Spring 2010: Is the Window Open? (bumped again)

posted by Kaimipono D. Wenger

(Bumped again, as there’s some very interesting discussion taking place in comments)

It’s ~~February~~, March, so let’s ask the regular questions:

1. Has your board turned over? If not, when will it?

2. Details please. Do you want new articles on the day the new board moves in, or would you prefer to get used to the new digs first? Overall, is your journal taking submissions yet; and if not, when will it start?

3. If you have already turned over, are you planning any theme issues that folks ought to consider submitting specialized pieces for?

4. What format do you want pieces in (especially if you are changing your previous policies).

5. Is there anything else that authors should keep in mind as this spring season (gulp) begins?

This thread will be bumped weakly. Err, weekly.

March 27, 2010 at 11:27 am Posted in: Law School (Law Reviews) Print This Post

Responses (385)

Illinois - February 6, 2010 at 6:30 pm

The University of Illinois Law Review’s board turned over last week. We are accepting submissions and will begin reviewing submissions next week. We prefer to receive submissions through ExpressO.
Keri Brooks - February 6, 2010 at 7:34 pm

The Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal’s board turns over in mid-March. I don’t have any other details yet.
Kristina - February 8, 2010 at 9:38 pm

The University of Akron’s Law Review board will be turning over right in time for the March 1st submission madness.

We have a new on-line Constitutional Journal called “Strict Scrutiny,” and we also have an Intellectual Property Journal and a Tax Journal, as well as our two general issues that we publish each year, plus our symposium articles.

We look for the same thing as every other journal, I would guess – an original topic, good prose, and well-documented authorities. Please consider us in your submission process – we publish timely.
Jennifer Bennett Shinall - February 11, 2010 at 7:02 pm

As of Wednesday, Vanderbilt Law Review has officially opened spring submissions. You can submit to us via ExpressO, email (articles.review@law.vanderbilt.edu), or by mail. Electronic submissions are preferred.

Our new board has turned over. As always, we opened submissions shortly after the turnover. We are not changing any of our policies this year, nor are we looking for specific types of articles. We are just looking for good ones!
Manic Prof - February 12, 2010 at 4:27 am

Here’s a public service. I submitted a piece on Feb. 10. FWIW, I have ExpressO confirmations of receipt (meaning somebody is conscious enough to click a computer mouse) from: BC, BYU, Cardozo, Columbia, Connecticut, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, NYU, U. Chicago, Pittsburgh, Utah, Wake Forest, Washington and Lee, Wm. and Mary, and Wisconsin. I already have a rejection from Vanderbilt, so I’m licking my wounds over the preceding comment.
Pete - February 14, 2010 at 8:07 pm

Ouch, me too! I just received the super-quick Vanderbilt rejection as well!
nmprisons - February 15, 2010 at 7:58 pm

Columbia Law Review turns over this Sunday.
Matthew Reid Krell - February 16, 2010 at 11:53 am

I submit via LexOpus because I don’t have the resources to pay for ExpressO. I have submitted to twenty-one journals accepting LO submissions, been acknowledged by three, including one rejection (not, thankfully, from Vanderbilt).
newbie prof. - February 16, 2010 at 2:43 pm

I think I may have jumped the gun by submitting too early; my fear is that my expedite deadlines from lower ranked journals will expire before the majority of law reviews are in full swing reviewing articles. I’m considering foregoing my existing offers in the hope of getting something from top 25. Has anyone done that before & have some advice? Do you lose credibility with law review editors if you write to them after an expedite request deadline has expired, asking them to still consider your piece? Will editors take it as a sign that your article is not worth reading and, therefore, reject you anyway? Should you instead withdraw the article and re-submit to the journals that you have not yet heard from? I welcome any thoughts.
slightly less newbie - February 16, 2010 at 3:59 pm

Newbie – it can be done but you’re playing with fire. Each of the top 25 law reviews will publish, on average, 12 articles a year. Not all of these articles will be picked this cycle, home-field advantage remains strong at the top journals, and at least 1/2 of the articles will be written by Cass Sunstein. So there’s really only 75-100 articles that are going to be picked this cycle under the most optimistic of circumstances. The idiosyncratic nature of student editors, the variety of interests in “hot topics” and the presence of “big name” authors also skews things.

It’s better to ask for more time on the expedite then to ignore it or to resubmit.
Previously Burned Newbie - February 16, 2010 at 6:12 pm

I jumped the gun with my first article, which I sent out last year at the beginning of January. It was accepted at a number of specialty journals and I accepted an offer within 8 days before it was read by general journals (unless they were so disinterested that they did not bother to respond). Now I find that the article I am working on will probably not be ready for submission until late March/early April. Is it better to hold it until mid-August or submit at that time?
Anon Prof - February 17, 2010 at 7:17 am

I have a random question: Does anyone know what the “Notes” section is for on the Stanford Law Review‘s new submission site? Do they want us to post our abstract there?
Stephanie - February 17, 2010 at 10:00 am

Newbie — Just ask the journals for an extension of your expedite. Most journals will accommodate your request.
Previously Burned Newbie - February 18, 2010 at 11:02 am

Is it ill-advised to submit to general law reviews in late March or in April? Any advice appreciated.
Emory Law Journal - February 18, 2010 at 11:36 am

The Emory Law Journal Board turns over during the first week of March; the new Board immediately will begin reviewing all ExpressO submissions that have accumulated over the past several weeks. Authors who submitted earlier in the season or who plan to submit by the end of March are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged for purposes of our articles selection process, which is conducted on a “rolling” basis. (We rarely fill our first few issues before the end of March.) Also, we currently have no plans for publishing a themed issue next year.
slightly less newbie - February 23, 2010 at 9:06 am

So far I’ve heard from Stanford, Cornell, Duke, and Georgetown – so they’re all actively processing submissions.
Anon Prof - February 23, 2010 at 9:54 am

slightly less newbie — what do you mean by “heard from”? Acknowledgment that they received your submission, or do you actually have a final decision on the merits from them? And, if the latter, are any of the decisions acceptances? Inquiring minds want to know!
relative newbie - February 23, 2010 at 10:12 am

previously burned: on the late March/early April question, it is a possibility. The spring before I went on the market I sent out a piece around April 1. I would have waited until the fall cycle, except that I really wanted to get it on my c.v. before the August 1 FAR drop. I got three or four offers from solid second-tier schools who were eager to have it. I think that they had probably lost out on some accepted pieces that had been expedited up, so they had some unanticipated holes to fill. Anecdotally I find this situation of losing pieces on expedite to be common all the way up to about the top 15 or 20 journals, so I do think there is a small window of opportunity for the post-expedite shuffle if you have reasons to want a publication commitment in the spring season. Otherwise I can’t say whether it would be better or worse than the fall.
slightly less newbie - February 23, 2010 at 10:34 am

I meant to say that I heard final dispositions from those law reviews. They are actively reading submissions and making decisions.
Anon Prof - February 23, 2010 at 2:19 pm

slightly less newbie — do you mind saying when you submitted and whether you expedited with any of them?
Denver EIC - February 23, 2010 at 3:50 pm

The University of Denver Law Review turned over last Friday. We’ll start reviewing submissions next Monday. We prefer electronic submissions through ExpressO (lawrev@law.du.edu), although I’m sure that’s true of everyone.

We also just launched an online supplement, FWIW: http://www.duprocess.org.
Another Newbie - February 24, 2010 at 9:26 am

I can add decisions from Harvard, NYU, Chicago, Cal, Michigan, Virginia, Penn, Notre Dame, Southern Cal, and Florida to the list.
Too Early - February 24, 2010 at 10:25 am

I can add Cardozo, Illinois (both rejections).
slightly less newbie - February 24, 2010 at 12:15 pm

Interesting. My decisions came from papers submitted 8 days ago, but I haven’t heard from some of the other schools listed as making decisions.
not so newbie - February 24, 2010 at 1:04 pm

Rejections from Minnesota, Stanford, Penn.
anon - February 24, 2010 at 5:47 pm

Duke, Fordham
Anon - February 25, 2010 at 6:11 am

You can add Tennessee, William & Mary, Washington & Lee, Wisconsin, and American to the list.
Prolific Prof - February 25, 2010 at 5:14 pm

Rejections from Michigan, W & M, Chicago, Cornell, Arizona State, California, Mich Law Ref, Vanderbilt (instantaneously), Duke, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Stanford.
me - February 26, 2010 at 5:40 pm

Hi all: I think it would be helpful if everyone indicated (along with school name) the date of their submission. I have received rejections from Michigan and Duke, and submitted on Feb 23rd.
Anon - February 26, 2010 at 6:49 pm

I know of two people who were rejected from Missouri VERY shortly after submission (within a couple of hours). Not sure if they’re having a email fluke or just a very picky intake editor, who is also a speed reader.

I can’t personally corroborate this as I didn’t submit to Missouri (I start with the top 50). However, I’ve received rejections from Duke, Michigan, Vanderbilt and Chicago.
Anon Prof - February 27, 2010 at 6:13 am

I agree with “me” — it would be very helpful if people could say both when they submitted, as well as whether they put in an expedite request before they were dinged.
Hello - February 28, 2010 at 11:14 am

As a newbie, I’m curious as to what law review rankings other law schools follow. For instance, my school uses US News for general law reviews, and Wash & Lee for specialty journals. However, there are some significant differences between the two rankings for general law reviews. All thoughts are appreciated!
anon jr prof - March 1, 2010 at 11:33 am

Hello: my school values placement based on similar criteria, but considers US News as well as W&L for specialty journals.

Does anyone have thoughts on or experience with the rejection rate at second-round review? I assume it depends on the journal, but do 50% of articles that make it that far tend to receive offers? More? Fewer?
unknownfellow - March 1, 2010 at 4:01 pm

Arizona State is making decisions in case this thread ever gets bumped again.
anon - March 2, 2010 at 10:28 am

Mod: Please bump this thread.
Anon - March 2, 2010 at 2:20 pm

Yeah, both me and a colleague got a rejection from Arizona State just a few minutes after submitting. I really think it’s a flawed system where one editor is allowed to decide whether a piece moves forward in the process or not.
anon - March 2, 2010 at 3:05 pm

How many stages of review are there usually and what does each stage consist of?
Anon - March 2, 2010 at 4:01 pm

Well, ideally, each piece goes to more than one person for the initial review, a “higher” editor after that and ultimately the editorial board. Sadly, at some schools, one person gets to read (or in the case of some, “skim”) the article and if he/she doesn’t like it for whatever reason, then the piece dies.
Anon - March 3, 2010 at 1:34 pm

Submitted on the 15th. Heard from Yale today. I guess that means it wasn’t so bad that they threw it out immediately.
anon - March 4, 2010 at 6:26 pm

Submitted mid-to-late February. Rejections from: Michigan, Duke, Cornell, Georgetown, Minnesota, Boston College, BYU, Cardozo, Florida, Arizona State, Pepperdine, Lewis & Clark, Kansas, Temple, Baylor, Penn State, Oregon, Seton Hall, Arkansas.
anon - March 5, 2010 at 3:11 pm

So is anyone getting offers yet? At my school, a bunch of people have submitted articles in the past three weeks. We all have pretty impressive publication records. Yet no one has an offer yet, only rejections.
another anon - March 5, 2010 at 4:30 pm

Dear Anon March 5:

Exactly what I have been wondering. I have received an offer from what I think is very good specialty journal but have not yet heard from any top 50 (except rejections). I assume you mean top 50 general law reviews?
new prof - March 5, 2010 at 5:40 pm

I’m wondering the same thing. I submitted to 21 journals on the 11th and another 14 the following week. I have only heard from 6 so far (all rejections from journals already listed). Several of those that remain have been listed. Go figure.
anon - March 5, 2010 at 6:14 pm

I’m the original anon from today. Some of my colleagues just submitted to the top 50 general; others to the top 100. No one has heard anything positive. Just rejections, mostly from the ones listed earlier in this thread.
Anon - March 5, 2010 at 7:04 pm

I’m so glad I checked out this website today, because I too have submitted yet, so far, have only had rejections. Those rejections came from: Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Michigan, Duke, Cornell, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Minnesota, William and Mary, BYU, Arizona State (almost immediately after submission I might add — a bit fishy if you ask me), and Pepperdine.

I too have a good publication history, so am a bit concerned by the lack of any positive response.
Prolific Prof - March 6, 2010 at 9:28 am

Submitted in batches from about Feb. 15 on. Now have an offer from a general law review that is ranked in US news “second fifty”. Expediting but willing to accept this one if nothing else pops up.
Prolific Prof - March 6, 2010 at 2:15 pm

Also, if so much didn’t depend on the nonsense of placement in “top 30″ etc., and there wasn’t so much letterhead bias, etc., etc., I would pose the following as a parlor game question, but in this world one has to take it seriously.

Is there a generally accepted algorithm on the “brand” of “mega-elite” specialty journals to general law reviews?
unknownfellow - March 7, 2010 at 4:29 pm

I’ve had pretty good placements recently and submitted a piece that I’d presented at three schools. I sent it through Expresso to the top 40 schools on the 17th. I didn’t hear anything until last week, when I got an acceptance from a school near the bottom of that list. Once I expedited I got a cascade of acceptances within 24 hours. I’m pretty happy with where I ended up, at a very top journal.

I hadn’t seen such delays before. The speediness of the acceptances after the expedite made me wonder if schools where using that process to kick them into gear.
PublishingProf - March 7, 2010 at 4:52 pm

I submitted on Feb. 28. I have rejections from Maryland, Arizona State, Seton Hall, Baylor, Cornell, Duke, Michigan, and Kentucky. No further responses to report.

