Submissions to the Law Review
Volume 92 of the Law Review closed our Scholastica submissions portal in April 2024. We look forward to reading your submissions when we reopen in July for our summer submissions cycle.
I. Submissions to the Law Review
The University of Chicago Law Review accepts submissions through Scholastica. We encourage authors to create an account and submit to our journal there. If you do not have a Scholastica account, you may email your submission to lrarticles@law.uchicago.edu.
The Law Review also accepts proposals for Book Reviews. If you have a book review you would like published, please submit via the same process for articles described above.
II. Submission Guidelines
Timing. The Law Review takes pride in carefully reviewing every submission that we receive. Submissions will proceed through multiple stages of review, including peer review, meaning our process can take several weeks. If your preference is to publish in the Law Review, we strongly encourage you to submit your piece to our journal before submitting it more widely. We encourage authors to notify us through Scholastica when they have submitted exclusively or limitedly to our journal so that we may prioritize review.
Length. Our length guidelines are as follows:
- For Articles, we strongly encourage submissions of fewer than 30,000 words, including footnotes.
- For Essays, we strongly encourage submissions of fewer than 20,000 words, including footnotes.
Anonymization. Please help facilitate our anonymous review process by:
- Submitting an anonymized version of your manuscript with no identifying information, or
- Confining your name, affiliation, biographical information, and acknowledgements to a single cover page.
III. Selection
In general, we review and accept articles in two cycles during the late winter/early spring and the late summer. Our editors carefully consider every manuscript regardless of which cycle it is submitted, and we encourage all authors to submit their works to us whenever they believe they are suitable for publication.
The Law Review solicits feedback on submissions from scholars who are experts in their field. Please be aware that this peer review is part of the standard review process that your article may undergo. Before sending an article out for peer review, we remove information that identifies the author, although the reviewer may be familiar with the article if it has been presented at a workshop or conference or circulated online. We never disclose the names of our peer reviewers or share their reviews with the author.
Our editors always seek to review articles within a few weeks after receiving them, but it might take longer to reach a decision when submission volumes are high. If we are unable to extend a publication offer, we will notify the author promptly.
When the Law Review decides to publish an article, we contact the author immediately to extend an offer.
If the author needs additional time to decide whether to accept an offer of publication, we will likely grant an extension.
IV. Expedited Review
Please let us know if you have received an offer of publication from another journal and would like us to expedite our review of your article. If you submitted your article through Scholastica, you can log in to your account and indicate that you need an expedited decision. If you do not have a Scholastica account, you may also contact the Law Review at lrarticles@law.uchicago.edu. Please include your name, the title of your article, the name of the journal that has extended an offer to publish your article, and the date and time that their offer expires. We ask that you not email if you have already submitted your expedite request through Scholastica.
The Law Review will attempt to honor all requests for an expedited review. We are not always able to respond personally to each request because of the large number of expedited review requests we receive and the limited time frame that we have to complete the review.
V. Withdrawal
We appreciate if you are able to let us know that you have decided to withdraw your article from consideration. If you submitted your article through Scholastica you may log into your account and withdraw the article. If you do not have a Scholastica account, you can email the Law Review at lrarticles@law.uchicago.edu. Please include your name and the title of your manuscript.
VI. Light Edit Policy
The Law Review is proud to employ a light edit policy. The editors believe strongly that both the argument and the voice of a manuscript should be the creations of the author. Our edits are intended to hone the author’s vision, rather than replace it with our own.
After our first round of substantive editing, we return a redlined copy of the manuscript to the author showing all changes that we have made, with comments and questions. Our changes are meant as reasoned suggestions, not editorial edicts, and we will respect the author’s judgment regarding whether the changes should be made.