Submission Guidelines
Criminal Justice magazine is published quarterly for the members of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section—an audience that includes defense and prosecution lawyers, judges, academics, and others concerned with the administration of justice. It also circulates to libraries, individual subscribers, and online through WestLaw, LEXIS, UMI, and at the Section’s Web site. These guidelines are intended to help expedite your article through the review, editing, and production process.
Length: Features = 3,000 to 7,000 words; Columns = 1,500 words (max.)
Format: Word
Footnotes, endnotes, citations: Absolutely no footnotes or endnotes. All citations are embedded in the text. Authors are responsible for accuracy of the citations.
Gender-neutral language is required by ABA policy (unless referring to an actual person or case in which the gender is known.)
Submitting manuscripts: Send manuscript as an email attachment to the editor, Erin Remotigue: [email protected] (312-988-6089).
Author bio. should be included within the manuscript, preferably on the first page.
Author contact information: The author’s name, mailing address, phone number, and email address must accompany the submission.
Review process: The editor does an initial review of the manuscript and sends it to the magazine editorial board, which votes to accept or reject the article. Note: This is the only time the board sees the article before publication, so submit as final a draft as possible. If the board accepts the article, it may send comments or suggestions for changes to the editor, who will contact the author. If the suggested changes are substantive, the author will be asked to address the suggestions. If the board suggests no (or only minor) changes, the editor will handle them in the editing process.
Editing: The editorial board does not edit manuscripts. The editor will edit the article and return it to the author for review. This is the author’s only opportunity to make corrections or changes to the article before publication.
Copyright: The ABA requires that all authors sign a copyright agreement before the publication ships to the printer. Unless otherwise noted, it is assumed that all material submitted is original and not previously published. (Should the editorial board vote to accept a previously published article, the author must secure reprint permission from the original publisher.) Source material must be properly cited. Note: Text and graphic images posted on the Internet are covered by copyright law unless otherwise noted. These materials must be treated the same as print materials, with proper citations and, in some cases, permission to reprint. Manuscript submissions should in no way infringe on the rights of others.
CJ Author Guidelines – Additional Information
Style & substance: Criminal Justice is not a law journal, so tone down the legalese and try to write informally, as if you were having a conversation.
- Be concrete. Give practical applications of legal concepts. When possible, relate theory to practice.
- Make your point with anecdotes or examples.
- Favor short words and sentences over long ones.
- Choose the active over the passive voice: “Congress passed” not “it was passed by Congress.”
Style manuals:
- The Chicago Manual of Style (18th ed.) is the style guide for text.
- Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (most recent edition) is the preferred spelling guide.
- The Bluebook, A Uniform System of Citation (21st ed.) is the style guide for citations.
Article organization:
Keep it simple—an introduction, body of the article, conclusion. Do not use the outline format. Use one typeface and one type size throughout. Bold and italics are fine, but anything fancier simply slows down the editing process, as it must be removed in order to prepare the file for conversion to our design software.
Titles & subheads: Authors should feel free to create titles and subheads, but neither should be overly long. Subheads may be changed, deleted, or moved due to space or layout concerns, so it’s best not to use them to create a transition from one point to another. Consider, instead, how the text would read if all subheads were removed.
Citations: We use embedded cites. Authors should use common sense to ensure that cases named in the text are correctly and fully cited and material from other sources—including the Internet—is properly acknowledged. At the same time, we ask that you not overburden the article with cites. We ask that you include no more than two cites in a string. Finally, we do not check the accuracy of citations.
Author contact with readers: If you want readers to contact you, include your email address in your bio.
Reviews & Editing: What follows are the steps that occur between submission and publication. It is assumed that articles submitted on or before the deadline for each issue are as close to final as possible. Because Criminal Justice works on an expedited magazine schedule, there is no opportunity for multiple reviews and rewrites. Authors may see the edited copy only once before publication. (A back-and-forth discussion with the board or any of its members is possible but must be done before the deadline date listed for each issue.)
- ABA editor reviews manuscript submissions to ensure they meet the needs of the magazine.
- Manuscripts are forwarded to the members of the editorial board for review and discussion, and for a vote to accept or reject for publication. Discussions and votes are usually conducted via an online list-serve; however, some articles elicit little or no discussion. (Not always a bad thing; it may mean the board is thoroughly satisfied with the piece.)
- The board members forward comments and votes (usually by email) to the editor, who tallies the votes and alerts the authors as to whether or not articles have been accepted for publication and in which issue. Generally, that ends the board’s involvement with the articles, although the editor may seek additional input if the reviews are unclear or contradictory, or the tally is close.
- ABA editor contacts the authors with the board’s decision. The editor will also confirm in which issue an article is likely to appear.
- If the board accepts an article with no (or only minor changes), the editor simply commences editing.
- If the board asks for substantive changes, the editor forwards a summary of the board’s comments to the author and asks they be address to the best of the author’s ability within the time allowed. Authors are usually given 5-10 business days to make revisions and return manuscripts to the editor for editing.
- Edited articles are then returned to the authors for review. Note: This is an author’s final opportunity to make corrections or changes before the magazine goes to print. Time does not allow for major rewriting at this point; a major rewrite may delay publication to a later issue. When possible, CJ will make exceptions to the “no rewrite” rule for those articles that are affected by a sudden change in the law.
- Rarely, design or space concerns will necessitate last-minute changes to an article; should the changes be substantive, the author will be contacted.
A professional proofreader reviews the entire magazine before it ships to the printer.
From submission to printing, the process takes about three months.
Note: The decision to publish a piece rests with the entire board. No single member can guarantee an article will be accepted, and acceptance does not guarantee publication. Neither the editor nor the editorial board members can guarantee that an article will run in a specific issue.
Miscellaneous:
Acronyms & Names: Spell out acronyms and give full names and titles of persons and organizations on first use.
Graphics/Charts: Create a separate file for graphics such as charts. Do not embed them in the main article. Generally, charts and the like do not translate to our design production systems and must be recreated from scratch by the designer. Note: Graphics, including charts, that appear on the Internet are covered by copyright law and require that the author secure permission to reuse.
Submission Deadlines