Can everyone also provide the general subject matter of their article? Mine is a corporations article.
PublishingProf - March 7, 2010 at 4:53 pm

I should add–the delay is freaking me out a little.
also waiting - March 7, 2010 at 5:23 pm

I’d love to hear what the hot topics of the year are. As a legal historian, I know I’m never really going to be in high demand.
PublishingProf - March 7, 2010 at 5:24 pm

In response to Prolific Prof: I am not entirely sure what you mean by “brand.” I have, however, heard that one can take any top 30 school’s specialty journal, add 20 to it, and arrive at a reasonable ranking within the overall scheme. Does anyone agree/disagree with this notion?
anon - March 7, 2010 at 8:23 pm

I think those formulas tend to oversell the specialty journals. Leaving aside the very high reputation ones (HCLCR, Y. J. Reg., etc.), I think any top 50 flagship is more valuable (at least in the job market) than a specialty journal. But I could be wrong.
other anon - March 7, 2010 at 9:17 pm

I agree that the +20 is too much. I always went with some lose conception of school rank + (50 – vol number of 2ndary journal). That way older, more respected journals like CRCL, and VA Int’l Law get the recognition they deserve, rather than the second issue of the Yale Journal of Sustainable Development or whatever.
PublishingProf - March 8, 2010 at 1:48 pm

You can add Illinois to my list of rejections.
done - March 8, 2010 at 1:58 pm

Here’s my take:

Last fall, a number of journals failed to take any articles (or very few) because they had already filled their books last March.

As word got out that fall was booked, more profs decided to submit this March rather than wait for next fall. That is, the perception that Fall is no longer a viable season makes Spring far more competitive. That would suggest that submissions are up.

(Law review editors who are reading this, is this true?)

At the same time, the window seemed more variable this year. Expresso collected articles for a number of law reviews in late February, even though said law reviews did not begin their reviews until this or last week.

Finally, for the first time this year, I found Expresso’s expedite system did not work as well. I received more than a few “bouncebacks” from law review spam filters. As a result, I spent a fair amount of time sending out individual emails to law review editors – and in several instances received “we received your expedite” confirmations as late as one week after I had sent the initial email.

So, an increase in submissions, a more variable window, and a clunkier email expedite system all may be contributing to a harder season. (Or, it’s just anecdotal self-selection).
Aspirant - March 8, 2010 at 2:44 pm

This whole process makes me grumpy. Ah, to be a law review editor with a God complex again….
Relieved - March 8, 2010 at 2:49 pm

I had a similar experience to someone above. Submitted on the 25th. Heard nothing until last Thursday. Expedited and then got 9 offers by this morning. No idea why so slow.
anon - March 8, 2010 at 3:31 pm

Relieved: Can you give some sense of where the initial offer was from and then where the expedites came from? E.g., you submitted to the top 100, and got an offer from 50-75 range, and then expedited up to the 25-50 range.
anon - March 8, 2010 at 3:33 pm

Relieved: As a follow up on the previous post, I’m wondering where you submitted because I’m trying to decide whether to send out another batch of submissions to the next group of lower ranked journals.
Relieved - March 8, 2010 at 3:45 pm

Applied to top 60. Heard from school ~40s. Expedited it up to top 30.
AnonyProf - March 8, 2010 at 5:19 pm

Heard from (dinged by): Arizona State, Maryland, Chicago, Kansas, Michigan, Houston, Illinois
PublishingProf - March 8, 2010 at 5:31 pm

AnonyProf: When did you submit?
PublishingProf - March 8, 2010 at 6:54 pm

Add Stanford to the list.
another anon - March 9, 2010 at 9:38 am

If a journal gives you a week to reply (and if the acceptance was not precipitated by an expedite request), is it normal to request a longer period for deliberations and of course the chance to expedite? Or is a week really all that is realistically required for most journals up the food chain to decide?
anon - March 9, 2010 at 9:41 am

If a journal says that they need your answer by x day, is it expected that you must respond before that day or is it okay to respond on that day?
PublishingProf - March 9, 2010 at 10:52 am

Another anon and anon: For whatever it is worth—I have often asked for more time. It is usually granted. That being said, you need to weigh whether you think it will be worth it, as it may mean you are published in a later book.

When a journal tells me to decide by X date, I usually let it know by close of business on that date. I have never had problems from that, but it makes sense to clarify at the time the offer is made.
first time publisher - March 10, 2010 at 12:00 pm

I submitted my piece on March 1st (9 days ago) to top 100 and some specialty journals. So far, I have only heard rejections from 14 journals. Should I be worried? What is the general response time for acceptances? Should I try to submit to lower ranked journals and then expedite it up? Would appreciate some advice from more experienced people. How long does it usually take to get an acceptance?
Aspirant - March 10, 2010 at 2:41 pm

I’ve received about the same number of rejections as 68, although I’m submitting two articles this year. Still haven’t even gotten acknowledgements from the bulk of the journals. Seems slow this year, although I submitted later last year, so maybe that allowed journals to ding me more quickly.
PublishingProf - March 10, 2010 at 3:18 pm

First-time publisher and Aspirant: can you tell us where your rejections came from?

First-time publisher: That seems to be everyone’s experience. If this were the fall submission season, I would tell you to be worried. Given that it’s spring, it is not incredibly unnormal.
Aspirant - March 10, 2010 at 4:04 pm

Yale, Stanford, Michigan, Arizona State, William and Mary, Cornell, Seton Hall, Cardozo, Kentucky, Illinois, SMU, Baylor, Duke, Indiana, Vanderbilt.
Anon - March 10, 2010 at 4:22 pm

New Rejections: Utah and Ohio State.
PublishingProf - March 10, 2010 at 4:29 pm

Add Yale and Georgetown to my list.
PublishingProf - March 10, 2010 at 4:30 pm

Aspirant: When did you submit?
first time publisher - March 10, 2010 at 5:26 pm

My rejections so far: Yale, Michigan, Duke, Baylor, kansas, Yale JREG, Illinois, Kentucky, Cornell, Houston, Arizona State, Stanford, Temple, and Utah.

What is the typical acceptance timeline for spring then as opposed to fall? If 9 days is too long for Fall, when should I start to worry with Spring and/or start submitting to lower-ranked journals? Any thoughts?
PublishingProf - March 10, 2010 at 6:24 pm

First time publisher: In the fall, I have had an offer from a top 100 within 3 hours of submission. Spring is just alot slower. I submitted on February 28 and have not received an offer yet. I intend to wait another week before I completely freak out and send another wave.
Old Timer - March 10, 2010 at 10:31 pm

Has anyone gotten an acceptance from a top 20? I’m sitting on an offer that expires on Friday and feel like things are being extra slow this time around
Aspirant - March 11, 2010 at 2:51 am

Add Florida and Kansas to my list.
Publishing Prof: I submitted one article on March 1 and the other on March 4.
Anon - March 11, 2010 at 3:59 am

Old Timer–NYU, Berkeley, and Virginia have all accepted pieces (not mine, unfortunately) this time around. (There might be additional top schools accepting pieces–that’s just where people I know have placed.)
Anon Prof - March 11, 2010 at 6:24 am

A bit off-topic, but since people have mentioned the fall submission season, I figured I’d ask: When is the best time for fall submissions? Early August? Late August? September?
PublishingProf - March 11, 2010 at 7:07 am

You can add W&M to my list.
PublishingProf - March 11, 2010 at 7:15 am

Anon Prof: I always shoot for first week of August. I have heard of people getting good acceptances all the way into October though.
Anon Prof - March 11, 2010 at 7:17 am

And first week of August isn’t too early? (By which I mean, are most/all of the law reviews ready to read and make offers then, so you don’t get stuck with an exploding offer when better journals haven’t yet had a chance to read it?)
PublishingProf - March 11, 2010 at 9:02 am

Anon Prof: People certainly disagree here. Others at least perceive that as a potential problem. Assuming the concern has merit, it has never manifested for me.
Anon - March 11, 2010 at 9:48 am

“No” from Columbia. Btw, does anyone else hate the “We cannot accept” language that is in the form rejections they send? I can think of a million better ways to phrase a rejection.
Name, required - March 11, 2010 at 10:16 am

Anon – it could be worse.

Dear Anon,
Seriously? Oh hell no.
Hugs,
CLR
new prof - March 11, 2010 at 10:58 am

Wow, the silence remains deafening this week. And to make matters worse, my “Anti-spam word” is “toast”…
Aspirant - March 11, 2010 at 11:29 am

Add Chicago to my list.
Curious - March 11, 2010 at 1:14 pm

I too have been rejected from many of the journals you all have already listed; however, there are a few that many of you have listed that I have not yet heard from. Is it fair for me to infer anything from that (i.e., if I haven’t been rejected yet, they are at least considering mine)?

Btw, I’ve published four pieces, all of which were in the top 100, and two of which were in the top 50. Only once before, though, have I done a Spring submission, but even then, it wasn’t this quiet. Normally I get an acceptance within a few days or, worst case scenario, a week later. The extended silence this time is a bit disconcerting . . .
PublishingProf - March 11, 2010 at 1:46 pm

Just received an acceptance from a top 100.
Aspirant - March 11, 2010 at 2:42 pm

Congrats PublishingProf. You’ve lived up to your moniker. Here’s hoping it’s contagious.
anon - March 11, 2010 at 2:59 pm

For teaching market purposes, at what point does a law review placement not really help or end up doing more harm than good, ie, a placement outside the top 100? Top 75? Top 50?
Anon - March 11, 2010 at 3:02 pm

I think a low third-tier or fourth tier placement could theoretically hurt; however, appointment committees would still look at the piece and hopefully judge it on its merits. They realize that for those who don’t currently have the title “Professor,” placement can be quite difficult.
Aspirant - March 11, 2010 at 3:19 pm

That’s reassuring. I published at a third-tier journal last year while I was still a student, and I am a little worried about how appointment committees will look at that.
PublishingProf - March 11, 2010 at 3:22 pm

#92: I generally agree with #93. However, I will add this: it depends on the school. Some schools are more snobbish about placement than others. If you are looking to work (profess) at a tier three or four, they accept quite a bit more. Some first-tier schools (at least I have heard) will not “count” any publications outside the top 25.
Yet Another Anon - March 11, 2010 at 3:24 pm

In my experience, a long silence means the article made it past the instant-rejection screening into a lower-priority pile. Not the best thing in the world, but at least it means it’s still in the running. Once you get one acceptance from anywhere, you can expedite it out of that stack and hear from everyone within a week or two.
PublishingProf - March 11, 2010 at 3:27 pm

Aspirant: In my limited experience on appointments committees (only two different committees), articles written while a candidate was a student do not “count.” Some have discussed that they can demonstrate “potential,” but in my experience, the votes never seem to fit that statement. Please don’t take that as meaning anything, however. As I said, my experience is limited.
Another Aspirant - March 11, 2010 at 8:59 pm

Do others share Yet Another Anon’s experience that silence means still in the running? Are journals generally good about sending rejections, or are there some journals that just don’t reply at all if they’re not interested?
done - March 11, 2010 at 9:53 pm

Sadly, there are a number of journals that send no word, unless pushed. I always wait to see what kind of response I get from an expedite request. If the answer is from an actual person (ie, a particular article editor), then I figure I am still alive and have made it past first reader’s review. If all I get is silence or a canned email with nothing more, then I figure I’m gone.
Old Timer - March 11, 2010 at 10:40 pm

Does this reset to 0 now? If so, uh, first?
Anonymous - March 11, 2010 at 11:19 pm

I’ve appreciated this thread very much. I have not posted before but have so far received only rejections from a number of the schools listed above (I submitted at the end of February).

Has anyone out there struck out in a spring cycle and then placed the same piece successfully in the fall? Any tips (aside from timing) for someone hoping to do this, e.g., advice about how to repackage a piece effectively?
HumbleWriter - March 12, 2010 at 9:26 am

Submitted in batches to “top 100″ general reviews and selected “top 20″ specialty journals from about Feb. 10 on. Got lots of rejections. Got an offer from a mid second fifty general review last week. Expedited. Got more rejections. Accepted offer today. Pleased. Glad to be done with it.
HumbleWriter - March 12, 2010 at 9:59 am

Hah. Out of courtesy just sent a withdrawal note via ExpressO to all reviews not having already rejected the piece. Got this automated response from one that will remain nameless:

Thank you for your submission to the X Law Review. Your article will be thoroughly reviewed by our Articles Editor within the next two to three weeks. If our Articles Editor recommends your submission for publication and our Editor-in-Chief approves that recommendation, we will extend an offer of publication immediately. But due to the large volume of articles that we receive, our Articles Editor and staff are unable to respond to the submissions that we cannot offer to publish. If you do not hear from our Articles Editor and you are interested in the status of your submission, please send any questions or concerns to law@law.X.edu. Thank you again for considering the X Law Review for publication of your article.
ano - March 13, 2010 at 10:05 pm

Submitted on 2/15. Just got rejections from Chicago and Vanderbilt. Eh.
Aspirant - March 14, 2010 at 6:15 am

Rejection from Penn State.
PublishingProf - March 14, 2010 at 6:34 am

You can add Minnesota, Houston, Penn State, and UCLA to my list.
Aspirant - March 14, 2010 at 9:57 am

And Florida state to mine.
ParanoidProf - March 14, 2010 at 1:59 pm

I too just got the Penn State rejection — wondered when I was going to hear form them as I’d already been rejected from most the ones already listed on this page.
Dumbledore - March 15, 2010 at 7:32 am

Yesterday I got an acceptance from a lower-ranked journal and sent expedites. A couple of journals have sent e-mails “granting” my expedite request. Are these just form letters, or do they indicate that my article is under serious consideration there?
Aspirant - March 15, 2010 at 9:42 am

Add NYU to the list.
Dumbledore: my experience last year was that it was just a courtesy, nothing more.
Keder - March 15, 2010 at 10:55 am

I too just got Fordham rejection. Submitted March 7.
anon - March 15, 2010 at 4:24 pm

Still nothing for me. How late does the season go? When is it time to abandon all hope?
ParanoidProf - March 15, 2010 at 5:08 pm

anon, you and I are in the same vote — nothing here either. I’ve never seen such a quiet season.

