Submissions

Unsolicited Manuscripts Welcome

SUBMISSION POLICY
The Alabama Law Review publishes five issues per school year. We invite submissions of unsolicited manuscripts from judges, members of the legal academy, and legal practitioners. The Law Review is proud to have been ranked a Top 100 journal by ExpressO, our preferred method of submission. Please review our submissions policies below. Thank you for your interest in the Alabama Law Review

SUBMISSION METHOD

• We strongly recommend submission of manuscripts through ExpressO – http://law.bepress.com/expresso/
• If you must submit an article in hard copy form, please mail to the address below and simultaneously email a Microsoft Word copy of your submission to acquisitions@law.ua.edu.
• Alabama Law Review
  ATTN: Acquisitions Editor
  The University of Alabama School of Law
  Box 870382
  Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0382

REVIEW PROCESS
While submissions may be made at any time, we have three main review periods: February – April (spring review), a special summer review (see below), and August – October (fall review).

Our summer process is a truncated review process in which we guarantee a response within two weeks of submission and all acceptances must be final. A link to the description of our process for Summer 2008 can be found at: http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2008/04/summer-submissi.html.

It is our policy that we reserve at least 20% of space for review of pieces for selection during the fall review period, and there is no prejudice against pieces submitted during this time.

Each submission is reviewed first by our Acquisitions Editor and a team of screeners. Authors whose articles are chosen for further board review will be notified by the Acquisitions Editor of the status of the article.

Please note that the Law Review receives and reviews over 2,000 submissions each year. Consequently, while each submission is given a fair and equitable initial review, the staff is unable to personally respond to each author to update the status of our review. Authors should assume that members of our staff will contact them if their piece is pending further review. We value our authors and appreciate your interest in the Alabama Law Review and guarantee that each piece will be given proper review.

MANUSCRIPT GUIDELINES
We strongly prefer manuscripts under 30,000 words (including footnotes). Manuscripts under 15,000 words will be reviewed as essays. Unsolicited book reviews are also welcome, and these are typically run at 5,000 words maximum (including footnotes).

The Alabama Law Review generally conforms to the formatting and notation conventions set forth in THE BLUEBOOK: A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF CITATION (18th ed. 2005) and the style conventions of THE TEXAS LAW REVIEW MANUAL ON USAGE & STYLE (10th ed. 2005).

REQUESTS FOR EXPEDITED REVIEW
We consider expedite requests throughout the year. Requests for expedite should be sent to acquisitions@law.ua.edu. An expedite request should include: the author’s name, e-mail address, and telephone number; the name of the journal(s) that has offered publication, and the expiration dates of those offers. Please see above for our policy concerning contact with authors.