ExpressO

Students who wish to submit an article for publication may use the ExpressO online delivery service. ExpressO provides an easy way to electronically submit an article to numerous journals at the same time. A student who receives permission in advance from Professor Kathy Vinson may use ExpressO to submit an article to up to 100 journals. The Law School will cover your costs up to $200. Students will be responsible for any charges for submissions to additional journals.

During the submission process, take care not to select journals that do not accept articles submitted by student authors. This is typically indicated by the phrase "Closed to students" after the name of the journal.

You should prepare a cover letter to submit along with your article. Think of the cover letter as a short advertisement for the article that will encourage a journal to read and consider publishing it. In Academic Legal Writing, Professor Eugene Volokh suggests "a one-page cover letter that briefly, clearly, and effectively shows that your article is novel, nonobvious, and useful." (The book includes a sample cover letter on page 371.)

Another form of advertisement for your article is an abstract. The abstract should summarize your article in a way that encourages the reader to want to read the entire article. Professor Volokh gives tips for writing an abstract on pages 275-279 of Academic Legal Writing and on his Web site.

Before submitting an article through ExpressO, be sure to review their FAQ for Authors.