Btw, rejections from Virginia and NYU today.
first time publisher - March 15, 2010 at 5:40 pm

I am in the same boat too. Depressing.
PublishingProf - March 15, 2010 at 6:04 pm

Add BYU, NYU, and Notre Dame to my list.
another anon - March 15, 2010 at 6:40 pm

I submitted toward the end of February. Two weeks later got an offer from a mid-second tier law review. Got two weeks on the expedite, which expires next week. Have rejections from: Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, BYU, California, Chicago, Cornell, Duke, Florida, Georgetown, Houston, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon,
Penn, Penn State, Stanford, Temple, Utah, Vanderbilt, Virginia, William and Mary, Yale.
PublishingProf - March 16, 2010 at 5:17 am

You can add Arizona to my list.
baffled - March 16, 2010 at 5:19 am

I have published several articles in top-10 journals. I sent out a piece nearly a month ago. Zilch, nada, nothing. Rejections from 8 of the top 15 and not a word from any of the other 35+ journals I sent to. What is going on here? No prior season has unfolded this poorly or in this particular manner for me. This might not be my best article but it’s certainly not lousy. Hearing a lot of frustration from other folks too. Seems like something is different this year (truly crushing volume of submissions maybe?).
ParanoidProf - March 16, 2010 at 9:08 am

Rejection from Tulane.
Same here - March 16, 2010 at 9:11 am

I also just got a rejection from Tulane. I’ve had the same experience as baffled and I just don’t know what’s going on.
Keder - March 16, 2010 at 9:12 am

Rejection from Tulane as well, although they “enjoyed reading [my] article.”
ParanoidProf - March 16, 2010 at 9:15 am

Professor,

Although our editorial department enjoyed reading your article, we are currently unable to offer it a place in Volume 85. We hope you consider submitting to the Tulane Law Review in the future. Most of all, we wish you luck with your current piece.

Very truly yours,

Mark Schlackman

LOL!
another anon - March 16, 2010 at 9:18 am

Got my Tulane rejection too. The editorial department really enjoyed reading my article as well. That makes me so happy!
Aspirant - March 16, 2010 at 9:32 am

Also Tulane.
another anon - March 16, 2010 at 9:37 am

Arizona’s rejection yesterday was particularly uplifting and encouraging: “I enjoyed reading your article and am confident that it will be well-received wherever you choose to publish it. I wish you all the best and sincerely hope that you will consider submitting to the Arizona Law Review again.”
Anonymous Above - March 16, 2010 at 9:41 am

I just got the Tulane rejection too. I’m the poster who asked above about next-cycle strategies if no offers materialize. Maybe nobody reading this has ever had to deal with such a situation before?
another anon - March 16, 2010 at 9:59 am

Dear Anonymous Above:

I know how crushing it can be to come up empty-handed but a couple of things to bear in mind:
1) The season is not over. I’d wait another a week or even two before giving up hope.
2) You may want to consider what if any other journals there are that might count for your tenure committee. For instance, if you do legal theory, there are many really excellent peer-reviewed journals (Legal Theory, Law and Philosophy, J. of Legal Studies.) Trouble is they require shorter pieces (12,000 words or less, generally).
3) Here is a post from last year’s Fall season about rejections.
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/09/dealing-with-law-review-rejections.html
4) Finally, I think a lot of this is about packaging. Law review editors are not aware of a “literature” or scholarly debates nor are they familiar with your discipline. What they can figure out is whether something is well-written and interesting on its face. Stylistic editing can be very useful, I think.
5) I think that this kind of a blog is useful for some things: alerting people to when law reviews are actively reviewing pieces, for instance. But I think it feeds a shockingly unprofessional attitude toward journals to complain about the form of rejection letters, etc. Of course the process is ridiculous and these law review editors are bearing the brunt of the pressures on every professor in every (third and fourth tier) school to produce,produce, produce and so to submit, submit, submit. But they are doing their best, I am sure!!

Good luck–and stay focused on your research not just on these results!
Anonymous Above - March 16, 2010 at 10:20 am

another anon, thanks very much for the link. Somehow I never saw that post last fall (or maybe I just forgot about it). And I apologize if my comment suggested a lack of compassion for editors. I agree they have a tough job.
Rolo Timassie - March 16, 2010 at 10:52 am

I agree with 9:59am.

I would also add that whatever other changes we might want to make to the law review system, asking for individually tailored rejection letters surely is at the bottom of the pile of priorities.
anon - March 16, 2010 at 10:57 am

Rolo: Agreed; form letters are fine.

At the top of my list of changes we might want to make to the law review system: my not getting an offer yet this season.
ParanoidProf - March 16, 2010 at 11:38 am

I’m not complaining at all about the rejection letter — I just think it’s funny (i.e., I’m at the laughing to keep from crying point). I certainly prefer any rejection letter to the numerous journals who never even acknowledge that you ever sent them anything.
yet another anon - March 16, 2010 at 11:45 am

I have very much enjoyed this thread given the almost complete lack of information we all have about what’s going on behind the curtain. I also agree we should focus on more important issues than form of rejection letters.

Anonymous Above: For what it’s worth, I did what you may wind up doing. I submitted an article in Fall 2009 and the best that I got was a barely top-100 placement which I decided wasn’t good enough. I spent a couple of weeks early this year editing the article (tightened up some places, expanded others, rewrote awkward sentences), had a research assistant bluebook it carefully, gave it a new (and better) title and submitted it in late February 2010. I have received two significantly better (mid-100) offers (don’t worry — I am only holding one right now). I also agree with Another Anon — I don’t think you should give up hope for this cycle yet. Good luck!
new anon - March 16, 2010 at 12:19 pm

This is starting to sound familiar, but: I submitted on March 2, have been rejected by Duke, Michigan, Cornell, Yale, Yale Law & Policy, Illinois, Stanford, Houston. Most of those were not exactly surprises (hey, an aspiring prof can dream, right?), but I’m getting anxious about the radio silence from the other 50 or so journals so which I submitted.
ParanoidProf - March 16, 2010 at 7:14 pm

Offer from specialty journal.
Aspirant - March 17, 2010 at 3:17 am

Add BYU to my list.
InquiringMind - March 17, 2010 at 4:06 am

It’s hard to tell what kind of sample this is. Do people who get offers just not comment here? Is this just a couple people talking to themselves? What is the “ranking distribution” of the posters? That is, is the phenomenon seemingly emanating from the thread about the same all the way up and down the food chain, the experience of profs from “lower ranked” schools, or prof wannabes? Inquiring minds want to know.
Anonymous Above - March 17, 2010 at 5:49 am

It seems to be more than a couple of people, but maybe not much more. People with satisfactory offers probably have better things to do than read these comments. It has been valuable to me to know I’m not the only person having such a hard time this season, though it appears the ranks of the offer-less are dwindling. I am on the tenure track at a school ranked in the 50-100 range.
Aspirant - March 17, 2010 at 6:11 am

I’m an aspiring professor (as my name suggests) with a JD and one publication who’s currently working on a DPhil at Oxford.
new anon - March 17, 2010 at 6:49 am

Add Florida to my list. I’m an aspiring prof in a teaching fellowship at a top-tier school, but no prior publications.
unpublished - March 17, 2010 at 8:21 am

I’ve not posted yet, but I’ve found these comments valuable. I have not published academically, and I’m in private practice. I’ve received rejections from most of the journals listed above, and have no others to add. I check my phone more often than I should…

Thanks to another anon and yet another anon (127 and 132) for the helpful comments re reworking toward fall submission, should that be necessary. Recognizing the importance of packaging, any thoughts on overcoming a weak star footnote? Might a more detailed cover letter (perhaps explaining relevant experience) help, or would this only draw attention to that dim star footnote? Also, (and I’m probably stretching here), does anyone have thoughts one way or the other about formatting the article (i.e. double spaced or journal formatting)? Could this possibly matter?
ParanoidProf - March 17, 2010 at 1:47 pm

I’m a prof at a top 50 law school (closer to 50) and have published four articles previously. I’ve never seen such a pronounced silence as that which is occuring this submission cycle. Many of my colleagues agree. Also, I spoke with the EIC of my school’s journal today and was told that they have not yet made any offers but are instead still going through the submissions.

So, for what it’s worth.
PublishingProf - March 17, 2010 at 3:29 pm

Add Texas, OSU, and Chicago to my list.
first time publisher - March 17, 2010 at 7:07 pm

I am still hopeful that I will get an offer from a top 100 (I am a fellow at a top 5), but just one question for the group: Would you go with a top 10 school’s specialty journal or a LR from a 2nd or 3rd tier law school. Those are my only options so far. The Washington and Lee gives the Law Reviews a way higher rank than the specialty journals, but I am not sure I can trust their ranking system. Again, I am still hopeful, but just want some insight from the forum. Thanks.
PublishingProf - March 17, 2010 at 7:27 pm

First-Time Publisher: As between a third or fourth-tier LR and a top-10 specialty journal, I would choose the specialty journal.
Keder - March 17, 2010 at 7:43 pm

Definitely the specialty journal!
editor - March 17, 2010 at 7:59 pm

I’m an editor at a top 40 journal. I find this thread rather amazing. So far, we’ve made seven offers and lost all of them to the expedite process. I don’t think things are particularly slow this year – rather it seems that people are placing top articles through solicitation more than normal. From my perspective, the informal parts of the process are dominating the formal parts.
anon - March 17, 2010 at 8:19 pm

editor:

If you are comfortable sharing: How many of the seven offers you have given out were in response to an expedite request?
editor - March 17, 2010 at 9:24 pm

None. We’ve received a fairly small number of expedites (we do so blindly, so I have no idea if they are from lower ranked general reviews or secondary journals) and have rejected them all. Expediting tends not to improve one’s standing in general and that has been the case so far this year.
Lawrence Cunningham - March 17, 2010 at 10:26 pm

For a droll mix to the dreary sense many skimmers may get from this thread to this point, how would people choose from among multiple offers from, say, Columbia, Stanford, Michigan and Penn? A high-class problem, to be sure, but still a problem. It does happen, though not yet to me.
Jeff Lipshaw - March 18, 2010 at 4:38 am

Larry, I prefer my fantasies to involve winning the Lotto.
Anonymous Above - March 18, 2010 at 4:56 am

Editor, thanks for contributing your perspective. I’m curious what it is that you find “amazing” about this thread–is it the amount of speculation going on, or something else?
Aspirant - March 18, 2010 at 5:07 am

Larry, you might use placement within the journal (whether you can bargain to be the lead article), copyright or editorial policies, or friendliness and ease of communication with the editors as determining factors should you find yourself in that enviable position.
anon - March 18, 2010 at 6:59 am

I too appreciate Editor’s posting here. I’ve posted here several times and I think we all realize that the readers of and commenters on this thread are self-selecting–if you already have an offer you wouldn’t go looking for information on whether the spring submission season is still open. We all have a sense that the submission season is slow because we don’t have offers.

It’s comforting to see a post with information from an EIC at a top 50 journal that the journal has not given out a single offer. And not so comforting to see Editor posting that they’ve given out seven offers. It obviously will depend journal to journal and, in reality, this season is probably no different from any in the past.

Best of luck to all those, like me, still looking for that first offer this season. Hopefully, as other authors expedite up, more space will become available and everybody will get a placement around where they had hoped.

p.s.: Editor, if you’re looking for a great article where the author will agree not to expedite up, I can name at least one. : )
anon - March 18, 2010 at 8:05 am

Here’s a question for the editors (or for anyone who has any experience with the practice): is there any advantage available to expediting authors who are willing to commit to accepting an offer if it comes their way from the expedited-to journal(s)? Or does it just come off as desperate?
PublishingProf - March 18, 2010 at 10:47 am

Just received a second top-100 offer.
PublishingProf - March 18, 2010 at 11:10 am

Just received a rejection from Vandy.
Same here - March 18, 2010 at 1:15 pm

Ohio State today.
ParanoidProf - March 18, 2010 at 3:54 pm

Got an offer from a top 100. Rejections from Maryland, Florida, Cincinnati.
Aspirant - March 19, 2010 at 2:21 am

Rejection from Harvard.
PublishingProf - March 19, 2010 at 6:59 am

Add Indiana Law Journal to my list.
Aspirant - March 19, 2010 at 9:47 am

For what it’s worth, I just got an email from Arkansas saying they are now full.
ParanoidProf - March 19, 2010 at 10:17 am

For what it’s worth, I’ve gotten several responses to expedite requests that are along the lines of “we haven’t started looking at articles yet, so we’d need until at least April 1 to look over your work.”

Two rather high-ranked journals have told me this . . .
Aspirant - March 19, 2010 at 10:20 am

Also add Akron to my list. I suppose it’s somewhat relieving that higher-ranked journals may not yet be reviewing, but given my track record so far, it may do little for me.
NotAProf - March 19, 2010 at 11:05 am

Apparently the game is stil on: Submitted to about the top 25, two weeks ago. Seven relatively quick rejections, but otherwise total radio silence. Got my first acceptance today (from a journal towards the bottom of the top 25).
NotAProf - March 19, 2010 at 11:19 am

I also received a “we need until April 1″ response to my expedite. As a very recent Article Editor myself, I do sympathize with the difficult of running a piece from zero to acceptance in under a week, but really, maybe they just need more Articles Editors.
PublishingProf - March 19, 2010 at 11:40 am

NotAProf: Congrats!

