"The Third Sector and Sustainable Social Change: New Frontiers for Research"
Universitat de Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
July 9-12, 2008
ISTR Eighth International Conference
2nd EMES-ISTR European Conference in partnership with CINEFOGO

Abstract Review Process

ISTR has a blind review process and notes in the Call for Contributions that abstracts “will be subject to a blind review by three independent reviewers who will not have knowledge of the name of the author or of other reviewers.” Each major theme is managed by a theme chair who sends each abstract out to be reviewed by at least three independent reviewers. Reviewers look at the argument of the paper and the issue(s) which it addresses; did it locate that issue within a wider literature; is it relevant to an international audience; and does it refer to its empirical or theoretical base.

All of the abstracts are read and graded by 3 reviewers. These grades are tabulated and the paper is either accepted, rejected, or if it is a "maybe" is read by a fourth reviewer. A final decision is made by the final review which is done by the conference committee. ISTR strives to include high quality research papers. We try to accept as many high quality papers as possible.

We know that this is not a "perfect" system, but the reviewers strive to make their best judgments. Very often an abstract is rejected simply because it does not provide enough information. As no names are attached to the abstract, it cannot be assumed that an abstract will be accepted on the strength of the author's reputation.

We believe that this process is fairly typical of international academic associations.