Publishing on to Law Review Forum

[FryBreadPower]

Any posters accomplished it? Obviously the process sounds simple enough in theory, but I imagine it can get fairly complicated/frustrating. There is a lot of the site about publishing (trust me, I made sure to make sweet love to that search bar before posting) but I can't seem to find anything about "publishing on" specifically.

Does anyone have any advice/personal anecdotes?

[kalvano]

What do you mean by "publishing on"? Getting an article published?

[jump_man]

Any posters accomplished it? Obviously the process sounds simple enough in theory, but I imagine it can get fairly complicated/frustrating. There is a lot of the site about publishing (trust me, I made sure to make sweet love to that search bar before posting) but I can't seem to find anything about "publishing on" specifically.

Does anyone have any advice/personal anecdotes?

Most journals don't accept article submissions from students, unless you already have accomplished something significant in academia. You can always try to submit a note to a journal, but what's the point? There are easier ways to get published, and there are more important things to worry about as a law student (grades, networking, getting a job, networking ... ).

[sundance95]

What do you mean by "publishing on"? Getting an article published?

At some law reviews, any student whose note is accepted for publication is invited to join. UVA's LR does this.

That said, OP's question doesn't really make any sense. There is no unique challenge to 'publishing on,' separate and apart from getting published in general. Obviously you'll want to know the bylaws and selection process, but that is idiosyncratic and no one will be able to give you general advice on those issues.

[FryBreadPower]

What do you mean by "publishing on"? Getting an article published?

I originally meant it as a vehicle for securing membership if you weren't admitted via the write-on competition. But come to think of it, I imagine the publication process is no different whether you are a member or a non-member (provided you are a student at the school). But, this may be completely off base.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Except I guess for outliers like UVA, getting a note accepted does not gain you membership on a LR. It just gets you a publication. And at most schools, the LR reserves student publication slots for its own members - you'd have to find another journal/LR to accept your piece.

[FryBreadPower]

There is no unique challenge to 'publishing on,' separate and apart from getting published in general.

After a few responses I'm now realizing that this never occurred to me until just now.

[FryBreadPower]

You can't "publish" on to LR in the sense of becoming a member of LR (i.e. your name on the masthead), unless you mean "write-on." If you mean write-on, that means you get onto LR by scoring well on a writing competition (possibly combined with grades). You can publish, but that doesn't make you a member of LR; that just means you got an article published. Also, usually your school's LR will reserve student publication slots for its own members. So generally you have to find some other LR/journal to take your article.

You can at my school. I guess I never stopped to think that this wasn't the norm.

[kalvano]

What do you mean by "publishing on"? Getting an article published?

At some law reviews, any student whose note is accepted for publication is invited to join. UVA's LR does this.

That said, OP's question doesn't really make any sense. There is no unique challenge to 'publishing on,' separate and apart from getting published in general. Obviously you'll want to know the bylaws and selection process, but that is idiosyncratic and no one will be able to give you general advice on those issues.

Why would you write a note if you aren't on law review? It's a miserable undertaking.

[A. Nony Mouse]

You can't "publish" on to LR in the sense of becoming a member of LR (i.e. your name on the masthead), unless you mean "write-on." If you mean write-on, that means you get onto LR by scoring well on a writing competition (possibly combined with grades). You can publish, but that doesn't make you a member of LR; that just means you got an article published. Also, usually your school's LR will reserve student publication slots for its own members. So generally you have to find some other LR/journal to take your article.

You can at my school. I guess I never stopped to think that this wasn't the norm.

Yeah, sorry, I edited after the UVA response - I'd never heard of that before. But no, there wouldn't be any difference between publishing-on and getting published.

(and I suspect "writing a note when you're not on LR" really means "fulfilling your writing requirement with a seminar paper/whatever and then trying to get it published".)

[FryBreadPower]

What do you mean by "publishing on"? Getting an article published?