Add UC Davis to my list.
another anon - March 19, 2010 at 11:40 am

My two-week expedite expires Monday. I still have about 30 to 35 journals I haven’t heard from. Chances I hear from more than a small handful of them by Monday?
relatively new - March 19, 2010 at 3:51 pm

I’m curious about the question someone else asked about how to value the US News Rankings vs. the W and L rankings (and w/ W and L, is it the ‘combined’ that matters most?) If you get an offer from, say two top 100 journals, one of which is ranked higher in US news but lower in Wash and Lee, which do you go with?
anon - March 19, 2010 at 5:04 pm

The one ranked higher in US news.
anon - March 19, 2010 at 5:18 pm

If you’re looking for a job or promotion as a law professor, go with US News. That’s what people know (or have a good idea about) off the top of their head when they look over resumes. People don’t have a clue what the W&L rankings are unless they actually go to the website, which most people reviewing resumes won’t be doing.
PublishingProf - March 19, 2010 at 5:24 pm

relatively new: I agree with anon.
editor - March 20, 2010 at 8:06 am

i’m sure this is dumb question, but being a new articles editor I thought I’d ask: does US News have a separate top 100 list for law reviews? Or, is the US News list referred to above the list for the top 100 law schools?
ParanoidProf - March 20, 2010 at 8:27 am

Hi editor, not a dumb question at all. No, US News does no such ranking — folks are just referring to the basic ranking of the top 100 law schools.

The only ranking of law reviews that I know of is the Washington and Lee one.

Hope this helps.
Aspirant - March 20, 2010 at 9:53 am

Just got the no from Georgetown.
Keder - March 20, 2010 at 10:24 am

Aspirant, so am I, received the Georgetown rejection.
anon - March 20, 2010 at 10:54 am

Another reason why W&L is less relevant – if your tenure process involves going through university-level approval (not law school folks), they’ll have no clue what the W&L rankings but might have a sense of the US News rankings. Might.
Anon - March 20, 2010 at 4:22 pm

I think it would be helpful if people started listing journals they know have made offers. I’ll go first: Georgetown, Florida State, SMU, UC Davis, St. Johns, Cincinnati.
PublishingProf - March 20, 2010 at 4:33 pm

More rejections: Fordham and Columbia.
Anon - March 20, 2010 at 5:16 pm

Seton Hall.
Anon - March 20, 2010 at 5:16 pm

That’s an offer from Seton Hall.
plentyofrejections - March 20, 2010 at 5:17 pm

I’ve received too many rejections to count, but I do have an offer from a 70ish main law review and the Administrative Law Review. Not sure which is better; I’m not holding out hope for top 50 journals, having been rejected by nearly 30 so far.

Any thoughts/suggestions? Sent out late Feb.
Anon - March 20, 2010 at 5:22 pm

I too submitted in late Feb. and had 30+ rejections from the top 50, but just received a top 50 offer today. Don’t lose hope.
Stillwaiting - March 20, 2010 at 7:06 pm

At least half of the journals did not send any acknowledgment that they received the paper. Is it the same for the rest? Should I send them an email? I submitted beginning of March.
plentyofrejections - March 20, 2010 at 8:27 pm

Stillwaiting — for the most part, the rejection was the only acknowledgement I received. If you submitted online, I wouldn’t bother with a follow up. If you sent a paper copy by snail mail, then perhaps its worth checking in.
anon - March 20, 2010 at 8:59 pm

what a fucking joke this is.
plentyofrejections - March 20, 2010 at 9:29 pm

also, any thoughts on whether 70ish general journal is better than Administrative Law Review? seems like ALR has far more submissions from top professors than the 70ish general journal, but the ALR is nonetheless “secondary”.
Aspirant - March 21, 2010 at 4:47 am

My guess would be that a 70ish general is better than the Administrative Law Review, given the discussion of specialty journals above.
Anonjuniorprof - March 21, 2010 at 7:46 am

How about those journals from which no one has heard a peep? Based on this thread and the experience of me and my colleagues, I have the following list: Northwestern, WashU, Iowa, GW, Alabama, UWash, Georgia, Hastings, Wake and George Mason. Has anyone heard from these places (positively, negatively or otherwise)?
Aspirant - March 21, 2010 at 8:09 am

I did get submission confirmations from WashU, UWash, and Hastings, but that’s it.
anon - March 21, 2010 at 9:04 am

From the list above: rejections from Northwestern and Georgia.
Still-Waiting - March 21, 2010 at 9:56 am

I have a couple of questions, one particularly for the EDITOR who posted on March 17.

First, the general question. Since the boards are in place for this round and the fall round, how feasible is it to revise and tighten up an article and re-submit in the summer? In other words, will a board that has seen an article in an earlier round bother to look at a revised version, or will they just pass over it as old news.

Similarly, how feasible is it to revise an article in the midst of the process? In other words, three weeks into this round, while still waiting for word from many journals, can one re-submit a revised and tightended version, or will that simply be ignored?

Finally, the quesiton for the EDITOR – you referred to “solicitation” and the “informal part of the process” crowding out the formal part of the process. What does that mean exactly? That law reviews are soliciting articles directly from professors in their schools rather than simply reviewing what is submitted formally? How prevelant is that?

Thanks.
inthehunt - March 21, 2010 at 10:49 am

I’ve been lurking for awhile and thought I’d share my record of rejections from a submission to roughly the top 80 general and a handful of specialties on 3/5:
Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, NYU, Michigan, Penn, Duke, Cornell, G’town, Wash U, Illinois, Tulane, AZ State, BYU, Utah, Kansas, Temple, Kentucky, Houston, Baylor and Pepperdine, and Yale Law and Policy.
Submitter - March 21, 2010 at 12:49 pm

I submitted to the top 50 in late Feb and later submitted in stages to the next 50. Acceptance from school ranked in the 70s and waiting for result of expedite requests. Rejections from BYU, Cal, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Indiana L J., Kentucky, Michigan, Minn, NYU, Texas, Chicago, UC Davis, Wm and Mary, Yale, Yale Reg, Harvard, Arizona State, Neb, Tulane, UCLA, Baylor, Pepperdine, Missouri.
waiting anon - March 21, 2010 at 1:58 pm

It’s utterly useless to play the game of “well, lots of people appear to have gotten rejections from school X but I haven’t so maybe that’s good news,” right?
PublishingProf - March 21, 2010 at 2:12 pm

Add Boston University to my list.
Stillwaiting - March 21, 2010 at 2:55 pm

Of course it is utterly useless, and yet we all do it!
articles editor - March 21, 2010 at 3:04 pm

One of our articles meetings last week prompted the following question: how do authors feel about conditional offers requesting minor changes to an article?
Mark Edwards - March 21, 2010 at 3:11 pm

Articles editor — It depends. If you’re asking me: extremely grateful. If you are asking anyone else who has submitted to you: terribly insulted. Please proceed accordingly.
PublishingProf - March 21, 2010 at 3:20 pm

Articles Editor: This is not an easily answered question, but here are my thoughts—it depends on what type of changes. Grammar and citation changes are obviously expected. Minor stylistic changes are expected but not relished. As to substantive changes, that is much more tricky. Unless you are a peer-reviewed journal, your editorial board is not comprised of experts in the subject matter. By contrast, the author is presumably an expert in the matter. For that reason, I think you could insult an author.

As an additional matter, I will say this: if you gave me a conditional offer that required me to alter my article and I had additional, relatively comparable offers, I would publish with someone else; I would even publish at a lower-ranked journal I think.
STB - March 21, 2010 at 3:30 pm

Articles Editor – I would rather have the input before acceptance than down the road. At the same time, without going into detail, my own experience as an editor suggests that you’re better off if you express your reservations and get a commitment to make the adjustments up front.
articles editor - March 21, 2010 at 3:41 pm

Thanks for the quick responses. No, I certainly don’t mean substantive changes. We were talking about making a conditional offer on an article with a stylistic issue that gave us pause.
PublishingProf - March 21, 2010 at 3:56 pm

You are unlikely to offend someone with a proposed stylistic change. In fact, if it is attached to an offer, you are likely to receive a warm response.
editor - March 21, 2010 at 3:58 pm

Stylistic? I’m curious. My own journal is struggling with a piece that has a couple of images that we won’t publish. I assume you’re not talking about that. Are you talking about someone who writes in the first person? Do tell.
prof. - March 21, 2010 at 4:12 pm

Articles Editor,

Your approach seems very reasonable. It’s your journal, after all, and if, for example, an author insists on using the first person, when all of your other pieces are in the third person, and you would like the author to switch, then your request would seem well within your prerogatives as an editor. If it’s a good article, and you cannot come to terms on that sort of issue, then the piece will find a better home elsewhere, and you will have avoided right up front what could have been a real problem later. Also, I am troubled by the prospect that a good piece of scholarship could be rejected outright solely because of a remediable style concern. Your proposal seems like a very good way to prevent this from happening. I hope that other editors see your post and consider a similar approach.
PublishingProf - March 21, 2010 at 4:26 pm

I can’t imagine most authors would care if you wanted to change from first to third person.

As to the images, I am not so sure. If by images you mean mental images created by examples or illustrations of a principle, you could have problems. I think most authors would be reticent to change those. If you are talking about physical images (pictures) that aren’t integral to the author’s point, I think you might have more luck.

I should say, however, that I agree with #204. I would much rather you just ask me in the form of a conditional offer than reject it outright. While there are people out there who would be offended, a great many of us would not be.
plentyofrejections - March 21, 2010 at 4:42 pm

For my fellow obsessors, here are my rejections from my submissions to the top 100, regarding a late feb submission (please note that if a journal didn’t take Expresso submissions, I didn’t bother, so they are not included). The rejections are listed in order of receiopt.

Baylor
Kansas (rejected minutes after submission; at least they did not purport to provide a “careful review,” although I’m never submitting to them again)
Utah
Michigan
St. Louis
Kentucky
UCLA
Seton Hall
Missouri
Indiana
Illinois
Yale
Nevada
Cardozo
Penn State
Cornell
Pepperdine
Arizona
Tulane
Fordham
Florida
BYU
Duke
Georgetown
NYU
*The* OSU Law Journal
Chicago
Vanderbilt
Minnesota
UC Davis
Cincinnati
Maryland
William & Mary.

I also withdrew from various schools ranked 60-100 after receiving my 70ish offer.
PublishingProf - March 21, 2010 at 4:47 pm

Add Colorado to my list.
plentyofrejections - March 21, 2010 at 4:58 pm

Perhaps we need an aggregator, like on the prawfsblawg, to create a master doomsday list.

Not it. ::touches nose::.
waiting anon - March 21, 2010 at 4:58 pm

Got Kansas and Minnesota rejections today after an otherwise quiet weekend.
articles editor - March 21, 2010 at 5:09 pm

I’m talking about using loaded terms or fictional names where less inflammatory ones would get the point across just fine. So a little more than just changing from the first person. FWIW this came up in a few articles, not just one.
PublishingProf - March 21, 2010 at 5:14 pm

# 210: I don’t think those changes would offend anyone I know.
ParanoidProf - March 21, 2010 at 5:55 pm

Nor do I, I actually welcome suggested changes from law review editors.
anon - March 21, 2010 at 5:56 pm

Has anyone gotten an offer on the day an expedite offer expired?
PublishingProf - March 21, 2010 at 6:40 pm

213: I have heard stories of this happening (usually an unconfirmed friend of a friend), but it has never actually happened to me.
waiting anon - March 21, 2010 at 6:51 pm

About 5 or 6 years ago, before I started teaching and was publishing my first article post-law-school article, I got an offer at about 6pm the day my other offer expired. My original offer was from a school ranked about 100 and my last-minute offer came from a school ranked about 40. I waited that long in the evening because the school with the offer expiring was on the West Coast so I figured I could wait until about 8pm. Glad I did!
Stillwaiting - March 22, 2010 at 7:04 am

I received somewhat “weird” response from a top law review and wonder whether this is the standard and what does it mean.The email states that my publication was not accepted,but ‘there
is a slight possibility that we will look back to your piece” and ‘ We would still appreciate being apprised of
withdrawals.” Any idea?
Aspirant - March 22, 2010 at 7:16 am

Stillwaiting: I just got the same message. I think it means don’t hold your breath.
Anonymous Again - March 22, 2010 at 7:22 am

Stillwaiting, I just got that email too. I am not taking it as anything other than a strangely worded rejection, and I’m marking it as such on my list. The email doesn’t solicit expedites (at least my email doesn’t)–it seems to me to say they’re not actively considering my submission.

