Concerned that legal scholars feel rushed to submit articles for consideration during this spring’s submission cycle, Vanderbilt Law Review Editor-in-Chief Scott Goldman and Senior Articles Editor Lauren Lowe have re-emphasized the journal’s policy to retain approximately 40 percent of the available space in next year’s journals for articles submitted in fall 2008.
“That’s always been the Law Review’s policy,” Goldman, who was elected editor-in-chief this spring, says. “We’re emphasizing it now because we want to dispel any impressions that student-run journals accept most of the articles they publish during the spring submission cycle.”
Goldman hopes that publicizing the policy will encourage scholars still working on articles they plan to complete over the summer to submit their work to the journal next fall. “I can assure them that we will review fall submissions just as thoroughly as we review spring submissions, just as we always have,” he says. “This spring’s accelerated submissions cycle has strained scholars, and we’re hoping that restating our longstanding policy to review and accept a significant number of pieces each fall will help balance the submissions process.”
Goldman and Lowe have posted an open letter to scholars on the Law Review’s web site stressing the longstanding policy. “Obviously, we won’t arbitrarily reject a publishable piece solely because of our policy,” Goldman says. “But we do want to encourage authors whose pieces are still in the works now to hold, polish, and improve them for submission next fall.”