Author Guidelines
The Journal is dedicated to the art and science of trial advocacy. Accordingly, the Journal categorizes manuscripts by topic and intended audience: articles, commentaries, and trial or courtroom techniques. Commentaries allow authors to discuss controversial topics that may be outside the scope of a full-length article. Articles are thoroughly researched discussions of new theories of law applicable to the trial attorney's practice. Trial techniques, unique to the Journal, are how-to discussions of proven trial tactics that include supporting case law and other research.
Topic Selection
Submissions should be of practical utility to trial lawyers and judges and provide current information on techniques, strategies, or the law. You may contact an Articles Editor prior to beginning a manuscript in order to avoid overlapping topics.
Footnotes
Scholarly writing requires proper citation of authorities for legal assertions. Further, scholarship often benefits from citations to further material which may aid the reader in utilizing the provided information. The Journal follows the legal citation rules in the most recent edition of The BlueBook: A Uniform System of Citation.
Length
Articles are typically 5000 to 8000 words in length (25-50 double-spaced pages). Ultimately, the length of a manuscript depends upon the nature of the topic and its treatment. Trial techniques are sometimes shorter in length (15-35 double-spaced pages) and contain fewer footnotes (20-100).
Co-authorship
A manuscript may be co-authored. However, the Journal does not publish student authors or co-authors in the Article, Commentary, or Trial Techniques sections. Footnotes may be used in order to acknowledge the assistance of students such as law clerks or research assistant. (Note: We reserve publication of student pieces for Journal members.)
Copyright
The Journal retains certain copyright privileges in order to facilitate reproduction on research databanks such as Westlaw and LexisNexis. Authors will be asked to sign an agreement that sets out the terms of publication. The Journal acknowledges the right of authors to use their material in future publication efforts, however. Reprint permissions are freely granted to others upon their proper acknowledgement of the Journal's copyright.
Reprints
The Journal furnishes all authors with a copy of the issue in which their article appears along with several complimentary bound reprints of their article. Additional reprints of articles are available to authors at reasonable cost.
Editorial Policy
The editorial staff reserves the right to make necessary editorial changes. Authors are provided final copies of their manuscript for review just prior to publication. The Journal reserves the right to accept or deny publication of any manuscript. Should problems arise regarding publication of an article, the editors will make every effort to work with an author.
Submission & Format
The Journal uses WordPerfect and Word in the production of its books. We welcome submissions in either format via email to jtrialad@samford.edu. If you wish to mail your manuscript, please submit two (2) hard copies as well as a copy on CD or diskette to the Mailing address on the contact page.
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
- The submission file is in Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
- The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal .
- The topic of the submission fits into the focus and the scope of the Journal, located at Focus and Scope, which is found in About the Journal .
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
Author Information and Response Form
