NFSU Law Review · SLFJPS · NFSU
NFSU Law Review is the official peer-reviewed law journal of the School of Law, Forensic Justice and Policy Studies (SLFJPS), National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU). The journal is committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity, editorial transparency, scholarly fairness, and professional responsibility across all stages of its editorial and publication processes. This Editorial Policy governs the conduct of the editorial board, peer reviewers, and all persons who participate in the journal's review and publication functions.
The editorial board of NFSU Law Review functions with full academic and intellectual independence in the selection, evaluation, and publication of submissions. Editorial decisions are made exclusively on the basis of scholarly merit, originality of contribution, analytical rigour, relevance to the journal's scope, and the quality of legal reasoning and expression. No external body, institutional authority, funding source, or individual shall influence editorial decisions in any manner inconsistent with these criteria. The editorial board shall not be subject to direction, pressure, or interference from authors, advertisers, institutional stakeholders, or any other party seeking to influence publication outcomes.
NFSU Law Review publishes original academic and analytical content across a broad spectrum of legal and interdisciplinary subjects, including but not limited to constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, forensic law and science, cyber law and technology regulation, human rights law, environmental law, international law, legal policy and jurisprudence, and interdisciplinary studies at the intersection of law, science, and governance. The journal welcomes research articles, essays, case commentaries, legislative analyses, book reviews, and research notes. Submissions that offer fresh perspectives, engage critically with existing scholarship, or address emerging legal issues are particularly encouraged.
All manuscripts submitted to NFSU Law Review are subject to an initial editorial screening conducted by the editorial board prior to being advanced for peer review. This preliminary assessment evaluates whether the submission falls within the journal's thematic and disciplinary scope, meets the minimum standards of academic quality and coherence, conforms to the prescribed formatting and citation guidelines, satisfies the originality and prior-publication requirements set out in the journal's submission policy, and does not contain any apparent ethical violations or plagiarised content. Submissions that do not meet these threshold requirements will be returned to the author(s) with appropriate feedback, without proceeding to the peer review stage.
Submissions that successfully pass the preliminary editorial screening will be advanced to a structured peer review process. Each manuscript is assigned to a minimum of two independent peer reviewers with relevant subject matter expertise. Reviewers are selected from a panel of qualified academic and professional experts on the basis of their specialisation and the absence of any conflict of interest with respect to the submission under review. Reviewers are required to submit their evaluations within the timeline specified by the editorial board. Following receipt of reviewer feedback, the editorial board will determine whether to accept the submission, request minor or major revisions, or reject the submission. Authors will be informed of the outcome and, where revisions are requested, provided with the consolidated reviewer feedback to guide their revision.
NFSU Law Review applies a rigorous double-blind peer review standard to all submissions advanced for external evaluation. Under this standard, the identities of author(s) are not disclosed to reviewers at any stage of the review process, and the identities of reviewers are not disclosed to authors either during or after the review. Prior to dispatch for review, all manuscripts are stripped of identifying information, including author names, institutional affiliations, acknowledgements, funding disclosures, and any self-referential citations or document metadata that could reveal the author's identity. Authors are required to ensure that their submissions are prepared in a manner that does not contain any self-identifying information in the text, footnotes, or file properties. Any inadvertent breach of anonymity identified prior to review will be corrected by the editorial board; wilful attempts to identify reviewers or circumvent the blind review process may result in disqualification of the submission.
The editorial board of NFSU Law Review holds exclusive and final authority over all publication decisions. Decisions to accept, conditionally accept, request revision of, or reject a submission are communicated to the author(s) in writing with a brief statement of reasons where appropriate. In cases where revisions are requested, the nature of the required revisions whether minor or major will be clearly indicated, along with any applicable deadline for resubmission. Revised manuscripts are subject to further editorial review to assess whether the concerns raised have been adequately addressed. The editorial board's decision following the review of a revised submission is final. Submissions that are rejected are not ordinarily reconsidered unless the editorial board, in its discretion, invites resubmission following substantial revision.
NFSU Law Review reserves the right to carry out minor editorial revisions to accepted manuscripts for the purposes of grammatical accuracy, consistency of style, formatting compliance, and overall readability. Such revisions will not alter the substantive arguments, analytical positions, conclusions, or intellectual content of the author's work. Where more significant language or structural changes are considered necessary for clarity, the editorial board will consult the author(s) before finalising the edited version. A copy of the edited manuscript will be shared with the author(s) for review and approval prior to publication. Authors are responsible for reviewing the final edited version and raising any concerns regarding unintended alterations within the timeframe specified by the editorial board.
