About
The Health Law & Public Policy Forum is an online publication dedicated to publishing scholarly work that addresses issues at the intersection of law, health care, and public policy. Supported by the Vanderbilt Center for Health Policy and the Vanderbilt Law School Health Law Society, the Forum is operated entirely by Vanderbilt Law School students committed to providing a space where future leaders in law and public policy can engage the health care debate.
As a publication managed solely by law students and dedicated to publishing student scholarship, the Forum represents a class of scholarly publications governed by peer review. Peer review is the process whereby scholarship submitted for publication is reviewed by the Forum's editors with training and expertise that is comparable to the submitting author. The Forum's peer review process is blinded to ensure that the most relevant and analytically rigorous submissions are selected for publication. To preserve the integrity of this process, the Forum’s editorial staff is selected from a pool of Vanderbilt law students who have demonstrated a passion for health care law and policy and have a well-developed understanding of the issues.
Structurally, the Forum publishes two distinct types of scholarship: Commentary and Articles. The Forum’s Commentary section is dedicated to op-ed style pieces that address cutting edge issues; as a result, Commentary articles are shorter in length and less heavily cited. The Commentary section also provides a space for inviting commentary from particular authors on specific issues. In contrast, the Articles section is reserved for scholarly work based on rigorous research and analysis.
Outside Perspectives:
Beginning with the Forum’s Summer 2011 issue, a separate section of the Forum will be opened to non-Vanderbilt law students. The section for Vanderbilt Law students will remain intact and will not be affected by the Outside Perspectives section.
All outside submissions must have a topic relevant to the Forum, must comply with the Forum guidelines (including deadlines, the blind submission process, and the peer review process), and must comply with current formatting rules. Submissions can be in either Commentary or Article format (see the “Submissions” tab).
The Outside Perspectives section is subject to the same selection process; the Forum editors will select only those submissions that are relevant and analytically rigorous for publication.