. Principle:-The Institute may make a call for contributions that serve for publication where necessary.
7.2. A call for contribution to be made as per article 7.1 above could be made through one of the following methods:
- a) By affixing notices on notice boards of the Institute or other government bureaus;
- b) Publicising on the website of the Institute
- c) Personal correspondences via e-mail or phone
Article 8
Types of Publishable Contributions
Publishable contributions shall include articles, book reviews, case analysis, research works, summary of new legislations, educative court judgements, etc.
Article 9
Contribution Standards
9.1. Research works to be submitted shall follow all procedures of a research. So, they must contain title, introduction, body, conclusion, footnote and references with clear and standardized languages.
9.2. Rules of citations shall be as follows:
- For Books
First, name of the author; then title of the book after having comma (with no underline, no italic, or no bold); then giving details of publication (name, place, and year) within the bracket; finally show page number and full stop.
Eg.:- H Kelsen, Pure Theory of Law (California: University of California Press, 1967) P33.
- For Journals
Author’s name→ Title of the Article (Italic) → Name of the Journal (with no Italic, no underline or no bold) →year (within the bracket) → volume and number → Page
E.g. Taddese Lencho, Ethiopian Bankruptcy Law: A Commentary, JEL (2001), Vo. XXII, No.2, F75.
iii. For Constitutions
Show the name of the Constitution and the article number
E.g.:- FDRE Constitution, Art. 28.
- For Other Laws
Name of laws → Number and year of publication of the law → Article of the law
E.g.:- Oromia Rural Land Administration and Use Proclamation, Proc.No.130/1999, Art.2 (16)
- Internet Sources
Name of the Author → Year (within the bracket) → Title of the source (Italic) → Name of publisher→ Website→ Accessed date.
E.g.:- A. Boon (2001), Making Good Lawyers: Challenges to Vocational Legal Education, UK Centre for Legal Education, University of Warwick: http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/vtf/boon.html <September 22, 2007 kan ilaalame >.
- Citing Already Cited Sources
- If the source to be cited is the same with the other already cited source, including page number and comes directly one after the other without interruption, we use Ibid. for our citation.
E.g.:- If the source cited under footnote number 1 is, H Kelsen, Pure Theory of Law (California: University of California Press, 1967) F33; and the source cited under foot note number 2 is the same as that of number 1, we say ibid. to show that the source is the same.
- If the source to be cited is the same with the other already cited source, but with different page number, we use Id. and then show page number. E.g. Id.P35.
- If the source cited is the same, but does not come immediately after the other, we follow the name of the author→ Supra note_, → Page number to cite.
E.g.:-H Kelsen, Supra note 1, p45.
9.3. The name of the author shall be articulated in the middle of a line and comes immediately after the title of his contribution. His level of education, work position, and affiliation is expressed by way of foot note after being referenced by * symbol at the head of the name of the author.
9.4. Titles and main headings of articles and other contributions shall be bolded and written in capital letters. However, other sub-headings shall be indented as per their order and expected to be written as any other ordinary sub-title writing form with 12 font size.
E.g.: THE THEMATIC AREAS OF OROMIA JUSTICE SECTOR PROFESSIONALS AND LEGAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE (Title)
1.1. TRAINING (Main heading)
1.1.1. In-service Training (Sub-heading)
1.1.2. Pre-service Training (Other sub-heading)
- RESEARCH (Main-heading)
9.5. Where a submitted contribution does not fulfil conditions under sub-articles 3 and 4 of this article but content wise publishable, the editorial committee shall bear the responsibility of editing the work in a way to satisfy the conditions. In case the contribution does not fulfil requirements of sub-article 2 of this article, the members of editorial committee shall either edit as per the requirements or refer to the author himself for correction.
9.6. Points that need special emphasis, court cases, and words that are not the language in which the contribution is written like latin shall be italicised without being underlined or bolded.
9.7. Every author who submits a contribution shall confirm in writing that his contribution is original which is neither published elsewhere yet nor on the process of publication. The same thing is true where two or more authors jointly make a contribution.
9.8. A contribution shall be submitted either to the Editor-in-Chief or Assistant Editor-in-Chief in both hard copy and soft copy, or via e-mail.
9.9. Every author may submit his contribution in any of the three languages in which the contributions shall be submitted, or any of the two languages in which the journal is published.
Article 10
Size and Number of Pages
Size and page number of contributions shall be as follows:
- Articles shall be written in MS Word, Times New Roman style, 1.5space, 12 Font size and within range of 15-30 pages for Afaan Oromoo; and 10-30 pages for English and Amharic. Case analysis and book reviews shall be 5-10 pages.