I’m not sure if you are the same commenter as #191, but I thought those were great questions (about resubmitting to the same board, informal article selection processes). Are there any editors reading who could share their thoughts on them?
Dumbledore - March 22, 2010 at 7:43 am

I also got the “weird” letter today. But a friend of mine got an outright rejection from the same school. So they seem to have created some sort of middle category. I have no idea what this means.
anon - March 22, 2010 at 7:56 am

I got the same response. I’m also treating it as a rejection because they did not solicit expedite requests. I appreciate the communication though–I feel like I haven’t heard anything good or bad on my article in a while.
inthehunt - March 22, 2010 at 9:29 am

Ditto on the BU response for me. I took it as a sign that the piece passed some preliminary review but fell short of making it to the final review. I appreciated the communication in this long period of silence. It also sounds like they are close to done for the season, which makes me wonder if other journals are at the final stage as well.
Tim Zinnecker - March 22, 2010 at 9:47 am

I have friends who have received offers from Illinois, Oregon, and Memphis.
waiting anon - March 22, 2010 at 10:37 am

I didn’t either iteration of that BU email today, and am still waiting to hear from them. Interesting…. I shouldn’t read anything into it, of course, but human nature makes me do so.
Aspirant - March 22, 2010 at 10:39 am

No from Harvard Law and Policy Review, but very nice (“[w]hile we found your articles well-written and informative, we generally look for articles with a specific format that present progressive domestic policy proposals. Congratulations on your impressive articles….) rejection letter. Stroking my ego is the next best thing to accepting my pieces.
anon - March 22, 2010 at 12:02 pm

No from Florida. Looks like I might strike out and resubmit. Have had good placements in the past and I thought this article was stronger than any before, but what do I know.
Anonymous Again - March 22, 2010 at 1:25 pm

Florida sent me a rejection on March 5, for what it’s worth. I am nearing the 30 rejections mark, too. Any ideas about how to resubmit effectively? I’m especially curious about how editors regard revised and resubmitted pieces–under what circumstances would they be seriously considered?
ParanoidProf - March 22, 2010 at 1:52 pm

I think things are turning around folks, I received an offer on Thursday from a top-100 and two more offers today, one from a top-100 and another from a top specialty journal. I submitted a month ago!

Some of my colleagues have reported that offers are finally starting to trickle in for them as well.
Responder to Queries - March 22, 2010 at 1:53 pm

Stillwaiting, I would interpret the response as indicating that you’ve been waitlisted: the review has probably made an offer to someone else and if that person turns them down, they might then go to you. Anon #213,I have received an offer the day an expedite offer expired, though not in at least four years, and so I have taken to requesting a response by a particular time on that day and specifying which time zone I am using.
ParanoidProf - March 22, 2010 at 1:59 pm

P.S. today was my original expedite deadline, so that might be why I’ve received two offers today.
one report - March 22, 2010 at 2:10 pm

In case a report about expediting is of interest . . . I’m a junior prof at a tier 4. I submitted to about 100 reviews over the course of February/early March. Got an offer from a mid-second-tier journal with a one-week deadline. Expedited to 40 journals. Two made offers (both main reviews in the mid-first-50 of US News). Five asked for more time. Nine sent post-expedite rejections. No word from the rest by the time I accepted one of the offers. My final yield (counting pre-expedite rejections) was three offers against 39 dings and a lot of silence. Happy with how it ended and to be done with this season.
PublishingProf - March 22, 2010 at 2:12 pm

Just received another top 100 offer.
Anonymous Again - March 22, 2010 at 3:12 pm

Does anyone have a sense of how much editors tend to over-accept (knowing they’ll lose some pieces to expedites) vs. how much they use a backup approach (one offer at a time per available slot)?
inthehunt - March 22, 2010 at 3:50 pm

For those considering resubmission if things don’t pan out this time, have you ever resubmitted in the past? Do you think it’s a handicap to resubmit in August to the same Board?

I’m still holding out hope, but I’m starting to think about contingency plans . . .
waiting anon - March 22, 2010 at 5:29 pm

Pepperdine and Fordham rejection day for me today. Two days left on my expedite.
PublishingProf - March 22, 2010 at 5:36 pm

Pepperdine rejection.
ParanoidProf - March 22, 2010 at 6:06 pm

Everyone, please don’t give up hope. I sent my article out a month ago. I have so far received 37 rejections; however, today, I received three offers, one from a top 100, one from a top specialty journal and one from a top 30 law review.

Before today I had seriously given up. Don’t do the same!
plentyofrejections - March 22, 2010 at 6:29 pm

Sigh. Everyone seems to be getting acceptances today. They must be planning on sending out my rejections tomorrow.
anon - March 22, 2010 at 6:33 pm

plentyofrejections: I’m in the same boat–you’re certainly not the only one left.

Congratulations to everyone enjoying that first-offer succor.
AnonForever - March 23, 2010 at 12:07 pm

Apparently the Hamline and California Western Law Reviews are both full.
waiting anon - March 23, 2010 at 1:33 pm

My deadline was originally yesterday, but was extended to tomorrow. Pure silence today.
plentyofrejections - March 23, 2010 at 1:53 pm

Notre Dame and Penn are sending rejections.
Aspirant - March 23, 2010 at 3:33 pm

Finally got the UC Davis rejection.
PublishingProf - March 23, 2010 at 7:20 pm

[insert sound of crickets]
Another another anon? - March 23, 2010 at 8:06 pm

(I forget the handle I used in my earlier comment, sorry.)

I sent my article to 130ish journals (including specialty journals). Sat it out for over three nail-biting weeks. Received 35 noes, including:

BU (the quirky letter)
Arizona State Law Journal
Maryland Law Review
The University of Chicago Law Review
University of Kansas Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Pepperdine Law Review
Houston Law Review
University of Illinois Law Review
Chapman Law Review
Cornell Law Review
Georgetown Law Journal
Kentucky Law Journal
Nevada Law Journal
New York University Law Review
William and Mary Law Review
Yale Law Journal
Duke Law Journal
Brigham Young University Law Review
Indiana Law Journal (Indiana University Bloomington)
Ohio State Law Journal
Tulane Law Review

(Some specialty journals removed to give me a slight measure of anonymity).

And today, I got my first offer. Horray!

It’s from a specialty journal at a second-tier school. I’m going to expedite, but basically it’s a journal that I’d be okay ending up with — and in this weird season, I’m just happy to have the offer. (The offer letter was very nice too — the journal editors seem to really like my piece, which is good).
ParanoidProf - March 23, 2010 at 8:09 pm

Another another anon,

Congratulations!!
PublishingProf - March 24, 2010 at 4:50 am

Agreed. Congrats!
Anonymous Again - March 24, 2010 at 5:42 am

Yes, congrats! What a relief it must be. Here’s hoping the window is still open for some of the rest of us…
prof. - March 24, 2010 at 12:34 pm

Interesting: The EIC of my school’s law review (middle of top-100) just told me that this has been a slow year for submissions so far. I know that this is not a representative sample, but could we all be wrong in speculating that the weirdness of this season is (at least in part) due to an ExpressO-created glut? Any other editors want to comment out there? How does this year’s volume compare to past years’ volume?
inthehunt - March 24, 2010 at 2:18 pm

I just checked my file from last spring’s submission season, and, at least that year, a good number of top-100 journals didn’t even begin reviewing until March 1 and several others not until later in March (I had an early expedite and contacted schools to find out when they were beginning review). Based on that, I think this may just be normal processing time.

Add rejection from a top specialty journal to my list.
Another Editor - March 24, 2010 at 2:37 pm

Prof, it’s tough to say because none of us were editors last year. My sense from what I’ve heard from previous editors is actually that this has been a heavy year. My journal is at well over 1,000 submissions.
inthehunt - March 24, 2010 at 3:34 pm

Another Editor,

Where are you in the selection process? Are you still actively reviewing articles? Are you still giving offers? When do you expect to wrap up for the spring season? Any information would be appreciated.
Another Editor - March 24, 2010 at 3:56 pm

We’ve filled a bit fewer than half our slots. We’ll be reviewing and making offers until finals start.
inthehunt - March 24, 2010 at 4:12 pm

Thanks, Another Editor. That’s both helpful and encouraging for those of us experiencing largely radio silence.

Are any other editors following this string, and would you be willing to share the status and expected wrap-up date of your process?
waiting anon - March 24, 2010 at 5:23 pm

Got an email from Northwestern off an expedite that they are on spring break and reviewing only a very limited number of submissions this week. And an email from UCLA about an email problem they were having that has since been fixed which is delaying them.
newprof - March 25, 2010 at 6:04 am

Wow, offer from NYU!
Aspirant - March 25, 2010 at 6:18 am

Newprof: Nice!

Rejection from Suffolk….
PublishingProf - March 25, 2010 at 8:28 am

Newprof: Very nice. Color me jealous.
Anonymous Again - March 25, 2010 at 8:39 am

Props to newprof. I’m going on three days of silence. If anyone’s still waiting it out, you have company.
Yet Another Anon Relative Newbie - March 25, 2010 at 9:20 am

Expediting remains a mystery to me. I think I have a general sense of the contours, but I am fuzzy on the details, especially with regard to determining where you stop and start with your expedite requests and issues related to withdrawing from other publications of similar standing.

How far up the ladder is too far to expedite? And, does the answer to that question change depending on how late in the season it is? How much more prestigious does a journal need to be to warrant expediting to it? Should one withdraw submissions from journals that are similar in prestige to a journal that has made you an offer or is it appropriate to not withdraw an article in the hopes of getting another offer that continues to extend your time?

Any guidance from those who are more experienced with this process or opinions from those who like myself are relatively new to it would be appreciated.
PublishingProf - March 25, 2010 at 11:45 am

Add Southern Cal. to my list.
anon - March 25, 2010 at 1:06 pm

Anything new??
plentyofrejections - March 25, 2010 at 3:16 pm

My expedite deadline came and went; 3 journals cared enough to send rejections, but the 40 other ignored me. Oh well.

Luckily, I have one acceptance that I’m reasonably satisfied with. But I really wish I published in an area with peer-reviewed journals. It must be nice to have a publishing option outside of student edited journals
Aspirant - March 25, 2010 at 3:30 pm

No from UCLA.
PS prof - March 25, 2010 at 3:41 pm

To #262
Most peer-reviewed journals operate on a very different calendar (much longer wait periods). On top of the wait period there is often a back and forth resubmit process that does not always result in better scholarship. Finally, there are scores and scores of law reviews/journals that provide an array of publishing options typically not found in other areas/disciplines.

My count:
3 submits (Minnesota, American, and Louisville)
1 acknowledgement (Minnesota)
No decisions
Stillwaiting - March 25, 2010 at 3:57 pm

No from UC Davis, Duke, and Seton Hall.
plentyofrejections - March 25, 2010 at 4:14 pm

PS Prof — why submit to only 3 journals?
latecomer - March 25, 2010 at 4:27 pm

I’ve appreciated reading this thread and finally have 2 cents to add. I’m at a school in the top 75 and learned yesterday from the new EIC that they have secured about 1/3 of the articles they need/want this season. They have 2 other offers outstanding. All of this to say that at least some law reviews are still reviewing and accepting.
Hello - March 25, 2010 at 4:48 pm

I’m a newbie with a question for the gang: what would you pick, a top-ranked specialty journal or law review in the 40s? I guess the broader question is where to equate the top specialty journals (Harvards, Yales, etc.) in terms of general law reviews. I’m at a school in the 75-100 range, if that makes a difference. Also, both journals are cited in the faculty productivity listing.
plentyofrejections - March 25, 2010 at 5:04 pm

“Hello”,

I’m not sure whether this is helpful or not, but there are the 10 specialty journals that are included in one of Leiter’s rankings. Publications in these specialty journals, along publications in the top 11 general law reviews, go into the “Faculty Quality” ranking:

Administrative Law Review, American Journal of Comparative Law, Constitutional Commentary, Environmental Law, Journal of Legal Studies, Law & Contemporary Problems, Law & Social Inquiry, Legal Theory, and Tax Law Review.

http://www.leiterrankings.com/archives/2000archives_criteria.shtml

I have no special knowledge, but if Leiter is right then I think these 10 journals would perhaps be comparable to a top 40ish law review. But I’m a newbie just like you.
inthehunt - March 25, 2010 at 5:15 pm

“Hello”

It’s really a subjective call on specialties and, to some degree, field-specific. I’ve heard everything from generic “add 20″ or “add 40″ to anything in the top 70 main beats any specialty journal. At least a couple of the journals plentyofrejections list have a quasi-peer-review system, so that’s another factor in the equation. Also, age of the journal and who else is publishing there are factors. The most conservative route is to take the main journal offer, especially pre-tenure.
Hello - March 25, 2010 at 5:17 pm

#269, thanks for the response. I was using this listing:

http://law.rwu.edu/facultyproductivity/journallistbutton.pdf

That I received from this site:

http://law.rwu.edu/facultyproductivity/

Not sure if these listings are generally accepted in the field.
Anonymous Again - March 25, 2010 at 6:08 pm

Hello: inthehunt’s comment matches my sense of how people think about this. Most do seem to think it’s safer to take the main journal offer. See also comment #54 on this thread. People are aware of the productivity ranking list, but as far as I know it’s not widely used as a yardstick.
Hello - March 25, 2010 at 6:16 pm

Many thanks for the insights.

At my school we’re essentially working under the standard that any main journal ranked higher than us (US News) will count towards tenure, while other placements may count (top 1 or 2 speciality are more likely to count). Of course, all pieces are reviewed for “quality”.

Just curious whether our internal policy is similar to others.
plentyofrejections - March 25, 2010 at 7:00 pm

“At my school we’re essentially working under the standard that any main journal ranked higher than us (US News) will count towards tenure”

That’s got to be a joke. Scholarship is simply ignored if it isn’t in a journal of a particular rank? I’m even newer than I thought.
Hello - March 25, 2010 at 7:13 pm

Not a joke, unfortunately. Doesn’t mean that scholarship will be ignored – rather, they are really pushing us to publish in “well-regarded” journals.
inthehunt - March 25, 2010 at 7:56 pm

#259,

My practice is to expedite all the way up the chain. In my limited experience, the expedite windows are far too short to try and tier the expedite. If you succeed partway up then you can always re-expedite and list the new offer (although sometimes with a shorter time-frame). I think the important thing is to get someone to actually read the piece. If it’s good, it shouldn’t matter where the expedite comes from. I’m enough of a realist to acknowledge that a highly ranked expedite is more likely to receive attention, but I’d rather get a read on the merits than hope for increased credibility by waiting for a better offer to expedite from.