All editors and peer reviewers associated with NFSU Law Review are required to conduct themselves in accordance with the highest standards of academic and professional ethics. Manuscripts must be evaluated objectively and solely on the basis of their scholarly and analytical merit. Evaluation shall not be influenced by the author's institutional affiliation, nationality, gender, religion, personal beliefs, or any other characteristic unrelated to the academic quality of the work. Editors and reviewers must not use language that is discourteous, dismissive, or disrespectful in their feedback to authors. Reviewer comments must be constructive, specific, and directed toward improving the quality and rigour of the submitted work. The editorial board will not tolerate any conduct that constitutes discrimination, bias, harassment, or unprofessional behaviour in the editorial process.
All submissions received by NFSU Law Review, along with all communications exchanged during the review process, are treated as strictly confidential. Editorial board members and peer reviewers must not disclose, discuss, or share the contents of any manuscript, reviewer report, or editorial correspondence with any person outside the editorial process. The obligation of confidentiality applies regardless of whether the submission is ultimately accepted or rejected, and continues after the conclusion of the review process. Editors and reviewers must not use the contents of an unpublished manuscript for their own academic or professional purposes, and must not cite, build upon, or reference unpublished submissions without the express written consent of the author(s).
All editors and peer reviewers are required to proactively identify and disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that may affect their ability to evaluate a submission with full impartiality. Relevant conflicts include, but are not limited to, personal or professional relationships with the author(s), prior or ongoing academic collaboration with the author(s) within the preceding five years, shared institutional affiliation, academic rivalry or dispute, financial interests in the subject matter of the submission, or any other circumstance that a reasonable person would consider capable of compromising objectivity. Upon disclosure, the concerned editor or reviewer must recuse themselves from all aspects of the evaluation and decision-making process relating to the affected submission. The Editor-in-Chief shall ensure the prompt appointment of a replacement. Failure to disclose a known conflict of interest constitutes a serious breach of this policy.
NFSU Law Review maintains an absolute zero-tolerance policy toward plagiarism and all forms of academic misconduct. All submissions are screened using recognised plagiarism detection tools at appropriate stages of the editorial process. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, verbatim or near-verbatim reproduction of another's work without attribution, paraphrasing without acknowledgement, self-plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data or citations, ghost-writing, and misrepresentation of authorship. Upon detection of misconduct, the editorial board may reject the submission, withdraw a published article and issue a retraction notice, notify the author's institution, and take such further corrective action as it deems appropriate. All decisions taken in response to detected misconduct are final.
NFSU Law Review is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record. Where significant factual errors, methodological flaws, or ethical concerns are identified in a published work whether brought to the attention of the editorial board by the author(s), readers, or third parties the editorial board will assess the matter and, where warranted, issue a formal correction notice, an expression of concern, or a retraction of the published work. Corrections will be published with a clear description of the nature of the error and the amendment made. Retractions will be published with a statement identifying the grounds on which the retraction was issued. The editorial board will endeavour to act promptly and transparently in addressing all post-publication concerns affecting the accuracy or integrity of published content.
Authors bear full and primary responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of all content submitted to and published by NFSU Law Review. This responsibility encompasses the accuracy of all factual claims, data, statistics, and case references included in the submission; the proper and complete citation of all sources, precedents, and prior scholarship relied upon; compliance with the journal's submission guidelines, formatting standards, and ethical requirements; prompt and substantive engagement with revision requests from the editorial board; and the accuracy of all representations made regarding authorship, originality, and prior publication. Where a submission is co-authored, all listed authors are jointly and severally responsible for the integrity of the work, and each must have made a genuine and substantive intellectual contribution to the manuscript.
NFSU Law Review operates within the academic and administrative framework of the School of Law, Forensic Justice and Policy Studies (SLFJPS), National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU). The views, arguments, opinions, and conclusions expressed in any content published by NFSU Law Review are those of the respective author(s) alone and do not represent the official position, institutional policy, or views of NFSU Law Review, SLFJPS, NFSU, or any of their officers, faculty members, or affiliates. Publication of a work in NFSU Law Review shall not be construed as an endorsement of its contents by the journal, the school, or the university.