At some law reviews, any student whose note is accepted for publication is invited to join. UVA's LR does this.

That said, OP's question doesn't really make any sense. There is no unique challenge to 'publishing on,' separate and apart from getting published in general. Obviously you'll want to know the bylaws and selection process, but that is idiosyncratic and no one will be able to give you general advice on those issues.

Why would you write a note if you aren't on law review? It's a miserable undertaking.

I was interested in clerking and it seems like (correct me if I'm wrong) TLS seems to imply that LR membership is paramount in earning a clerkship position (though I'm now reading that there is an evolving trend towards being published generally over pure LR membership).

[kalvano]

And getting published as a student is a challenge, since law reviews want people that will get cited.

[kalvano]

What do you mean by "publishing on"? Getting an article published?

At some law reviews, any student whose note is accepted for publication is invited to join. UVA's LR does this.

That said, OP's question doesn't really make any sense. There is no unique challenge to 'publishing on,' separate and apart from getting published in general. Obviously you'll want to know the bylaws and selection process, but that is idiosyncratic and no one will be able to give you general advice on those issues.

Why would you write a note if you aren't on law review? It's a miserable undertaking.

I was interested in clerking and it seems like (correct me if I'm wrong) TLS seems to imply that LR membership is paramount in earning a clerkship position (though I'm now reading that there is an evolving trend towards being published generally over pure LR membership).

Ah. Yes, you'll find it extremely difficult to clerk (at least at the federal level) without being on LR.

[FryBreadPower]

You can't "publish" on to LR in the sense of becoming a member of LR (i.e. your name on the masthead), unless you mean "write-on." If you mean write-on, that means you get onto LR by scoring well on a writing competition (possibly combined with grades). You can publish, but that doesn't make you a member of LR; that just means you got an article published. Also, usually your school's LR will reserve student publication slots for its own members. So generally you have to find some other LR/journal to take your article.

You can at my school. I guess I never stopped to think that this wasn't the norm.

Yeah, sorry, I edited after the UVA response - I'd never heard of that before. But no, there wouldn't be any difference between publishing-on and getting published.

(and I suspect "writing a note when you're not on LR" really means "fulfilling your writing requirement with a seminar paper/whatever and then trying to get it published".)

Gotcha. Any one know of a good starting point to finding topics that are both "hot" and that have little to no scholarship on them given their age? I could have sworn I just saw a thread discussing this a week or so ago, but I can't seem to find it in the forums.

[FryBreadPower]

And getting published as a student is a challenge, since law reviews want people that will get cited.

I can only imagine. Part of me is telling me this is the dumbest plan of all time. But, I felt like I at least needed to research the possibility a little bit to keep it open in the future.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I was interested in clerking and it seems like (correct me if I'm wrong) TLS seems to imply that LR membership is paramount in earning a clerkship position (though I'm now reading that there is an evolving trend towards being published generally over pure LR membership).

I don't think this is a trend so much as an alternate route for showing you can write/attention to detail. Generally the advice to publish is on top of doing LR, or, if you don't have LR/journal, publishing can mitigate not having LR/journal. (Not all judges will care about LR, but many do.) I haven't seen anyone suggest publishing instead of LR/journal from the get go (at least, that's not the risk-averse general wisdom).

As for finding a topic, I would go round to your professors and ask them for ideas. Others here have talked about googling "circuit split" to find topics, although you run a bit of a risk of SCOTUS granting cert/resolving the split before you can get your piece out.

[FryBreadPower]

I was interested in clerking and it seems like (correct me if I'm wrong) TLS seems to imply that LR membership is paramount in earning a clerkship position (though I'm now reading that there is an evolving trend towards being published generally over pure LR membership).

I don't think this is a trend so much as an alternate route for showing you can write/attention to detail. Generally the advice to publish is on top of doing LR, or, if you don't have LR/journal, publishing can mitigate not having LR/journal. (Not all judges will care about LR, but many do.) I haven't seen anyone suggest publishing instead of LR/journal from the get go (at least, that's not the risk-averse general wisdom).