I’m interested to hear others’ thoughts on the topic.
ParanoidProf - March 26, 2010 at 6:29 am

We had a bit of a discussion earlier about what it means when you have not heard from a journal that many others have been rejected from. My experience this time leads me to believe it’s likely that such silence equals good news. I didn’t hear from a couple of the journals that others here were reporting rejections from, and this last week, I got acceptances from all (not that I didn’t also have my share of rejections too, but I was getting those at about the same time everyone here was reporting rejections from the same journals).

I’m guessing that means I was an alternate and, when others rejected them, they eventually got to me.
PublishingProf - March 26, 2010 at 6:42 am

ParanoidProf: I REALLY hope you are right about that. There are still ALOT I haven’t heard from. In that vein, has anyone heard from Northwestern, Washington U, Emory, Iowa, BC, George Washington, NC, W&L, Washington, Alabama, Wisconsin, Georgia, Hastings, Wake, American, Utah, or Cardozo? These are only a few I haven’t heard anything from.
Aspirant - March 26, 2010 at 6:54 am

Paranoid: I’m hoping you’re right. I’m still waiting to hear from some biggies….
Articles Editor - March 26, 2010 at 7:03 am

I think law profs are hurting themselves by trying to submit in narrower windows each year. You do not want to submit as soon as the board turns over, when articles editors are overwhelmed by the submissions backlog and with expedite requests from journals that turned over earlier. NOW is a perfect time: there are very few submissions coming in, so articles editors have time to give your piece the attention it deserves. The top journals still have a long way to go to fill our volumes.
Another Newbie - March 26, 2010 at 8:07 am

In response to 278, I’ve received final decisions (i.e., rejections) from Northwestern, BC, Washington & Lee, Washington, Wisconsin, Hastings, American, and Utah.
Me too - March 26, 2010 at 8:20 am

# 278, I have received a rejection from Cardozo. Of the others you list, I have received confirmations from almost every one but no publication decisions either way. My piece has been out there for about three weeks, give or take.
Dumbledore - March 26, 2010 at 9:02 am

278: Of your list, I received rejections from NC and Cardozo.
Stillwaiting - March 26, 2010 at 9:44 am

Rejection from Vanderbilt
Rolo Timassie - March 26, 2010 at 9:50 am

280: (a) I’ve long suspected exactly that. (b) Here I come!

278: I hadn’t heard a word from a large number of journals even after two expedites, including most of the ones on your list, even though I submitted 2/23. I wound up withdrawing from all of them.
Perhapsnotpublishingprof - March 26, 2010 at 10:28 am

Editors –

Thanks for your insights. I’d like to ask your advice.

I submitted an article 2 weeks ago, and have been thinking of ways to improve it ever since. I’m tempted to withdraw it and re-submit it after improving it.

That said — I don’t want to withdraw it if you don’t like seeing the same piece — much improved, but the same piece — a second time.

If I withdraw the piece after you’ve already seen it, would that undermine my chances when I re-submit it? I really appreciate any insight you can offer.
inthehunt - March 26, 2010 at 10:35 am

Articles Editor,

Thanks for that helpful suggestion. The submission process is a black box to most of us.

Now a question: If, hypothetically, an author submitted in early March but has not heard from a journal, what does that suggest about its status? Would they possibly benefit from the increased attention new submissions receive because someone hasn’t read it yet? Or is it likely sitting in a different pile from newer submissions?
inthehunt - March 26, 2010 at 10:47 am

#278,

I have not heard from any on your list except a rejection from Utah.

Articles Editor, One more question: Expresso’s 1996 guide states that editors surveyed would prefer more submissions in the fall season and, in particular, in September vs. August for precisely the reason you identify–too much initial volume. Do you agree, or, do you think waiting later in the spring season is sufficient?
ParanoidProf - March 26, 2010 at 1:57 pm

I have heard “no” from Iowa and BC (both on the basis of expedite requests) and had previously heard “no” from Utah. As for the others on the list, I have not heard from them; however, my best offer was at a school in the 20-25 range, so I withdrew from 30 and up. Of those that remained, I have not heard from Alabama, Emory, Washington U., W & L, Notre Dame, North Carolina, U. of Washington, and Pennsylvania. Northwestern and UCLA responded to my expedite request, but the time they needed was unworkable based on my deadline.
Articles Editor - March 26, 2010 at 2:19 pm

Perhapsnotpublishingprof: If it’s really much improved, I would withdraw and resubmit. Even if you’ve gotten a rejection from some journals, if you explain in your cover letter why it is much better, I think they’ll consider it again. And if you haven’t gotten a final decision, I think there is little downside.

inthehunt: Probably depends on the journal, but I think that no news is good news. Anything we don’t reject within a week is getting serious consideration. As for your second question, I think waiting until later in the spring is sufficient (if/when I’m a law prof, I’m going to submit in April).
inthehunt - March 26, 2010 at 4:41 pm

Articles Editor,

You are a true gem. Please feel free to dispense any other advice/suggestions from your view on the other side. For example, do you have any thoughts on the expedite debate? Does it matter to your journal where the expedite comes from? What criteria matter in deciding whether you agree to conduct the expedited review?
latecomer - March 26, 2010 at 5:27 pm

ParanoidProf:

Congratulations. Well done. Best I can piece together, you started with an offer in the top 100, expedited and obtained 2 other top 100? offers and a top specialty offer, then leveraged those up to 20-25.?. Impressive.

Did you expedite in waves or all in one? How long between the first (if there were more than one) expedite and the 2nd, 3rd, etc. offer?

As you may be able to tell, I have a couple of offers from the top 100 and have expedited. I await the results of the expedite with much angst.
Articles Editor - March 26, 2010 at 5:38 pm

I don’t think we have ever totally ignored an article because we didn’t think we could review it fast enough – at least one person reads it and decides if it is good enough for full consideration. (Some expedite deadlines had already expired before we started reading in March, so we couldn’t do anything about those.) I’d recommend expediting all the way to the top, even from a low-ranked journal, especially for journals that do blind review.
ParanoidProf - March 26, 2010 at 5:52 pm

latecomer,

I received my first offer on March 16 from a specialty journal, and expedited all the way up. I then received a top 100 offer on March 18, followed by another top 100 on March 22. On that same date I also got another offer from a specialty journal and also from the top 25 journal. Since that time, I’ve gotten offers from two general journals ranked 60ish.

After each offer, I re-expedited to inform the editors of my new deadline. Hope that helps!
articles editor 2 - March 26, 2010 at 9:05 pm

280: Seconded. I am an articles editor at a top four law review, and we have plenty of spots left in our volume.

Authors do themselves a big disservice by submitting in the thick of things between mid February and mid March. During that period articles editors at the top law reviews have dozens of articles to read every week, and are just learning the ropes and thus more risk averse about accepting pieces. If you submit later (i.e. around now) you will benefit from the consideration of articles committees with more time on their hands and a more finely developed sense of what flaws they are willing to tolerate in an article they publish.

This trend towards everyone submitting in the same three week window as volumes are turning over is bad for all involved parties.
inthehunt - March 27, 2010 at 4:19 am

AR2 – thanks for confirming AR’s timing advice. I’ll pose the same questions to you: (1) would the fall season (or even summer) be a better time to submit, given the high numbers in spring, or do you save fewer spots for the fall?; (2) if an early March submission has heard no response from a journal is that a sign it’s still in the running? Does it more likely mean someone just hasn’t reached it or that it’s passed some iniitial screen?
(3) what’s your sense of expedite strategy? does it matter what journal the request comes from?

I’ll add one more (and ask AR to respond as well): if an author is unsuccessful in the spring and decides to revise it and resubmit it in the fall, how would tha be recieved? Is it likely that you would recognize it from the fall? If you did, would you re-read the piece or reject it out of hand? Should the author explain in the cover letter that this is the new and improved version of the spring submission?

It’s really helpful to authors (and eventually, hopefully, the process) to get these impressions.
Another Editor - March 27, 2010 at 7:43 am

I’ll take a shot at those:

1) Don’t submit in the summer or fall. Our volume will probably be almost entirely full by then. We hold open a couple of slots for that period, but not very many (maybe 1 or 2). Plus, we try to avoid too many articles on similar areas of law, so if your article is about something we’re already pretty heavy on, it won’t get much consideration regardless. The chances of this happening are higher when we’ve already filled most of the volume. Submit in the late spring at the latest.

2) If you haven’t gotten a rejection, it’s passed an initial screen, and it’s still in the running. It might not have been fully read by anyone yet, but until you hear otherwise, it hasn’t been rejected.

3) Doesn’t matter where it comes from, at least to me. Obviously if I see an expedite from a top journal, I know that what I’m about to read should be good. But if it’s from a lower-ranked journal, that could mean anything – maybe just that the other journal read it faster. So I guess I’d say bonus points for expediting from a good journal, but I wouldn’t hold it against an author at all if it’s not.

4) I think that would be totally okay. Even if I recognized the piece (and it’s unlikely that I’d even be the first to see it both times), that much time later, it’s perfectly okay to resubmit, and I’d give it full consideration again. I’d mention what’s changed in the cover letter, but it’s probably not necessary.
Another Editor - March 27, 2010 at 7:47 am

In reference to my previous post:

To clarify my answer to 1), I think I actually underestimated how much we take in the fall. It’s probably more like 4 or 5 – I don’t want to give the impression that the fall is hopeless. But it is tougher, so I still say stick with the spring.
articles editor 2 - March 27, 2010 at 7:52 am

I can only draw on my own experience here, so take it as representative of one law review whose editors probably take their jobs more seriously than average:

1. We are saving some article spots for the Fall, though whether it is to your advantage to submit then depends on how many other authors submit then. My understanding from last year’s editors is that the volume of submissions is much smaller in the fall than in the spring. If it is of publishable quality for X journal, it’s probably slightly better to submit in the spring after mid-march when the hectic period ends. Over the summer everyone goes off to their jobs and journals meet less frequently, but if we get something publishable by us we will surely have a conference call and take it.

2. That sounds like a sign that a journal’s editors are not doing their jobs very well. I can’t speak to what it means for the piece.

3. The only thing expedites do for us is force us to consider pieces more quickly. We don’t care where the expedites came from. I can’t speak to other law reviews though.

And the answer to your last question is pretty much what you’d expect. If we receive another version of the same piece, assuming it is substantially changed, we read it and consider it just like any other. Past volumes have accepted articles that had been rejected in previous iterations.
Rolo Timassie - March 27, 2010 at 8:30 am

295: “Authors do themselves a big disservice by submitting in the thick of things between mid February and mid March.”

I’ve always been a little suspicious of the conventional wisdom, but that is so completely contrary to it that I am surprised. But it does confirm a theory I’ve long held which is:

It’s not the raw number of slots available that matters. It’s the ratio of submissions to slots. So if the early spring ratio is 3000:100, i.e. 30:1, and the late spring ratio is 200:20, i.e., 10:1, you’re actually better off submitting then, even though there are fewer spots.

Of course, that assumes an even distribution of those “20″ slots, which would be false if journals essentially filled from the top down, but from what these 3 editors are saying (including a “top 4″ editor — if that is where I think it is, I can confirm that you guys are really on the ball this year) that’s not the case.
inthehunt - March 27, 2010 at 8:40 am

Editors – thanks again for the helpful insight. The disconnect between conventional wisdom and your views highlighted by Rolo makes me think this topic really deserves some more focused and extensive discussion. I’ve been thinking about conducting a survey of editors at top-100 to ask questions like these and get a broader range of response. Do you think your journals would be responsive to such a survey and, if so, would it be better to do it through direct interviews or would an e-mail set of questions get a response.

Also, CoOp editors would you mind re-re-bumping this?
Articles Editor - March 27, 2010 at 11:43 am

inthehunt: I agree with the other editors about your resubmit question. If your article has actually changed, go ahead and resubmit in the fall. We’ll also keep reading over the summer, so you could submit then, though it may be harder to respond to rapid expedite requests.

I think a survey would be useful, since making the process less of a black box would be helpful for journals and authors alike. I assume my journal would respond, though I suspect direct interviews would get more answers.
Kaimipono D. Wenger - March 27, 2010 at 11:55 am

Great idea on the re=bump. I’ve meant to, but have been on the road.

Great discussion overall – some very interesting comments. I’ll try to post a follow up discussion shortly.
inthehunt - March 28, 2010 at 2:41 pm

Add rejections from Seattle and OSU to my list.
student - March 28, 2010 at 4:31 pm

Student author here. Submitted to 155 law reviews last week, most of which accept student submissions (or at least don’t have a strict policy against it). Sent to almost all the flagship journals which accept students, and all the specialties pertaining to my topic. So far, after 9 days, have received 7 rejections, all of which were of the per-se “no student submissions” variety. Also have received 4 e-mails informing me that my article has passed first review. Clearly stated in my cover letter “J.D. Candidate 20xx, xxx Law School” – so they know who they’re dealing with. Hoping to hear from someone soon… prestige of the journal doesn’t really matter to me.
Greetings - March 28, 2010 at 4:45 pm

“student” – quite refreshing to hear that prestige of journal doesn’t matter to you. This post clearly demonstrates a different approach from inside the academy. Curiously, as professors, we often chastise the US News rankings for a variety of reasons, yet religiously abide by the rankings as we select which journal to publish our own work. Moreover, our colleagues often equate strength of scholarship with placement in “top-ranked” general law reviews, rather than taking the time to carefully review the work in question.

