It’s that time again — law review submission season is kicking into high gear! As authors prepare their latest submissions and editors work towards final article selections, we wanted to provide a few resources to help along the way.
Below is a list of top submission season guides we’ve found for law review editors and authors. We invite you to share your thoughts and additional helpful links on Twitter by using the hashtag #LRSubmissions!
Resources for Law Review Editors:
New to Law Review: Everything you want to know but can’t find online
We’re kicking things off with an all-encompassing resource for law review editors. In this free webinar on-demand, we cover top article selection and online publishing best practices. If you’re new to law review, tune in to learn how to make the most of your e-board tenure!
How to Get Law Journal Work Done Without Losing Your Mind
Work, work, work, and a side of more reading — this can be the experience of most law review editors. There is a way to stay sane, though! Here’s an oldie but goodie Above the Law article from Alison Monahan, founder of The Girl’s Guide to Law School, on how to survive and thrive during your law review tenure.
A Bluebook Guide For Law Students
What would law review be without the perils and joys of bluebooking? If you’re still getting acquainted with the Bluebook, it can feel like a bit of an uphill climb, but thankfully there are many great resources out there to help. Here’s a comprehensive guide from Suffolk University with citation models and tips for using the 21st Edition Bluebook that was written by a former law review editor. Be sure to also look out for bluebooking guides offered by your law school library, and there are many more to be found from libraries across the country via a quick Google search!
Bonus bluebooking resource: Did you know that you can use Zotero to more easily organize and store Bluebook citations for law review? All you have to do is download the Bluebook styles to your Zotero account, and you’ll be on your way to speeder citation management. Here’s a quick guide from the University of Hawaiʻi School of Law Library on how to get that set up.
Law review advice from a former editor and current legal scholar
Entering law review is an exciting experience for editors, but also one filled with uncertainty around what to expect. Scholastica caught up with Ozan Varol, Professor at Lewis & Clark Law School and former editor-in-chief of the Iowa Law Review, to get advice on what new editors need to know about the article selection process to hit the ground running.
For more law review advice from past editors now on the author’s side of the submission table, be sure to also check out this Business Law Prof Blog post from Haskell Murray, Associate Professor of Management and Business Law, “Advice for Law Review Editors,” and this Scholastica blog interview with Enrique Armijo, Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Elon University School of Law, “The Two Sides of Law Review.”
Quick Guide to Promoting Your Law Review
Effective law review management requires more than excellent editorial skills — it also takes some promotion savvy. Every law review should develop a strategy to promote their calls for papers and published issues. In this quick guide, we highlight some of the top law review promotion examples we’ve seen that you can easily apply to your journal.
How to Write a Law Review Note Worthy of Publication: Choosing a Theme
Don’t forget to give yourself major kudos for being chosen for law review! Once onboarded, you’ll have the opportunity to not only learn the ins and outs of editing legal scholarship but also to leave your mark by publishing a student note or comment. Jonathan Burns, 2014 graduate of Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law, shares advice on how to choose a topic in this blog from The Girl’s Guide to Law School.
Resources for Submitting Authors:
Practical Tips for Placing and Publishing Your First Law Review Article
Are you preparing a law review article for the first time and wondering where to focus your writing attention? In this University of Richmond Law Review article, Robert Luther, Adjunct Professor of Law at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, outlines 10 tips to prepare a standout submission.
Top law review article submission tips for authors: Insights from the most-used platform
Even for the most seasoned legal scholars, law review submissions can be daunting. Thankfully, there are some definite best practices you can follow to get a leg up during article selection. At Scholastica, we’ve garnered many submission season insights from editors and authors over the years. In this post, we share our top law review submission tips to improve your chances of publication and save precious time.
Home Run Law Review Submissions: Tips For Authors
Like home runs in baseball, home run submissions are the result of one hit, one shot at publication. To help you get ahead of the game, Scholastica reached out to two law review editors to see what tips they had to improve your chances of getting an article accepted. Here’s what they had to say.
How Academics Survive the Writing Grind: Some Anecdotal Advice
What’s the least enjoyable part of law review submissions? If “writing articles” is the first thing that comes to mind, you’re not alone. Despite popularized images of inspired scribes able to channel their creative muses to compose clever prose with ease, in reality, when most sit down to conquer any writing project, law review article or otherwise, it can be a bit of a slog. In this helpful roundup from Literary Hub, academics share daily writing habits that have helped them overcome writer’s block and craft more compelling submissions.
Writing an Effective Abstract: An Audience-Based Approach
As you’re writing any law review article, keep in mind that the abstract is one of, if not the most, important areas to focus on. Your paper’s abstract will determine editors’ first impression of your article, so you want to make sure it’s clear and memorable. In this Inside Higher Ed article, Faye Halpern, associate professor of English at the University of Calgary, shares solid abstract writing advice that can be applied across scholarly disciplines.
Putting it all together
Finally, as you navigate submission season, remember that law review is a two-way street, and understanding and acknowledging the needs of editors and authors at each stage of the article selection process can make a big difference in article placement outcomes. Here are some top tips for editors and authors on how to more effectively communicate submission updates, collaborate throughout article revisions, and more this submission cycle.
We hope this roundup will be of help to you this submission season! If you have any questions or other helpful law review resources to add to the list, we invite you to share them in the comments section or on Twitter by tweeting us at @scholasticaLR and using the hashtag #LRSubmissions.
