Legal Commentary

I started submitting articles to law reviews in the summer of 2003, just after I graduated from law school. At the time, it seemed as if most journals only accepted paper submissions, which was cost-prohibitive for many outside of the legal academy. That said, there was a very useful listing of law reviews which accepted Electronic Submissions. That listing, maintained by Rick Bales of Northern Kentucky, is still in existence today. But while that listing still exists today, it now serves a very different function. Now, in essence, it lists journals that still accept e-mail submissions (or submissions via a journal's website) as opposed to the vast majority of journals, which exclusively accept submissions via ExpressO. Other journals indicate that they still accept e-mail submissions but that they greatly prefer ExpressO submissions.

Started in August 2003, ExpressO allows authors to submit to as many law reviews as they want at one time. The author simply needs to upload a copy of his or her article, a form cover letter, and perhaps a c.v. and abstract. I think the general understanding is that ExpressO has exponentially increased the number of submissions to each law review as authors can now carpet bomb a wide array of law reviews, with law schools often underwriting the costs. Basically, this is similar to the way in which OSCAR has ratcheted up the arms race in the judicial clerkship application process.

Of course, there are definitely some pros to ExpressO. Authors now can submit to a large number of law reviews in a matter of minutes rather than over the course of several days. And authors expediting and withdrawing articles can now do so in the click of a few buttons rather than through individual letters/e-mails/calls. I also assume that ExpressO makes the process easier for law reviews, which is why many journals now only accept ExpressO submissions to the exclusion of e-mail submissions (I wonder why this is the case, though? If an author sends an e-mail submission with a cover letter, abstract, and c.v., how is that different from an ExpressO submission?).

That said, there are cons. If the general understanding is correct, and the number of submissions to each journal has greatly increased, editorial boards have less time to devote to each article. In my mind, though, the biggest con is the generic nature of the submission process. When I used to submit to law reviews, I would often send targeted letters to law reviews if (1) my article addressed a topic that uniquely impacted the state in which the law review was located; (2) the law review had recently published a good article on a similar topic; (3) the law school was especially known for the field addressed by the article, etc. Even if there wasn't a particular reason for a journal to publish one of my articles, it still felt good to write a personalized letter to a journal addressed to a specific person. As late as 2008, I was able to send e-mail submissions to many journals, but as I was submitting articles this fall, I found that there simply aren't many law reviews left in the e-mail game.

It seems as if John Doyle's LexOpus is at least in part an attempt to put some personalization back in the law review submission process, but I'm a bit gun shy to try it because I simply haven't heard from people who have used it (Have any readers had success with it?). It also seems as if the online supplements that many law reviews have added also put some personalization back in the process in addition to having a much shorter window from submission to publication.

So, what do readers think? Did you prefer the personalization of the pre-ExpressO days or do you prefer the efficiency of ExpressO? You can respond by answering the following poll and/or leaving a comment to this post.

-Colin Miller