On another note, perhaps a better system would be to group law schools (and law reviews), rather than a strict ranking. Is there really any difference between publishing in Penn vs. Virginia, or Maryland vs. American?
PublishingProf - March 28, 2010 at 5:26 pm

Student: I am interested to hear about language indicating your work passed a first review. I have never seen it before. Would you mind providing the language? Also, would you mind indicating a rough ranking of the journal(s) you received it from (i.e. top 25, top 50, specialty journal, top 100, etc)?
anon - March 28, 2010 at 5:40 pm

PublishingProf, I am not a student, but I have received quite a few emails of the variety you are asking for. Some were simple notices that “I have forwarded your article to the committee.” Some were attached to a request that I get an extension on an expedite deadline. Interestingly, all of my experiences with this kind of heads up have been from journals in the US News 25-50 range.
student - March 28, 2010 at 5:54 pm

Publishing prof – they were worded differently. A couple of them said that the article has “been sent to the full articles committee for further review,” while one explicitly stated that it has “passed our first review stage” and was being sent to full committee. Three of the four were T3 flagships, and one was a T20 flagship. Anon308 – I have also received a number of “I have forwarded your article to the committee” – i’m not sure if that means it has passed any initial review. I am only talking about where the e-mail either stated that it passed an initial review or that it was being sent for some sort of “further” review.

Greetings – take my apathy regarding prestige with a grain of salt, as I have no desire to become a professor (no offense – I love my professors and have the utmost respect, but its just not for me). I am submitting my article because I, as well as my supervising professor, believe it is a worthy piece that can actually be useful if published, and I thus simply want to get it on Westlaw/Lexis. If I had aspirations of joining your ranks, I would likely be much more concerned with where my article landed. In areas which more directly concern my future, i.e. law school rankings and law firm rankings, I have spent much time poring over rankings and trying to climb as high as possible.
anon - March 28, 2010 at 8:45 pm

student, could you clarify your use of “T”? Does it stand for “tier” or “top”, or are you alternating? In other words, does T20 mean “top 20″ or is it a typo and you meant to say “Tier 2″?
student - March 28, 2010 at 8:54 pm

anon – sorry, i’m used to the law student world. T1, T2, and T3, and T4 are used to denote tiers. T10, T14, T20, T30, etc… are used to denote “Top.” I apologize for the inconsistency.
student - March 28, 2010 at 8:59 pm

Sorry, anon, looking at that post, I see I still haven’t answered your question. I used T3 to mean Tier 3, and T20 to mean Top 20 (although I am holding out zero hope of getting published there). sorry for clogging the board.

Meanwhile, another rejection just rolled in – Akron Law Review. 8 rejections, 147 law reviews remaining.
Anonymous reader - March 29, 2010 at 7:03 am

Hello, I am interested in learning more about journals’ response rate from people with past publishing experience. I submitted to 144 law reviews in the first week of March. I am a law-school graduate, and this will be my first time publishing in a student-edited journal. I have heard rejections from 24 law reviews and silence (plus confirmations of receipt) from the rest. Should I still expect to hear from at least a significant percentage of the outstanding 120 law reviews? Or should I assume that my piece did not get accepted this spring, possibly withdraw, and resubmit in the fall season? Thanks for your insight.
inthehunt - March 29, 2010 at 7:42 am

313 – that is THE question of the moment. The comments from several editors above suggest that you (and the rest of us still waiting to hear) are still in the running at journals that have not rejected you. That said, I checked Expresso’s “temporarily full” list this morning and there are several journals I submitted to that are now full and never sent me a rejection (e.g. Lewis & Clark, Miami and San Diego), which makes me think there must be others that are simply not planning to respond at all.

As far as past experience, in the few cycles I have submitted, the latest I received a raw offer (not off of an expedite) was early April, but I have colleagues who have received offers later. I would keep it in the mix at least until the end of April.

Others?
Another Anon - March 29, 2010 at 8:19 am

I once received an offer in mid-July for an article I submitted in late-March. You never know what will unfold in this process.
jumpingintothefray - March 29, 2010 at 10:47 am

Interesting discussion. So, I scanned through, but there are lot of comments here. Which journals are full and I should just cross of my list right away?
jumpingintothefray - March 29, 2010 at 10:48 am

Sorry if this gets posted twice – trying to figure out which journals are full.
waiting anon - March 29, 2010 at 12:38 pm

Anyone heard from any of these schools? They’re all I have left on my expedite which expires later this week: Northwestern, Texas, USC, Wash U., Emory, Notre Dame, BC, Iowa, GW, Alabama, North Carolina, U. Washington, Washington & Lee, Georgia, Hastings, Wake Forest.
Me too - March 29, 2010 at 12:51 pm

# 318, I haven’t heard from any of those, other than confirmations of receipt/download from most of them.
Anonymous Again - March 29, 2010 at 1:08 pm

I’ve received a rejection from Notre Dame, not through an expedite. Others on this thread have reported rejections from other schools on that list.

Re San Diego, Miami, Lewis & Clark–all of those have been on the ExpressO “full” list since the last week in February. BU, Indiana LJ, NYU were all added to the list in March.
anon - March 29, 2010 at 1:27 pm

318, I have received responses from Northwestern, Texas, BC, Alabama, and Georgia on your list. As usual, though, not hearing anything really means just that: nothing. Your article could be on full board review, it could have been rejected without them bothering to tell you, or it could still be in a pile somewhere that they’ll reach in May.
Anon - March 29, 2010 at 4:23 pm

I just received an e-mail response from Hastings for an expedire request I filed last month. It sounds like they are only just now getting around to reviewing submissions.
jumpingintothefray - March 29, 2010 at 10:46 pm

I just joined “the hunt” and am really hoping I’m not “too late.” (Thanks 280 for giving me some hope!)
According to #320, it seems like these are full:
San Diego, Miami, Lewis & Clark, BU, Indiana LJ, NYU.
(Are there any more already filled???)
Also, do we have a list of those schools that have made offers? #111 said Illinois, Oregon, Memphis. Another comment said NYU. A friend has an offer from WUSTL. (Where else have offers been extended???)
Kaimipono D. Wenger - March 29, 2010 at 10:54 pm

Chapman was full, but now they’re not (they opened up evaluation of articles for their next book).
Question - March 30, 2010 at 6:14 am

I received a rejection from USC.

Question regarding expedites: my deadline is approaching, and there remain a large number of journals I’ve heard nothing from. I expedited from Expresso. Should I consider contacting journals more directly than by Expresso expedite request?
PublishingProf - March 30, 2010 at 6:21 am

I am out of the hunt. Accepted with a journal today in the Top 60-ish. Happy with my placement and happy to be done.
baffled - March 30, 2010 at 6:50 am

I posted way above somewhere. Just received the “no but maybe if other authors reject our offers” email from BU. They displayed courtesy and organization: informed me last week that I was in final review and that a decision would be delivered today. So they are probably making some more offers at the moment.
Me too - March 30, 2010 at 7:20 am

Now I’m “baffled.” ExpressO has BU as not accepting submissions until July (a recent update). Does this mean that BU will not accept any more ExpressO deliveries, but it will continue to review the articles it already has? Is the “temporarily full” designation just a way of stopping the flow of continued electronic deliveries (seems so), or does it function as a general announcement that the journal is full and you are out of luck if you haven’t heard yet (seems less likely but still logical)?
Aspirant - March 30, 2010 at 7:37 am

No from Howard.
pretenure prof - March 30, 2010 at 9:33 am

I submitted on March 8, have offers from Cincinnati and Cleveland State. Many from 50 to 10 have not responded yet to expedite request, which expires on April 5. Got the interesting BU sort-of rejection, UCLA responded to expedite, read it quickly and rejected it. To be honest, am glad to have the solid offer, but get the feeling this season extends far later than conventional wisdom led me to believe.
first offer - March 30, 2010 at 11:42 am

If one receives an offer from a specialty journal, is it bad form to send an expedite request to the main journal at the same school?
PublishingProf - March 30, 2010 at 11:43 am

First offer: I don’t know about etiquette, but I totally would.
inthehunt - March 30, 2010 at 11:49 am

325 – I always follow the specific directions on each journal’s website, which often requests a direct e-mail for expedites, as well as using the expedite function on expresso. I’m not sure if it makes a difference, but it can’t hurt.

326- Congrats on a succesful run!

328 – I think it means BU is done reading new submissions and is making final offers from the pool it has already read and not yet rejected. I agree with the earlier comment, that their system shows nice organization and good communication that others could emulate.

330 – congrats on the offers. Was the Cincy offer from an expedite of the CSU offer? Let us know how it turns out.

first offer – I don’t think it’s bad form at all, although I suspect that journals might have informal non-poaching policies.

Add rejection from Penn State to my list.
pretenure prof - March 30, 2010 at 12:33 pm

The Cincy offer came on its own. I did not expedite up that high from the CSU offer. The Cincy offer was one of the type that was reported earlier here, with a longer time allowed if I only expedited up from the top 30.
ParanoidProf - March 30, 2010 at 5:14 pm

Between Cincinnati and Cleveland State, definitely go with the former.
anon - March 30, 2010 at 6:19 pm

pretenure prof: This question is not to cast aspersions on Cleveland State, but why would you hold on to the Cleveland State offer when you have an offer from Cincinnati?
latecomer - March 31, 2010 at 6:56 am

Does it still make sense to submit? 280, Until when do you think the window is open?
Anonymous Again - March 31, 2010 at 9:58 am

Has anyone else found this week to be markedly quieter than previous weeks?
Anonymous Readers - March 31, 2010 at 10:29 am

Yes, #338, I agree that this week is comparatively silent. I wonder whether it will pick up again or not.
anon - March 31, 2010 at 10:31 am

Re 338 and 339: Aren’t law schools on spring break at sometime around now? Maybe there’s a lag because of that.
inthehunt - March 31, 2010 at 11:05 am

Nebraska just sent what I take to be a confirmation e-mail stating that they are still reviewing and will be in touch.
pretenure prof - March 31, 2010 at 1:34 pm

I turned down the CSU offer, I just put it up here to help make this record a bit more complete. This week I have gotten emails from some journals letting me know they will be completing my expedite on time, and rejections from California, Georgia and Nebraska, so someone is in the office at a lot of these places. I think a number of expedites end tomorrow, which may lead to another series of offers being made as people move up the ranks. Do other people know of offers that expire on the 31st?
inthehunt - March 31, 2010 at 1:35 pm

Vanderbilt’s website states that they are done for the season. I never received any word on my submission. I’m beginning to think that the window is closing.
Aspirant - March 31, 2010 at 1:36 pm

At my law review, the articles editors were expected to stay in town on spring break to review articles.

Also, no from Minnesota.
Me too - March 31, 2010 at 3:00 pm

343, I never heard anything from Vandy either (or NYU or BU, for that matter–both also closed). In fact, I have not heard a thing from anyone in over a week, and I have only had decisions (all rejections) from a few journals out of the 100-plus to which I submitted. At this point, I’d be happy to get a couple of rejections just to confirm that my article hasn’t disappeared into a pile of missing socks somewhere in another dimension.
Sock Drawer - March 31, 2010 at 3:20 pm

345, I’m with you. I submitted just over 3 weeks ago to about 80 journals. I have rejections from (in order of receipt): Washington, Michigan, Ariz. St., Chicago, Cornell, Yale, Kentucky, Georgetown, BU (the strange email), Pepperdine, Duke, Seattle, and SMU. Confirmations of receipt from 3 others, and total silence from the rest. Nothing at all this week. If yours is in a pile of socks, mine is right next to it.
Me too - March 31, 2010 at 3:33 pm

Wow, 346. My list is very similar (though I didn’t even merit the strange email from BU). I also submitted around the same time as you.
new anon - March 31, 2010 at 4:15 pm

I’m in the same boat with people who have heard very little recently — I submitted to about 60 journals at the beginning of March, with another 30-some in the middle of March, and have been rejected by: BU (the strange email); Cornell; Duke; Florida; Georgetown; Houston; Michigan; Minnesota; NYU; Chicago; Illinois; Yale Law & Policy; Arizona State; Penn State; Pepperdine; Harvard; Yale; and Stanford. That leaves roughly 65 journals that I have’t heard anything from, many of which have had my paper for nearly a month.
Anonymous Again - March 31, 2010 at 4:21 pm

Based on previous experiences with this process, I expect to hear nothing from most of the journals I submitted to. I wonder if editorial boards would make use of a rejection feature in ExpressO, similar to the confirmation of receipt feature, were it available to them. Would authors want this, if the law reviews used it?
Anonym - March 31, 2010 at 9:35 pm

Rejection from Pittsburgh.
student - April 1, 2010 at 12:23 am

Got an offer yesterday from a Top 20 school’s specialty journal, where I’d be thrilled to publish. Expedited to a bunch of flagship journals, and withdrew from some T3 and T4 flagships and most other specialties.

Got numerous prompt responses indicating that my expedite request would be accommodated.
Sock Drawer - April 1, 2010 at 2:06 pm

Ask and ye shall be rejected, I guess. Since my post yesterday I have received rejections from Ohio St., Pitt, Minnesota, and Temple.
student - April 1, 2010 at 8:23 pm

Rejections rolling in today after my expedite request, but mostly from Top 14 flagships who wouldn’t even think of publishing a (gasp!) student from a different school. Knew I didn’t have any chance there anyway, but hey, a kid can dream.

