Phaios: the journal for research consultancy

Phaios: the journal for research consultancy has not yet published its first issue.

All back issues of Phaios can be viewed here, in the archives.

Phaios: the journal for research consultancy may publish submissions in advance of peer-review. This is done in specific, limited circumstances in which there is a need for more urgent publication: typically for expert research summaries and judgements provided for reference in an ongoing court or tribunal. These have been produced by relevant experts, undergone expedited review by a member of the editorial committee, and are in the process of peer-review. These are made available as special supplementary publications. An updated manuscript and the results of peer-review will be published alongside them in full and original form once the process is completed.

Phaios may also make available as supplementary publications submissions that have undergone editorial review but not peer-review, if there is a specific case for this. This would usually be for the following reasons: the submission has already been peer-reviewed as part of the methodology; the submission is of a type for which there is no need for peer-review or for which peer-review would not be conventional (such as monographs); a submission containing confidential or restricted information that is designed for limited publication.

All supplementary publications are separate to the main journal, with a distinct volume series and pagination, and should be clearly referenced as ‘Phaios Supplementary Publication‘.

All supplementary publications of Phaios can be viewed here, in the archives.

Editorial committee

This journal is edited by committee. Guest editors may be involved for special publications.

Editor/Director: Dr James C. Ford
Current editorial committee: to be appointed.

Editorial focus

There is no one area of focus: the journal will publish research from any discipline. The work must not have been submitted, published, or made available in a peer-reviewed format elsewhere and must not be restricted from publication in any way. Pre-publication drafts on personal websites or pages, or professional uses, are encouraged.

Editorial process and open peer-review

Phaios operates a system of ‘open peer review’: neither author’s, nor reviewer’s, identities are anonymised. This is to empower researchers and combat prejudice. (See here for a discussion of the advantages of different approaches to peer review.) Phaios also operates a system of ‘positive peer-review’, encouraging reviewers to view their role as pastoral, with a focus on identifying improvements necessary for research to be publishable. Peer-reviews are screened by the editor before being returned to the researcher: non-constructive criticism is removed.

Peer-reviewers are always specialists and are typically chosen from the broader academic and peri-academic community, but may be drawn from elsewhere, as appropriate to the research.

Submission process

1. You submit your research to Phaios at [email protected].
2. The editor confirms receipt of your submission. (Week 1)
3. The editorial committee review your submission and then meet to make an initial decision about viability and discuss potential reviewers for the submission. Your submission is sent for review if successful (and an email sent to inform you of this) or an email is returned to you if unsuccessful. (Week 2)
4. The reviews are returned to the editorial committee who review them with the reviewers, and meet to make a decision on publication. (Week 5-10)
5. You are informed by the editorial committee by email of the decision and feedback. You may choose to have a remote meeting with the editor to discuss the decision and feedback, and if necessary respond to criticism and advocate for further review, discounting feedback, or resubmission. All submissions receive feedback and resubmission is at the discretion of the editors, so reviewers are only asked to make a decision of ‘publish’ or ‘do not publish’. (Week 10)
6. If successful, you revise the submission and resubmit, without further review. There is no formal ‘submission’ deadline or submission in this process: the editor will agree with you the point at which the submission meets the revisions recommended by the reviewers and move it into the next stage.
7. Your submission is published online. (Week 3 after resubmission)

All times are estimates: the journal may be able to publish content faster than these, or it may take much longer, depending on the content, availability of reviewers, etc. In limited circumstances and at the discretion of the editorial committee, if there is an urgent need for research to be made publicly available (e.g. a research summary for an ongoing court case), the journal may undertake to significantly expedite this process or publish research in advance of peer-review.

Submission types

Phaios accepts all kinds of formats and types of submissions, including:

• Academic articles. Phaios will accept original research articles and work of any length and type.
• Research reports. Phaios will accept research compilations, summaries, or original research, produced for public or private bodies. These may include research produced for use in court, by and for charities or businesses, for local or national governments, and for other organisations and bodies.
• Videos and podcasts. These will not be hosted on the Phaios website but may be submitted for review if hosted elsewhere. They are held to the same standards as written academic work. A one- or two-page review will be produced by a reviewer, after the usual peer-review process of review and editing, which will be published along with a link to a reputable host of the content.
• Blogs and other longform posted content. Phaios will publish versions of content hosted elsewhere (including social media sites), provided it is not restricted by copyright and is original research that meets or can meet academic standards.

Format and style guide

The journal does not operate with a specific style guide: research is published in the style and format in which it has already been produced. There is no word requirement or limit and there is no recommended or required referencing or footnote/endnote system. The editorial committee will, however, enforce that submissions meet the following principles in style and formatting:

• Consistency. References must be listed in a consistent way. Grammar (e.g. the Oxford comma) must be used consistently. Authors must be referred to with consistency.
• Accessibility. Research provided must be produced in a way that is accessible to readers, without unexplained or excess jargon, death by thesaurus, or formatting that impinges on accessibility. Research in languages other than English must have an accessible English translation (at minimum an executive summary) provided by the author.
• Structure and argument. Research should be structured in a clear way that does not obscure the scope, aims, methods, argument, or results of the research.
• Attribution and ethics. The format of research should be used to clearly mark attribution of scholarship, quotations, or other material used as a source by the authors.
• Appropriateness. Formatting and style must be appropriate to the context, research, medium, etc.
• Professionalism. As research submitted for formal peer-review, submissions should be professional and meet an appropriate standard of formality for the context and format.

Instructions for reviewers

Peer-reviewers are asked to fill in the attached form. The process is fairly simple: reviewers are first asked to provide their overall view on if the research could in principle be publishable by Phaios, and then provide feedback on the research under the criteria of ‘Public Benefit’, ‘Importance’, and ‘Research Quality’. Reviewers are encouraged to think positively about specific improvements that would be necessary for research to be publishable on its own merits and scope, rather than reviewing to exclude or considering at length alternative approaches that researchers might have taken. Reviews are all edited by the editor before being returned to the researcher: non-constructive criticism is removed and peer-reviews may be returned to the reviewer if it is unnecessarily negative or unfocussed.

Phaios: the journal for research consultancy is funded by a variety of initiatives, including:

• Business and third-sector donations. These are ongoing donations made by organisations without any kind of rider or obligations.
• Crowdfunding. Phaios is a journal committed to making research useful and publicly available: members of the public who want to support this mission on an ongoing basis are most welcome. Patreon offers a model for ongoing funding support.

All authors who submit to Phaios agree to the following terms, under which we publish and host research:

The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in to the online repository of Phaios: the journal for research consultancy. In service of enabling open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving Phaios will seek to have further copies deposited in online repositories that meet these aims.

It is the responsibility of the author or the individual making the submission to Phaios to ensure that copyright is held, or agreement is made with all relevant parties, for all research and aspects of research before submitting to Phaios. The journal will not accept any liability of any kind for research published on behalf of authors, and authors who submit to Phaios agree to accept such liability.