- Footnotes shall be written in MS Word, Times New Roman styles and 10 Font size for Afaan Oromoo and English. The same is true for Amharic except that the font size shall be 9.
- Page margins in all sides shall be 2 cm.
- Quotations shall follow rules of citations.
Article 14
Honorarium Payment
14.1. The Institute shall pay the service fee ranging from 4000.00-6000.00 Ethiopian Birr to the author based on page numbers of the articles. Accordingly,
1) Article of pages 15-19 presented in Afaan Oromoo; 10-15 presented in English
= 4000.00 birr
2) Articles of pages 20-30 presented in Afaan Oromoo;15-30 presented in English
=6000.00 birr shall be paid.
Peer Review Process and Review Guidelines
Overall, peer review process of the journal demands three steps review system. The first step is review made by editorial committee. The committee checks and screens the manuscripts satisfying the minimum requirements for the second step review. The decision here is formal as it is made by recording the minutes. Second step review is the review made by external assessors who are expertise on the subject matter. Third step review is the review made by the Preparatory Board of the journal. It is about to approve or disapprove the publication of the articles tabled to it after passing through the first two steps of the review process. Details of these processes are provided under Arts. 11 and 12 of the journal editorial policy as duplicated below.
Article 11
Evaluating Proficiency of Contributions
11.1. The Editor-in-Chief shall distribute all submitted contributions to members of the editorial committee with sufficient copy for individual evaluation. After the individual evaluation, the Editor-in-Chief shall call all members of editorial committee for discussion of the competency of contributions and all contributions thought to be competent shall be sent to external reviewers for secondary evaluation.
11.2. In the course of evaluation, all members of editorial committee shall present their reasons for supporting or rejecting the contribution and this shall be registered in the minutes.
11.3. The standards against which contributions are assessed shall be the following:
- Whether the contribution has the general quality needed for a research paper.
- Whether the contribution is referenced with sufficient sources, timely and original and capable of solving practical problems thereby corresponding with the objective of the journal in quality and content.
11.4. Notwithstanding sub-article 3 of this article, contributions shall also be reviewed by the following standards:
- Whether the content matches with title of the paper;
- Whether the core issues have been identified and sufficiently explained;
- Whether the article has been presented coherently as specified in the introduction;
- Whether the article has directly shown solution for the indicated problem;
- Whether necessary issues have been incorporated and have been discussed without being too long or too short;
- Whether it is free from tangible, spelling, and punctuation errors.
11.5. Authors whose contributions have passed all levels of evaluation and decided to be published shall be informed of this fact by the Editor-in-Chief.
11.6. Only articles shall be reviewed by editorial committee and external reviewers. Other types of contributions shall be reviewed only by editorial committee.
11.7.An article shall be referred to two external reviewers who do not have a conflict of interest with the author of the article for further evaluation. Where the results of evaluation of both reviewers contradict each other, the article shall be referred to the other third external expert for further evaluation. The assessment result of this third expert shall be decisive. However, the Preparatory Board may give the final decision on the issue.
11.8. External reviewers shall notify results of assessment to the Editor-in-Chief within 20 days as of the date they received the article.
11.9. Upon receiving the assessment result, the Editor-in-Chief shall deliberate the same with the chairperson of the Preparatory Board so as to determine the publication or otherwise of the article based on assessment result. Where it is decided that the article is publishable, the Editor-in-Chief shall refer the article together with the assessment result to the author for making necessary corrections and returning back to the editor-in-chief within 15 days.
11.10. An article corrected and returned back as per sub-article 9 of this article shall be organized for final publication. This again shall be sent back to the author by the Editor- in-Chief for final proof reading. The author shall make the proof reading within 5 days and forward it again to the Editor-in-Chief.
11.11. The Preparatory Board shall determine as to how costs incurred under sub-articles 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of this article are covered.
11.12. In case articles referred to external reviewers as per sub-article 9 of this article are not returned back within 20 days, the Preparatory Board may decide their publication as they are.
Article 12
Procedural Functions of Editorial Committee
12.1. The committee shall discharge its duties either jointly at one place, or individually as per this directive.
12.2. The presence of more than half of the members of the committee (50+) shall constitute a quorum.
12.3. Decisions shall be passed unanimously or by majority vote of the members. Where there is equality of voting, the voting side of the Editor-in-Chief shall be decisive.
12.4. Where a member of editorial committee has made a contribution, he shall vacate his position for the time his contribution is evaluated. This time, decision shall be passed only by the rest of committee members.