Still waiting on a number of journals, hoping to hear before my expedite deadline expires.
Me too - April 2, 2010 at 8:25 pm

Silence finally breaks with an offer (and immediately following, another rejection). I’m out of the 5th dimension sock pile–yay!
Stillwaiting - April 2, 2010 at 8:33 pm

Me too, is it your first offer? When did you submit? Do we still have any hope?
Me too - April 2, 2010 at 8:49 pm

Yes, first offer. I submitted near the beginning of March. And according to what a very helpful articles editor said above, there is certainly still hope. For what it’s worth, last year, I accepted an offer in mid-April with a top-50 journal after considering several offers made in April.
ParanoidProf - April 2, 2010 at 9:12 pm

I released two offers today at general journals in the 50-60 range.
anon - April 3, 2010 at 11:46 am

ParanoidProf: It’s too bad you can’t just release those offers over to me. Congratulations on your placement.
undecided - April 3, 2010 at 12:53 pm

Looking for a little advice on juggling offers:

I currently have an offer from the flagship journals at Missouri and Tennessee, and from the Journal of Law and Education. JLE is obviously ranked much lower than the other two, but it has a board with real professors and what I think is a pseudo-peer review process. Missouri’s ranked a little behind Tennessee in USNews rankings (65-59), but it has a higher impact factor. I’m still waiting on on some expedite responses, but I’m not counting on them.

If my offers stand like this, how should I proceed? FYI I’m in a college of education, where peer reviewed work is the expectation. But my external reviews for tenure will include at least one law prof who can speak to the quality of my publications and their venues. Thanks!
Anon - April 3, 2010 at 1:15 pm

undecided: I think it depends on what your portfolio of articles is going to look like. If this is one of only a handful of publications you’ll have under your belt when going up for tenture, take the peer reviewed journal. A discipline expecting peer reviewed work may not credit you much for publishing in a student run journal, even if one external review defends its quality.

However, if you’re going to have a bunch of publications, and want to increase the diversity of your publishing outlets, then I’d be more inclined to publish in a law review. The difference between Missouri and Tennessee probably isn’t significant, although when in doubt I’d go with the higher ranked school via USN&WR.

Overall, it really depends on the politics in your respective department and college. I’d ask one of your colleagues there before deciding, if possible.

Just my $.02.
Practitioner - April 3, 2010 at 7:34 pm

The window apparently remains open. I heard nothing but rejections for a month and then today got a Tier 3 offer and then, probably because of my expedite, got a Top-60 offer later in the day.
Articles Editor - April 3, 2010 at 8:24 pm

I only have a narrow perspective on this world, but I wanted to jump back in and reassure people that even if some smaller journals have filled their volumes, many top journals have not, and will continue to read through the summer. Though I still agree with inthehunt (#301) that a survey of when the different journals read submissions would be very helpful, so that authors aren’t relying on rumors in the comments from a blog post (especially since the people who stumble upon this post are probably not representative … authors who have an easy time placing their articles would be less likely to look for stuff like this).
ArticlesEditor - April 4, 2010 at 3:39 am

As an Articles Editor at a top-10 law review that just shut down for the season, I will try to shed some light on the process. Information, after all, wants to be free. I’ll explain our process and then give some tips.

We begin screening as soon as the new board turns over in February. The queue is pretty backed up by this point, and we’re just getting our feet wet, so people are cautious about passing things up. I second the previous AE comment that submitting in February reduces your chances of an accept. There are four steps in the screening process:

1) Initial screen. A random articles editor will spend 5-15 minutes looking at your piece. We’re looking for something that’s interesting, well-written, and well-supported. Since this a quick screen, we’re also checking to see if ideas pass a laugh test, or if they seem fishy. Articles that clearly explain their contribution to their literature are often helpful to figuring out how worthwhile the piece is. At this stage, we are looking for reasons to reject and move on the next piece. Pieces we screen up mean more work for articles editors, so if something smells off, the piece is getting dinged. Nobody wants to be the articles editor who screened something that seems “kind of interesting” and turns out to completely waste the time of the editor who has to give it an editor review.

2) Editor review. An articles editor who has previously expressed an interest in the topic area will get assigned the piece for review. They have 2-3 days to read the whole piece and determine if they want to accept. We’re looking for the same things here, and still looking for reasons to reject, but this time in more depth. So, if I read a claim in the introduction that I don’t think you can support, I immediately jump to that part and look for support or a lack thereof. If there seems to be little support below the line, I worry our production depart will kill us if we accept. If a piece seems interesting, well-written, etc., I perform a preemption check for novelty. HELP US OUT by placing your article in the literature. I can’t emphasize enough how clearly explaining your contribution goes a long way in the process.

3) Board review. For a piece passed on from editor review, the journal conducts a board review, normally within a week or so. The EIC, senior articles editor, and 4 (or more) other articles editor all read the piece, basically in the same way as an editor read. Initial votes are taken, people give their initial comments, and then we debate and discuss the piece for an hour. We also give more concern to macro-level issues, e.g. is this a topic we just published about? How many articles have we accepted so far and how is the quality in the queue? We need near unanimity for accept, i.e. if two or more members reject, the piece is rejected.

4) Acceptance/Rejection. If we accept, we call right away. If we reject, it goes into an espresso folder to go out with form rejections in a couple of weeks.

Expedites: Unless the expedite is from a top-50 or so journal, it goes through the same process in the queue, conscious of deadlines. If it is from a top-50+ journal, we may send it to editor review right away, followed by an emergency committee read.

Faculty consult: If our concerns about the piece relate to contribution to the field and novelty, we may consult a faculty member informally to get their sense of how the piece fits in. Again, PLACE YOUR ARTICLE IN THE FIELD.

General thoughts:
- As I previously said, we reject more in the beginning of the season. This season, I’d say about halfway through, we began second-guessing ourselves as we had only accepted a few pieces, so we accepted a piece or two that may not have made it in February. Then, as we got closer to April and felt okay about the book, we tightened up again. Also, quality of the queue substantially declined the further into March we get. We do leave spots open for the Fall, but based on institutional memory that Fall submissions are generally worse than Spring, we look to get as much as we can in the spring.

-Make your submission as professional as possible. Spell check. Don’t forget to accept all changes and delete all comments before uploading to espresso. Don’t submit multiple copies. Avoid stupid little things that can turn off an editor and get your awesome piece dinged in screening.

- Don’t put your espresso title in all caps; it annoys people.

-Include an abstract. It’s a great way to make sure your screener has a full sense of the piece quickly.

-If you’re submitting to a generalist journal, avoid technical jargon. We have nonexperts reading your piece, make sure it is written for (smart, busy) nonexperts to understand.

-Clear, concise writing goes a long, long way. A piece may get passed up to editor review solely because the author wrote well enough that the screening editor kept their eyes on the page. Trust me, after reading a piece from a foreign academic whose first language is clearly not English, seeing good writing in your piece puts me in a better mood.

-If this seems like a harsh process, it is. In the course of a week, we generally screen 200 pieces. Maybe 30 of those get editor reads. Maybe 4-6 make it to board review. 1 or 2 will get accepted. We are looking for reasons to reject, so give us reasons not to.
ArticlesEditor - April 4, 2010 at 3:41 am

*ExpressO. It’s late
Mark A. Edwards - April 4, 2010 at 9:50 am

That was amazingly helpful. I’m putting it on the wall of my office.
Another Editor - April 4, 2010 at 11:05 am

The process at my journal (also Top 10) is pretty similar, and that’s definitely good advice. I strongly second all of those suggestions about paying attention to details (spell-check the cover letter, delete comments, etc.) With so many articles, so few slots, and the ability to be extremely selective, a quick and moderately accurate proxy for quality like that may be too tempting for some screening editors to pass up. Don’t risk it.

One other suggestion I’d add: Pay attention to word limits. If I see a submission 2,000 words above our limit, I’m going to be somewhat more critical at the screening stage. If I see a submission 10,000 words above our limit, there’s almost no chance I’ll let it past screening. Production would kill me for even letting it get that far. Not that an article like that will never be considered, but there had better be an extremely good explanation for the length in the cover letter.
Articles Editor - April 4, 2010 at 1:16 pm

Being from a different Top 10 journal from ArticlesEditor and Another Editor, I’ll echo their advice. I’ll also add one more suggestion about cover letters: don’t just cut and paste your abstract (or even worse, your CV). This is your chance to really highlight what parts of your article are new and important. As ArticlesEditor said, help us out and make it easy for us to accept.

I think a lot of things will be similar across general-interest journals, such as what we are looking for in a good article, but I have gotten the sense that a lot of details are different. There are some of the questions I would ask if I were conducting a survey of the top 50 journals (which I think would be a great project):

1. About how many unsolicited articles do you publish each year?
2. When do you start reading submissions? When do you usually finish? Do you keep reading through the summer, or do you take a break and not start reading again until September?
3. Is your process blind? If so, at what stage?
4. Do you ever send pieces for faculty reviews? How often? What weight do these reviews have?
5. How do you decide whether to honor expedite requests? Does the journal it is coming from matter?
Brian Ray - April 4, 2010 at 1:41 pm

Articles Editors,

I’ll echo Mark’s sentiment that your observations are extremely helpful. I’ll also pick up the survey thread. I actually sent a brief survey asking many (but not all) of the questions #367 suggests to several journals recently with plans to get it out to the top 100 and some specialties. Early response was quite tepid. I’m planning to tweak it a bit (including adding the questions I didn’t include) and send it back out in mid-April. If any of the editors who have commented are willing to respond on behalf of their journal, please e-mail me at brian.ray@law.csuohio.edu. I will keep all individual responses anonymous and only report aggregate data or individual responses without identifying information.
anon3 - April 4, 2010 at 5:09 pm

“-Clear, concise writing goes a long, long way”

If clear writing is so important, why are so many law review articles impenetrably written?
ArticlesEditor - April 4, 2010 at 6:34 pm

“If clear writing is so important, why are so many law review articles impenetrably written?”

Because the production editors get their hands on the piece and want it to conform to “Law Review style” .

Kidding aside (though there’s probably a measure of truth to that), I think it’s because as simple as giving this advice is, it’s very difficult to pull off. I do think all the articles we select are written clearly enough for a generalist audience to understand, but we also have the luxury of selectivity.
Inquiring - April 7, 2010 at 10:41 am

Is the spring publication window now closed and is this site no longer communicating results?
Anonymous Again - April 7, 2010 at 11:00 am

I for one continue to check this thread, but I don’t have any results to report aside from a Harvard rejection. The mail has been quiet for me this week. I’m assuming the odds of getting a first offer on a month-old submission are now very slim.
Another Anon - April 7, 2010 at 11:14 am

It looks like W&L has announced a summer submission policy:

http://law.wlu.edu/lawreview/page.asp?pageid=116
inthehunt - April 7, 2010 at 11:41 am

I’m still waiting to hear back from an expedite that I sent out last week. Phone calls to a couple of schools — Notre Dame and NC — shook loose a few rejections. But I think the window is close to closing for finals.
anon - April 7, 2010 at 1:32 pm

So, which schools now have summer submission programs? Alabama does. Now, it looks like W&L does. Are there any others?
Practititioner - April 7, 2010 at 2:50 pm

But the window is not completely closed. I got a call yesterday from a top-100 journal trying to make an offer, and they were unaware that I had withdrawn my article a few days earlier. So some journals are still making offers that are not based on expedites.
student - April 7, 2010 at 2:53 pm

My expedite expired recently… some rejections still rolling in. And the token confused journal responding to my withdrawal by thanking me for my submission and informing me that they will reach a final decision within 3-8 weeks. Very helpful.
Aspirant - April 7, 2010 at 2:56 pm

Student: You’ll get a rejection or two in July too. Those make me chuckle.
Inquiring - April 7, 2010 at 9:10 pm

1. Are folks getting offers predominantly by phone or e-mail these days? and

2. Is it customary to seek extensions of the acceptance deadlines and, if so, on what bases?
Anon - April 9, 2010 at 5:26 pm

For what it is worth, I received a top-50 offer this week and released a mid second tier offer.
new question for you all - April 10, 2010 at 11:15 pm

Don’t think this has been asked before…

Is it standard practice for rejection emails to invite the author to re-submit the same piece again in August, if it has not been placed by then? Or to say that the law review will resume consideration of the same piece then if the author has not withdrawn it? Do journals that send such rejections send them to all rejected authors, or just to some?
anon - April 11, 2010 at 3:38 am

I just received an offer this week, and I know for sure that several top 10 journals are still reviewing articles since they responded to my expedite (and not just with an automatically generated email).

I usually request an extension if a substantially higher ranked journal has requested more time. Almost all of the editors that I have dealt with have been gracious on this issue.
another_student - April 15, 2010 at 4:41 pm

Another student author here. I submitted one piece in early March, which was picked up by a specialty journal fairly quickly. I submitted another piece to a handful of journals on March 22 or so, and (with the exception of one rejection) have not received any responses.

I’m guessing that the window is about closed by now. At this point, should I expect to hear anything back from the remaining journals? I’m somewhat surprised by the silence; my first submission elicited 6-8 speedy rejections within the first week.
inthehunt - April 15, 2010 at 9:02 pm

Another Student — my sense is that many journals have shut down for finals prep., which means that they’re not reviewing and rejecting or at best are working through the final set of expedites. I would leave it in play through the summer and then resubmit in August if you don’t get an offer. You might also consider submitting it to W&L’s and Alabama’s summer submission programs (although those each require single submission and start up around May 1).
student - April 20, 2010 at 3:46 pm

Got an offer from a specialty journal at a top 50 school last Friday, with a 1 week deadline expiring this Friday, and now waiting to hear back from the better specialty journals. The silence is driving me nuts.

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Spring 2010: Is the Window Open? (bumped again)

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Authors

Daniel J. Solove Kaimipono Wenger Dave Hoffman Frank Pasquale Deven Desai Danielle Citron Lawrence Cunningham Sarah Waldeck Jaya Ramji-Nogales Solangel Maldonado Gerard Magliocca

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Daniel J. Solove
Kaimipono Wenger
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Sarah Waldeck
Jaya Ramji-Nogales
Solangel Maldonado
Gerard Magliocca