| The Stuart Rossiter Trust Fund |
| Registered Charity Number 292076 |
| NOTE FOR THE GUIDANCE OF REFEREES |
The Trust as a Charity must take all reasonable steps to satisfy itself that the quality and the integrity of the publications which it is supporting are of the highest standard.
It is the policy of the Trustees of the Charity not to rely entirely on their own judgment. This means that referees have to be appointed to take independent and objective views of what the author is trying to achieve, the technical content and the way that the work is going to be presented to the reader in terms of clear presentation and understanding.
It is the intention of the Trustees that there should be a general referee to comment on the aspects of the work just mentioned and a special referee who will reflect and give guidance on the technical content of what has been produced by the author involved.
It is the Trustees intention that while retaining control of the appointment of the referees the general referee should be appointed totally at the Trustees discretion but with the approval of the author whereas the Trustees would intend, (by and large) to accept a recommendation from the author as to which person might be the best person in his or her field to be the special referee.
In the case of the later there has to be a degree of acceptance of criticism by the author and therefore a personal understanding (and perhaps lack of rivalry) between the author and the special referee is desirable.
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| General Referee |
If you are asked to be a general referee then would you have regard to what has been said earlier in this paper and report to the Trustees on all those factors which you feel, having read the draft of the work, it would be important for the Trustees to take into account before making any final decision as to whether the work should be published and in what form.
A general referee will have regard to all the considerations that he would apply either to writing a book himself or herself or to what he or she would wish to gain on reading or on consulting a book or other work of the type contemplated. Put another way the Trustees would wish to know what it is that the general referee suggests should be discussed by the Trustees before allowing the book or other work to proceed to the next stage.
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| Special Referee |
The Trustees here need a critique of the book or other work proposed.
It may be that things are actually wrong or could be better expressed by reference to other matters. It may be that alternative views ought to be expressed in order to give a comparison with the propositions in the text.
It may be that listings could be improved and it may be that illustrations would help an understanding of the text or in some cases replace a particular text visually.
It is difficult to say more than this but a general rule of thumb would be that the special referee ought to be able to make critical remarks in a way which we will be accepted by the author in order to make sure that the book or other work will be valued by those who will read it or will consult it.
The special referee should take care to make sure that the author has correctly represented the limitation imposed on the subject matter either because of the lack of historical or other reference material or because the author is actually operating in a specialised and defined area and not intending to write a general work.
The special referee should pay attention to the introduction and opening chapter in this regard. The special referee should also pay special attention to the way in which the indexing of the book has been carried through.
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Generally
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The Trustees take decisions as to the manner of production of the book or other work intended but either form of referee should not hesitate to make recommendations or suggestions to the Trustees about the way in which he or she thinks the work might best be published to achieve quality standards.
Both forms of referee are encouraged to let the Trustees have their views on the particular market into which the book or other work contemplated would be likely to sell. |
