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Publishing Information

Guide to getting your ideas published. This guide is written for Faculty members but some of these resources can also be used by students looking to get published.

Choosing A Topic

Conducting a Preemptive Search

To make sure that an article you are writing is covering new ground and is not on a topic that has already been addressed, you can search in Westlaw, LexisAdvanced, LegalTrac and the Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP- available through HeinOnline).

To track a topic, set up a periodic alerts or get a customized email subscription to SmartCILP Delaware Law faculty should contact their library liaison or Maggie Adams (x-2039), current Delaware Law students should contact the Reference Desk (x-2114).

Working Papers

Legal Scholarship Network (part of SSRN) publishes electronic journals consisting of working and accepted papers, author contact information and conference announcements. 
Digital Commons Network  brings together free, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. Curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, the Network includes a growing collection of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work.

Articles on Scholarly Publishing

Timothy K. Armstrong, Crowdsourcing and Open Access: Collaborative Techniques for Disseminating Legal Materials and Scholarship, 26 Santa Clara Computer & High Tech. L. J. 591 (2010).

Susan Bartie, The Lingering Core of Legal Scholarship, 30 Legal Stud. 345 (2010).

Paul L. Caron, Are Scholars Better Bloggers? - Bloggership: How Blogs are Transforming Legal Scholarship. 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1025

Leah M. Christensen & Julie A. Oseid, Navigating The Law Review Article Selection Process: An Empirical Study Of Those With All The Power-Student Editors, 59 S.C. L. Rev. 175 (2007).

Ross E. Davies, The Dipping Point: Law Review Circulation 2010. 2011 Green Bag Almanac & Reader, 547 (2011).  

Shari Seidman Diamond & Pam Mueller, Empirical Legal Scholarship in Law Reviews, 6 Ann. Rev. Law & Soc. Sci. 581 (2010).

Eugene Volokh, The Future of Books Related to the Law? 108 Mich. L. Rev. 823 (2010).

David C. Yamada, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and The Practice of Legal Scholarship, 41 U. Mem. L. Rev. 121 (2010).

Frank J. Cavaliere, Expanding Law Review Publishing Opportunities: Helpful Sites on the Web, 55 Prac. Law. 11 (Apr. 2009).

Nancy Levit, Scholarship Advice for New Law Professors in the Electronic Age, 16 Widener L. J. 947 (2007).

Shane Tintle, Citing The Elite: The Burden Of Authorial Anxiety, 57 Duke L.J. 487 (2007).

Publisher and Submission Information

Directories

Findlaw offers an narrative explanation of law reviews for law students that includes a listing of "prominent law reviews" by title

Svengalis, Kendall F. Legal Information Buyer's Guide & Reference Manual. Intended as a reference source for the acquisition of legal materials, this book can also aid as a publishing source. Appendix A provides a detailed listing of leading legal publishers with their history and product lines. Available in print in the Reference section of the library at call # KF1 .L43

Law Review Rankings

Washington & Lee: Law Journals Submission & Ranking A list of the most cited law reviews from Washington and Lee University Law School. Data covers 2003 onward. This resource also offers an interactive chart of law reviews by rank and their addresses.

Where Is It Indexed?

Titles indexed in CILP: This list identifies law reviews and other legal periodicals that are currently indexed in the Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP).

Legal Resource Index: Available on Westlaw, is a comprehensive index that provides subject, author, case name, and statute name access to more than 700 journals from the major nations of the common-law tradition

Submission Information

ExpressO is a law review submission service that allows subscribers to submit one article to multiple law reviews at the same time. Express0 also produces a yearly Law Review Submission Guide in pdf format with rankings of the top 100 law reviews as well as top 10 law reviews by subject. No subscription is necessary to view the guide.

The Ohio Northern University Petit College of Law maintains a Law Review Electronic Submissions list that enables simultaneous email submissions to multiple law reviews without a subscription.

See also Allen Rostron & Nancy Levit's article: Information for Submitting Articles to Law Reviews & Journals available for download at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1019029 Abstract: This document contains information about submitting articles to law reviews and journals, including the methods for submitting an article, any special formatting requirements, how to contact them to request an expedited review, and how to contact them to withdraw an article from consideration. It covers 203 law reviews. The document was fully updated in August 2019.

Alternative Publishing Opportunities: Online Supplements and Blogs

Online Supplements: An increasing number of law journals are publishing supplemental material online. Some of these journals accept shorter, original pieces of scholarship while others only publish responses to articles published in their print editions. 
For more information see this article by Bridget J. Crawford, Information for Submitting to Online Law Review Companions  (last updated Nov. 2020) available for download at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3341802


Blogging

Contact Delaware Law School’s Webmaster, Nathan Garrison (ngarrison@widener.edu) if you are interested in starting your own Widener Law Blog.
Consider writing for an another blog. The Law Professor Blogs Network has a list of law professor blogs.

Additional Help

Be sure to contact a Reference Librarian if you need assistance using or locating any of the sources in this guide. Full-time Delaware Law Faculty should contact their Library Liaison. Adjunct faculty, Administrators and Students should contact the Reference Desk.