Submission Guidelines and Ethics Statement

Submission Guidelines

The JCLS welcomes submissions for Articles, Notes, Comments, Essays, Book Reviews, and General Information. Unless otherwise agreed, contributions should not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. All contributions will be subject to a critical review by the Editors and subjected to peer review.

• Articles: Section open to professors, members of the judiciary, and practicing attorneys. An article should address substantive legal scholarship.
• Notes: Section open to professors, members of the judiciary, and practicing attorneys. A note should analyze recent developments in case law or legislation.
• Essays: Section open to LSU law students and occasionally law graduate students from other schools. An essay should address substantive legal scholarship.
• Conference Papers: Section publishing papers presented at conferences organized by the LSU Law, Center of Civil Law Studies (CCLS), or of which the CCLS is a partner.
• Civil Law in the World: Section open to JCLS National Correspondents to present civil-law-related developments in civil law jurisdictions.
• Civil Law in Louisiana: Section open to LSU law students, publishing Legislative Notes and Case Notes prepared under the supervision of LSU Law faculty.
• Book Reviews: A critical note in which law books will be analyzed based on content, style, and merit.
• Rediscovered Treasures: This section publishes rediscovered and non-easily accessible materials on the development and history of Louisiana's civil law, with introductory texts.
• General Information: Announcements and reviews of academic events.

Contributions should be submitted preferably in English, but are accepted in French and Spanish (with an abstract in English), and preferably should not exceed 25 pages in length.

Contributions must be submitted by electronic mail to

Click the following link to access the Full Format Guidelines

Hard copies will not be accepted unless accompanied with an electronic copy.

Copyright

Authors hold the copyright to their contribution. However, they must notify the JCLS of any republication project and credit the previous publication in the JCLS.

Abstract

Articles, Essays, and Conference Papers should include a circa 350-word informative abstract (including objectives, methods, and conclusions).

Translations

Authors may supply translations of their contributions to be published in the JCLS or on the JCLS website.

Format

Click the following link to access the Full Format Guidelines

The text of the contributions should be kept as plain as possible in order to facilitate the conversion process of the Editors. Additional materials, such as illustrations, graphs, etc., may be sent in separate electronic documents, as agreed upon with the Editors.

Notes and References

The JCLS encourages using A Uniform System of Citation, "The Bluebook," for U.S. materials. Foreign legislation, regulation, and court decisions should be cited according to standard practice in the country of origin, yet with dates in English. Foreign books, articles, and book chapters should comply with the Bluebook formatting. Consistency in both presentation and citation is of the utmost importance.

Notes, references, and quotations must be checked by the author of the contribution before submitting the paper to the JCLS.

Contributions must include footnotes (rather than endnotes).

Book Reviews

Books for review should be mailed to:

Email for book-review requests.

Ethics Statement

The JCLS joins ongoing efforts to enhance ethics and to deter malpractice in the academic environment. Its Ethics and Malpractice Statement addresses the following points:

1. Editorial Board
   • The JCLS has an Editorial Board that consists of world-recognized experts in the field of civil law and comparative law. The names and affiliation of all editors is shared with its readership.
   • The JCLS shares all necessary Contact Information with its readership.
2. Authors Responsibilities
   • The JCLS charges no fees for manuscript processing and publishing.
   • Authors are informed and must agree to the double-blind peer-review process followed by the JCLS.
   • The JCLS publishes contributions in which all authors have contributed to the research and have mentioned their sources, while acknowledging financial support, when applicable.
   • The JCLS demands that authors provide the necessary corrections of mistakes.
   • The JCLS does not welcome republication of research that has been previously published in another journal or monograph, unless such previous publication is clearly stated in the star-footnote of the contribution.
3. Peer-Review Process
   • All articles, essays, and notes published in the JCLS are subject to a double-blind peer-review process.
   • The JCLS seeks advice from expert civil and comparative law reviewers.
   • Reviewers are expected to offer objective feedback; they are invited to point out relevant sources that may be missing in the reviewed text.
   • Reviewers have no conflict of interest since the JCLS follows a blind peer-review process in which reviewed submissions are treated confidentially. Reviewers should recuse themselves if they recognize the submission as the work of a colleague or of a former student they have helped in the process of writing the article.
4. Publication Ethics
   • The JCLS advocates against misconduct. Any potential misconduct detected by or brought to the knowledge of the Editors will be carefully reviewed and treated in confidentiality. The JCLS makes its best efforts to prevent the publication of contributions in which misconduct occurred.
   • To avoid unacknowledged double publication, authors are asked to certify that their submission is for first publication or, if it is not the case, to disclose first publication in English or any other language.
   • Authors should inform the JCLS of corrections that need to be communicated to its readership, and that information will be made available in further volumes.
5. Copyright and Access
   • The JCLS discloses copyright aspects to its authors and readership.
   • Authors hold the copyright to their contributions.
   • The JCLS is an open-access journal in which access is free of charge and does not require a subscription.
6. Archiving
   • The JCLS holds an open-access archive of all previous volumes.
   • The JCLS offers permanent links (permalinks) for the online references of the contributions it publishes.
7. Management and Website
   • The JCLS is published and managed by the Center of Civil Law Studies of the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hébert Law Center.
   • The JCLS is available to its readership through its official website.
8. Publishing Schedule
   • The JCLS publishes one volume every calendar year. These volumes can consist of one or two issues.