09.03.2006 VESTNIK: The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies Vestnik Editorial Board:  Joshua H. Wilson, M.A., Editor-in-Chief  Renee Stillings, Director of Programs, The School of Russian and Asian Studies Dr. Victor Peppard, Ph.D., University of South Florida Emily Weidenhamer, Student Editor, Case Western Reserve University School of Law Gina Peirce, Student Editor, University of Pittsburgh The Peer Review Board is composed of other contributing authors Vestnik Editorial Process: Vestnik is an academic publication meant not only to showcase exceptional student work, but to act as a tool to help students improve their research and writing skills. To this end, the Vestnik editorial process is nontraditional and seeks to actively involve the contributor in a multi-step editing process. Initial Review - The Vestnik Editorial Board is responsible for approving or rejecting submissions. Content Edits - One member of the board will work directly with the student on improving the submission's organization, argumentation, clarity, and conciseness. This is handled mostly by making comments to the paper using Word's "Comment" function, through general commentary delivered via email, and by annotated edits made directly to the submission. Style Edits and Proofreading - Once these major edits have been made, the entire board reviews and comments and the resultant product. The student will be briefed on these comments and any additional edits that might be made or need to be made to the submission. The student should approve this second version. Final Edits and Commentary - Once the paper has been finalized, the html and pdf versions of the journal are created and presented to all students for review. Students must review at least their own submissions for formatting issues and any final edits. The authors of included submissions constitute a peer review board for the issue in which their submission will be published. Some additional edits may be made to any remaining grammar and punctuation issues depending on the commentary of this peer review board. Commentary will be shared (anonymously) will all students so that all may learn from each other and students will be given a chance to make final edits based on this commentary. Students who give especially insightful commentary or who point out several remaining edits that should be made are often invited to become student members of the board. Of course, the process is often not as complicated as it may sound. Some submissions require very little content editing. Subsequent edits after the content edits are often very minor. However, we believe that this basic system provides students with much insight to their research and gives an excellent opportunity to students to learn and to publish the best paper possible. If you have any questions or concerns about this process, contact Josh Wilson, Editor in Chief, at jwilson@sras.org.