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39 J. Legal Educ. 387 (1989)
How the Student-Edited Law Journals Make Their Publication Decisions

handle is hein.journals/jled39 and id is 399 raw text is: How the Student-Edited Law
Journals Make Their Publication
Decisions
Jordan H. Leibman and James P. White
At this writing there are 153 members of the Association of American
Law Schools (AALS).' Each operates at least one student-edited law
journal;2 the larger programs maintain as many as nine.3 As a 'rule, the
oldest journal at each school is a general interest publication that invites
manuscripts from all areas of law,4 although a number of nominally
generalist journals admit to being particularly hospitable to articles that
focus on certain substantive areas or on local or regional legal issues.5
At most law schools, it is fair to characterize the generalistjournal as the
principal or main journal.6 Because they are generally older than the
school's specialty reviews, they have had more time to accumulate the
patina of prestige. Their very titles-which bear no subject matter qualifiers
(Harvard Law Review as opposed to Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law
Review)-suggest positions of preeminence. Also, because the law reviews
permit multiple submissions,7 the generalist journals receive far more
manuscripts for their available publication slots than do the specialty
JBordan H. Leibman is Professor of Business Law, Indiana University Graduate School of
usiness.
James P. White is Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis.
1. See Association of American Law Schools, The A.A.L.S. Directory of Law Teachers
1987-88, at 1075-84 (1987).
2. Most student-edited law journals bear the name of their law school or university. When
this was not the case, the authors phoned the law school to verify that it had a law
journal. In this article, the authors use the terms law review and law journal
interchangeably, except when referring to the institution of law review, in which case,
the regime of student-edited journals is meant.
3. E.g., Harv. Envtl. L. Rev.; Harv. J.L. & Tech.; Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y; Harv. J. on
Legis.; Harv. Int'l LJ.; Harv. Women's L.J.; Harv. Blackletter J.; Harv. C.R.-C.L. L.
Rev.; Harv. L. Rev. Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California and the
Georgetown University Law Center each maintain eight student journals.
4. Of the 153 journals called principal journals in this study, all but four are generalist
journals. The exceptions are listed infra note 10.
5. A number of the senior editors interviewed in the study indicated that their journals
sought articles dealing with the law of their state. A few others indicated that their
journals had developed emphases on such topics as tax law or natural resource law. Only
the article titles, however, indicate the existence of these preferences.
6. When one of the authors visited the Georgetown University Law Center, he asked
several times for directions to the offices of the Georgetown Law Journal. The three
persons who responded each said, Oh, you mean the main journal's offices.
7. Every interviewee in this study assumed that copies of the manuscripts their journal
received were submitted simultaneously to other journals, whether or not that fact was
revealed by thd author.

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