As most of you know, most law reviews reserve slots for publications that are submitted during the
summer. The review of these submissions typically begins during the end of the summer, when law
review editors return to school.
For this reason, I would encourage those of you who have prepared articles over the summer to submit in
the next few weeks. Alafair is on a visit this fall so please leave her in peace for now, and direct all
inquiries or questions to me during the fall semester. Also, please let me know if you do submit during
the summer cycle so I can keep track of how we as an institution are doing. We did very well during the
spring cycle, and we hope to keep up the pace as we go forward.
I am therefore re-circulating the email and attachments from the spring cycle, for your reference. See
below.
1. Journal Rankings. Although we would all like to believe that other scholars will find, read, and cite to
our work, no matter where it is published, the reality is that the placement of your article will likely affect
the size of its audience. In a world flooded by legal scholarship, many scholars use the "quality" of an
article's placement as a proxy for its substantive quality. The "better" your placement, the more likely
your article will get a fair read from others in your field, be cited by them, and then read by others as a
result of those citations.
Accordingly, you should consult one or more of the many law journal rankings when considering where to
submit your article, where to seek expedited review, and where, ultimately, to publish. Although no two
sets of rankings will be exactly the same, any one will give you a sense of the current law journal
hierarchy. Perhaps the leading ranking system, which measures how often work from journals is cited by
other scholars, is maintained by Washington & Lee in a searchable database at http://lawlib.wlu.edu/LJ/ .
A Word version of the top 200 overall journals from this database is attached.
Many of the top journals may not get around to reading your manuscript until they receive an "expedited
review" request from you, requesting a speedy review in light of a pending offer from another journal.
Many law journals now require that you disclose which journal(s) have given you offers before they will
conduct an expedited review. Accordingly, it can help you to think strategically about how many journals
you submit to originally as well as your expedite requests. If you are new to this, or haven't done it for a
while, Julian is happy to serve as sounding boards.
2. Individual Journal Preferences Increasingly, law journals have begun to impose requirements or
express preferences as to article length, format, and the method and timing of submissions.
Article Length. Journals increasingly prefer articles that are no more than 20-25,000 words, including
footnotes, and some simply will not publish articles longer than 35-40,000 words. A guide to the article
length requirements and preferences of the top 35 journals is here:
http://www.law.emory.edu/law-library/services/faculty-services/law-review-submission-resources/lawreview-limits.html
Method of Submission. Some journals prefer electronic submissions while others still do not accept
them. We can point you to several summaries of journal preferences for submission formats, but we have
not located one that is up to date. To the extent individual journals dictate a preferred or required method
of submission (snail mail, direct upload, e-mail, etc.), you should obviously use that method. Otherwise,
we recommend using ExpressO, and electronic manuscript submission service to which we subscribe.
Most law reviews accept submissions through the ExpressO system. If they do not, ExpressO will even
handle the submission of hard copies.
3. Using ExpressO. Faculty members are authorized to charge up to $250 to submit their articles using
ExpressO (more, if necessary, with prior approval from Alafair or Julian). Directions for using ExpressO
are here:
http://law.bepress.com/expresso/how_to_get_started.html
Please be sure to use your hofstra email address when you create your ExpressO account so your
charges are billed to our institutional account and we receive our institutional discount. We do not get our
discount if you pay with your own credit card. If you have any questions or run into problems charging
your fee to the Hofstra account, please contact Alafair or Julian before finalizing the submission.
4. Cover Letters. Law review editors are affected by cover letters. Do not just write, "I have enclosed
my submission." Your cover letter should not only include a very brief summary of your article, but should
also explain why you are the perfect person to have authored your article. This is not the place to be
shy. A few sentences about where your previous work has been published and cited can do a lot to
frame the piece (and its author) for a student editor who has probably never heard of you. If you are not
certain about what is effective and yet appropriate, Julian is happy to look at cover letters or provide you
with examples
For submissions via direct upload, e-mail or ExpressO, please use the attached electronic letterhead for
your cover letter.
Also, most editors prefer to have a current CV included with the cover letter (and there is a way to upload
your CV on ExpressO).
5. General information
Emory maintains a site of law review submission resources. You can find more information about journal
ranking, article length limits, electronic submissions, and other topics at
http://www.law.emory.edu/index.php?id=4801 ( http://www.law.emory.edu/index.php?id=4801 )
Good luck with this publishing season. We look forward to celebrating your good news.
Julian
Julian G. Ku
Professor of Law & Associate Dean for Faculty Development
Hofstra University School of Law
121 Hofstra University
Hempstead, NY 11549
516-463-4237