The Volokh Conspiracy

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Volokh Conspiracy

Cool data on the law review submission process

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The team at Scholastica, a website that handles submissions for many law reviews, has posted some interesting aggregate data on how the law review submission process looks based on Scholastica's records. The data covers when journals open for submissions, when authors submit their pieces, when expedites happen, and when journals make decisions. There are considerable limits to what the numbers can reveal, but perhaps the most interesting information is a chart showing when authors submitted their articles in 2013-14:

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It looks like the submissions were almost evenly divided between the fall and spring submission seasons. My impression is that most journals usually accept more articles in the spring season (when the new editorial board starts) than in the fall season. If that impression is accurate, it suggests that the odds for authors are probably better in the spring window than in the fall window. I'll still rely on Redyip, the great bird of the gods of Zarcon, to know exactly when is the best time to submit in any particular year. But the Scholastica information is interesting to have.

Thanks to Prawfs commenter "Anonymoose" for the link.