As for finding a topic, I would go round to your professors and ask them for ideas. Others here have talked about googling "circuit split" to find topics, although you run a bit of a risk of SCOTUS granting cert/resolving the split before you can get your piece out.

I like the idea--it's the sort of advice I've been looking for when trying to decide how to start this entire process.

Honestly, if I had gained admittance to my Law Review, I wouldn't have even begun thinking about this. In the least arrogant way possible, it was a little bit of a surprise to me that I didn't make it. I put together a good faith effort and it seemed like participants were dropping left and right (not finishing). But, such is life.

I figured I would at least take a stab at publishing before changing my plans entirely.

[sundance95]

I suspect "writing a note when you're not on LR" really means "fulfilling your writing requirement with a seminar paper/whatever and then trying to get it published".

that's pretty much what "writing a note when you're on LR" means too, at least as far as I've seen

[FryBreadPower]

I suspect "writing a note when you're not on LR" really means "fulfilling your writing requirement with a seminar paper/whatever and then trying to get it published".

that's pretty much what "writing a note when you're on LR" means too, at least as far as I've seen

The one thing I'm worried about is that the LR students may have some sort of "boost" in getting their notes published, all things equal (given their membership status). My LR puts 2-3 comments every 2 months and I'd like to get the jump on the publication process before there is an enormous flood of student notes trying to vie for relatively small opportunities.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I suspect "writing a note when you're not on LR" really means "fulfilling your writing requirement with a seminar paper/whatever and then trying to get it published".

that's pretty much what "writing a note when you're on LR" means too, at least as far as I've seen

That's probably true. My school makes you get permission to double-dip a seminar paper as LR note (or vice versa), though (doing a note doesn't get you out of the general writing requirement), and unless you do a seminar 1st semester 2L, your note is due before you'd get any seminar paper written.

[sundance95]

The one thing I'm worried about is that the LR students may have some sort of "boost" in getting their notes published, all things equal (given their membership status).

if true, this would be TTT as fuark. At UVA, the review is blind.

My LR puts 2-3 comments every 2 months and I'd like to get the jump on the publication process before there is an enormous flood of student notes trying to vie for relatively small opportunities.

This is a good call--to the extent that being on LR helps, it's with the little stuff like knowing which note submission periods tend to have fewer submissions (and thus less competition), etc. etc. But I'd imagine you can find this out by asking; there's no reason it should be a big secret.

[sundance95]

I suspect "writing a note when you're not on LR" really means "fulfilling your writing requirement with a seminar paper/whatever and then trying to get it published".

that's pretty much what "writing a note when you're on LR" means too, at least as far as I've seen

That's probably true. My school makes you get permission to double-dip a seminar paper as LR note (or vice versa), though (doing a note doesn't get you out of the general writing requirement), and unless you do a seminar 1st semester 2L, your note is due before you'd get any seminar paper written.

that sucks.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I suspect "writing a note when you're not on LR" really means "fulfilling your writing requirement with a seminar paper/whatever and then trying to get it published".

that's pretty much what "writing a note when you're on LR" means too, at least as far as I've seen

That's probably true. My school makes you get permission to double-dip a seminar paper as LR note (or vice versa), though (doing a note doesn't get you out of the general writing requirement), and unless you do a seminar 1st semester 2L, your note is due before you'd get any seminar paper written.

that sucks.

Yeah, but we could get up to 6 credits for doing LR, so it balanced out.

[sundance95]

ahhhhh makes sense, no credits at uva

[FryBreadPower]

ahhhhh makes sense, no credits at uva

None at my school either.

Does anyone know if there is a TLS content guide on publishing (akin to the guides on OCI's, Timeline's, etc.)? I've searched, but maybe I have overlooked something.