'Conditional embargos' & exceptions

You can request a conditional embargo by emailing us at contact@unjournal.org, or via the submission/response form. Please explain what sort of embargo you are asking for, and why. By default, we'd like Unjournal evaluations to be made public promptly.

However, we may make exceptions in special circumstances particularly

for very early-career researchers who are not clearly ,
where the research is not obviously already influencing a substantial amount of funding in impact-relevant areas, or substantially influencing policy considerations

If there is an early-career researcher on the authorship team, we may allow authors to "embargo" the publication of the evaluation until a later date. Evaluators (referees) will be informed of this. This date can be contingent, but it should not be indefinite.

For example, we might grant an embargo that lasts until after a PhD/postdoc’s upcoming job market or until after publication in a mainstream journal, with a hard maximum of 14 months. (Of course, embargoes can be ended early at the request of the authors.)

In exceptional circumstances we may consider granting a ""

Some examples of possible embargos (need approval)

Extended time to revise and respond

We will invite 2 or 3 relevant experts to evaluate and rate this work, letting them know about the following embargo
When the evaluations come back, we will ask if you want to respond/revise. If you commit to responding (please let us know your plan within 1 week):
1. we will make it public that the evaluations are complete, and you have committed to revise and respond.
2. We will give you 8 weeks to revise the paper, to write a response note how you have revised,
3. We will give the evaluators additional time to adjust their evaluations and ratings in response to your revision/response
4. After this we will publish the evaluation package
If you do not commit to responding, we will post the evaluation package
If you are happy with the evaluations, we can post them at any time, by your request.

Rating-dependent embargo, allowing for revision

We will invite 2 or 3 relevant experts to evaluate and rate this work, letting them know about the following embargo
When the evaluations come back..., we will ask if you want to respond.
1. If all evaluators gave a 4.5 rating or higher as their middle rating on the "Journal rank tier, normative" rating (basically suggesting they think it's at the level meriting publication in a top-5+ journal) we will give you 3 weeks to respond before posting the package. (This is roughly our usual policy)
2. Otherwise (if any rate below 4.5 but none rate it below 3.25) we will give you 8 weeks to revise the paper in response to this, to write a response noting how you have responded. We will give the evaluators further time to adjust their evaluations and ratings in turn, before posting the evaluation package.
3. If any evaluators rate the paper 'fairly negatively' (below 3.25) on this measure, we will grant a six month embargo from this point, before posting the package. During this time you will also have the opportunity to revise and respond, as in the previous case (case 2.2).
If you are happy with the evaluations, we can post them at any time, by your request.

'Job market embargo': Time, rating and outcome-dependent

We will invite 2 or 3 relevant experts to evaluate and rate this work, letting them know about the following embargo
When the evaluations come back. If all evaluators gave a 4.5 rating or higher as their middle rating on the "Journal rank tier, normative" rating (basically suggesting they think it's at the level meriting publication in a top-5+ journal) we will give you 3 weeks to respond before posting the package. (This is roughly our usual policy)
Otherwise we will wait to post the evaluations until June 15, or until all PhD student or Post-doc authors have found a new job (as reported on social media, LinkedIn etc)
1. During the intervening time, you have the opportunity to revise and respond, and if you do we give the evaluators time to update their evaluations and ratings in turn.
If you are happy with the evaluations, we can post them at any time, by your request.

Note: the above are all exceptions to our regular rules, examples of embargos we might or might not agree to.

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Last updated 14 days ago

Some examples of possible embargos (need approval)

Extended time to revise and respond

We will invite 2 or 3 relevant experts to evaluate and rate this work, letting them know about the following embargo
When the evaluations come back, we will ask if you want to respond/revise. If you commit to responding (please let us know your plan within 1 week):
1. we will make it public that the evaluations are complete, and you have committed to revise and respond.
2. We will give you 8 weeks to revise the paper, to write a response note how you have revised,
3. We will give the evaluators additional time to adjust their evaluations and ratings in response to your revision/response
4. After this we will publish the evaluation package
If you do not commit to responding, we will post the evaluation package
If you are happy with the evaluations, we can post them at any time, by your request.

Rating-dependent embargo, allowing for revision

We will invite 2 or 3 relevant experts to evaluate and rate this work, letting them know about the following embargo
When the evaluations come back..., we will ask if you want to respond.
1. If all evaluators gave a 4.5 rating or higher as their middle rating on the "Journal rank tier, normative" rating (basically suggesting they think it's at the level meriting publication in a top-5+ journal) we will give you 3 weeks to respond before posting the package. (This is roughly our usual policy)
2. Otherwise (if any rate below 4.5 but none rate it below 3.25) we will give you 8 weeks to revise the paper in response to this, to write a response noting how you have responded. We will give the evaluators further time to adjust their evaluations and ratings in turn, before posting the evaluation package.
3. If any evaluators rate the paper 'fairly negatively' (below 3.25) on this measure, we will grant a six month embargo from this point, before posting the package. During this time you will also have the opportunity to revise and respond, as in the previous case (case 2.2).
If you are happy with the evaluations, we can post them at any time, by your request.

'Job market embargo': Time, rating and outcome-dependent

We will invite 2 or 3 relevant experts to evaluate and rate this work, letting them know about the following embargo
When the evaluations come back. If all evaluators gave a 4.5 rating or higher as their middle rating on the "Journal rank tier, normative" rating (basically suggesting they think it's at the level meriting publication in a top-5+ journal) we will give you 3 weeks to respond before posting the package. (This is roughly our usual policy)
Otherwise we will wait to post the evaluations until June 15, or until all PhD student or Post-doc authors have found a new job (as reported on social media, LinkedIn etc)
1. During the intervening time, you have the opportunity to revise and respond, and if you do we give the evaluators time to update their evaluations and ratings in turn.
If you are happy with the evaluations, we can post them at any time, by your request.

Note: the above are all exceptions to our regular rules, examples of embargos we might or might not agree to.