Submissions

Thank you for your interest in contributing to The Docket. We seek to publish engaging and informative writing by scholars of legal history and history of law and society. Please review our instructions for submissions. 

General: 

  • The Docket seeks articles in a variety of formats that present rigorous but accessible analysis of issues in legal history, law and society, and related fields. 
  • Pieces published on The Docket should be original and exclusive to The Docket. 
  • The editor(s) and/or editorial board of Law and History Review may invite submissions related to content published in the print journal or on topics of significance in legal history.
  • Authors of unsolicited submissions should submit brief proposals (approx. 150-250 words) to lhrdocketeditor@gmail.com. 

Content:

  • The Docket favors content that is rigorous but accessible to the broad legal history community.
  • Posts should generally range from 1,000-2,500 words. Variances may be granted at the discretion of the editor in the proposal stage, but “a journal article, but on the web” is not the preferred format for content. 
  • The Chicago Manual of Style will be the general guide to language usage and punctuation. 
  • Attribution of other work through textual reference and hyperlinks is encouraged to limit the necessity of footnotes. Contributors and editor(s) should balance the spirit of citation rules (giving clear credit to others’ intellectual work) with the values of economy, flow, and visual appeal in citing outside work.
  • References to books should include hyperlinks to publishers’ websites rather than to booksellers.

Submission Process:

  • Please submit a proposal of approximately 150-250 words, with title, as MS Word document, to lhrdocketeditor@gmail.com. 
  • Proposals should describe the topic, approach, and significance to the field of the article and indicate the author’s timetable for completion of the final work.
  • We welcome both text-based content (essays, book or exhibition review essays, transcribed interviews, historiographical discussions, personal reflections on scholarly works) and content that features still and moving images. 
  • The Docket editor(s) will review proposals, invite contributors to submit completed work, and propose a timetable for publication in line with the quarterly publication schedule. 

Review, Editing and Publication

  • The Docket is not a peer reviewed publication. The editor(s) may solicit guidance from field experts to evaluate proposals or submissions, but there is no blind review process.
  • The editors may make changes to submissions related to spelling, grammar, and clarity. Editors will request more substantial edits in writing (via Word document with Track Changes enabled, by email, unless another method is specified).

Series, Guest Editorship, and Special Issues

Proposals for recurring series, guest-edited volumes, and special issues will be considered by The Docket editors in collaboration with the editorial board of LHR.

Submit a proposal of up to 1,000 words to lhrdocketeditor@gmail.com describing the content of the feature, its contribution to the field, any specific prospective content or contributors already engaged. 

Content published as series, guest edited volumes, or special issues will be subject to approval of The Docket editor(s) and the LHR editorial board. 

NEW: ***UNDERGRADUATE SUBMISSIONS***

The Docket welcomes submissions by undergraduates seeking to highlight their research, writing, digital projects, or other endeavors. Submissions will be reviewed by Law and History Review Editor Gautham Rao to assess suitability for publication. Preference will be shown to projects developed as part of an undergraduate course. We are unable to publish entire term papers or theses. However, those who have recently completed a thesis or capstone project concerning legal history should consider pitching a summary of the broader thesis. Instructors interested in publishing a group project based on an undergraduate course should contact The Docket. Please note that we are not able to publish every submission.

To pitch an undergraduate submission, please send an email to lhrdocketeditor@gmail.com with

  • an abstract of no more than 500 words
  • a brief explanation (<200 words) of the course in which the project was developed