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  3. Law & Society Review
  4. Journal information
  5. Author instructions
  6. Submitting your materials
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Submitting your materials

Submissions

Manuscripts submitted to Law & Society Review must not be under consideration by another publication.

Every submission must anonymized as the journal follows a double-blind, peer-review process.

Please follow the detailed preparation instructions found here before submission.

All manuscripts must be submitted online via: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/lsr. 

When submitting a manuscript:

  1. Please upload your manuscript on-line through the online submission system as a Word document. The manuscript should be double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font with one-inch margins. 
  2. Manuscript should be between 7,000 and 12,500 words (exclusive of references, appendices and tables) and contain the following elements: abstract, body of text, reference list and any illustrations as part of the main document. 
  3. PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR MANUSCRIPT AS A WORD DOCUMENT IN A SINGLE FILE THAT CONTAINS ALL TEXT, REFERENCES, TABLES, AND FIGURES.  TO BE CLEAR, WE DO NOT WANT THE FIGURES, TABLES, AT THE END OF THE MANUSCRIPT, BUT RATHER, INCLUDED IN THE MANUSCRIPT WHERE THE READER WOULD NATURALLY READ THEM.
  4. All identifying author information must be removed from the text of the manuscript. Please delete any notes of acknowledgment, author information, and identifying references to author’s own work.
  5. Please upload a title page as a separate file in the online submission system including full author information and any acknowledgements, funding statement and competing interests statement.
  6. Please also include a cover letter which provides information with names and affiliations of former co-authors or research collaborators for the past three years, as well as the names of those that have read previous versions of the manuscript. In addition, please let us know if there are any names that you wish to see excluded from our review process.
  7. If your manuscript relies on original data collection from living human subjects, or other types of research that typically need research ethics approval from your institutional review board or research ethics board, please add a footnote or a sentence in the main text of your manuscript (in the data and methods section) that your project received approval from the relevant review board (or that you received a formal waiver or exemption from such board). For review purposes, the name of the board or the university/center/organization with which it is associated can be anonymized.

After acceptance

  1. Final version of article must be sent to us as a Word file. Please follow instructions in acceptance email. 
  2. All anonymized material should be added back into the final version. 
  3. Please send the journal a print-ready version of your article, ensuring you have followed the detailed style instructions and that your references are complete.
  4. Include a brief (50–75 words) author’s biography at the end of the manuscript (after all textual materials, but before tables and figures); for multi-authored manuscripts, the biography of each author should appear as a separate paragraph.

Second language abstracts

We welcome the submission of a second abstract written in a second language in full acknowledgement and celebration of the diversity of this field of research. The following criteria must be met to ensure the accuracy of translation:  

  • The second language abstract must be written in an officially recognised language and must be relevant to the content and context of the article.  
  • A proficient speaker of the language (we will not accept AI-authored translations) must be acknowledged in the acknowledgements section of the paper as authoring the second language text in the following format, they may or may not be a named author on the article depending on contribution:  "The second language abstract in this paper was written by [A. Smith (affiliation)]. [A. Smith] takes full responsibly for the accuracy of the translated abstract and is a proficient speaker."  


Authors should note:

  • The second language abstract will publish directly below the English abstract.
  • Further second language abstracts (beyond one) will be included as supplementary material and the fluent speaker taking responsibility for the accuracy of translation must be named in the acknowledgments of the paper for each translation provided. 
  • It is very unlikely that reviewers will be able to assess the accuracy of translation. Guidance to reviewers will include the omission of assessing second language abstracts. 
  • If a second language abstract is submitted, to preserve the accuracy of translation, minimal typesetting or post acceptance editing will be conducted to the English language abstract. No post acceptance editing will be made to the second language abstract. 
  • If an error is highlighted in the second language abstract post publication, we reserve to right to issue a correction notice or apply an expression of concern on the paper until concerns are resolved. 
  • Language translation software may be used at our discretion to screen for offensive or non-contextual translations. 

Translated articles

We welcome the submission of translations of articles first published in Law & Society Review in English with the aim of making these papers more visible and accessible to a wider audience. The translation can be provided at the time of the original article’s acceptance or at any time after publication. The publication of translated articles are subject to the following conditions:  

  • The translation must be of a paper first published in Law & Society Review.
  • The translation must be in an officially recognised language and must be relevant to the content and context of the article.
  • If the original author is not translating the article themselves, they are responsible for seeking and hiring a translator.
  • The translator must have permission from the original author(s) to translate their work (email evidence should be provided to lsr@lawandsociety.org) and both the original author(s) and translator will be listed as co-authors on the translated article (the translator will be listed as the last co-author).
  • The translator must be a proficient speaker of the language (we will not accept AI-authored translations) and a note in English should be included in the acknowledgements section at the end of the article in the format: “This translation was authored by [A. Smith (affiliation)] with permission of the original author [B. Smith]. [A. Smith] takes full responsibly for the accuracy of the translated article and is a proficient speaker.”
  • A citation to the original English version of the article must be included as a first footnote in the translated article.


Authors should note:

  • Either the author or translator must be designated the corresponding author and that individual should submit the translated article via the journal’s online submission system.
  • The translated article will not be peer reviewed.
  • English sources in the references list do not need to be translated.
  • Acceptance of the translated article is at the editorial team’s discretion.
  • The corresponding author will be required to sign a publishing agreement.
  • No post acceptance editing will be made to the translated article.
  • Translated articles will be published as e-only articles in a journal issue designated by the editorial team.
  • If an error is highlighted in the translated article post publication, we reserve to right to issue a correction notice or apply an expression of concern on the paper until concerns are resolved, as is our practice with English-language articles. 
  • Language translation software may be used at our discretion to screen for offensive or non-contextual translations. 

Book reviews

Law & Society Review does not accept unsolicited book reviews. Book reviews are by invite only and should only be submitted after instructed to by the editorial team.

What to expect

All submitted manuscripts are assessed for their readiness for review and their appropriateness for the journal. Those within the mission of Law & Society Review and ready for review will be sent out for double-anonymous peer review. In this form of scholarly review, the reviewers and the authors are not told each other’s identities. The speed of the review process depends largely on the speed with which reviewers return their reports. The journal aspires to return reviewer feedback and editorial decisions to authors within 12-16 weeks. Second language abstracts, translated articles and book reviews will not be subject to double-anonymous peer review and will be reviewed by the editorial team.

Revised manuscripts

For revised manuscripts that have undergone peer review and are to be resubmitted, authors should only submit the revised manuscript instead of appending the original to the revised one. The revised manuscript does not need to show track changes, highlights, or different word colors for changed text.