Policies

Open Access Policy
Obiter became an open-access journal in 2021, and is published online.  It provides immediate open access to its content with a view to making research freely available in order to develop the global exchange of knowledge.

Contributions from Obiter may be uploaded to institutional repositories subject to the condition that the final version as published at http://journals.assaf.org.za/index.php/obiter is uploaded and the publisher is acknowledged.

Copyright & License Terms
Copyright remains with the author/s of the contribution/s.
An Attribution 4.0 International Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0) applies to all contributions published in Obiter.

Digital Preservation Policy
This journal utilises the Portico system to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

Language Policy
Authors are invited to submit contributions in English.

Editorial Policy
This journal subscribes to the ASSAF National Code of Best Practice in Editorial Discretion and Review for South African Scholarly Journals.

Peer-review Policy
Obiter is blind peer-reviewed by at least two peer reviewers in order to ensure that all contributions contribute to the development of legal scholarship.

Once received by the editor, the review process proceeds as follows:

The editorial team ensures that the contribution falls within the scope of Obiter, that the language is clear and that the Obiter stylistic guidelines have been followed.  In addition a call is made concerning the level of the scholarly quality.

If the contribution meets the internal requirements it is subjected to external evaluation. This entails blind reviews by two reviewers requested to review contributions according to the subject matter of the contribution.

If there is disagreement between reviewers a third reviewer will review the contribution. The final decision to publish or not is made by the editors.

Authors are informed of the recommendations of reviewers and, if necessary requested to make changes and/or additions.

The editorial team will do its utmost to ensure the finalisation of the review process within 5 months.

Plagiarism Policy
Obiter subscribes to plagiarism detection software and contributions will be scanned to verify originality.

If plagiarism is found subsequent to publication Obiter reserves the right to formally retract a contribution and to publish a statement to indicate plagiarism in a particluar contribution.