The Michigan Journal of Law & Society is proud to collaboratively engage law students, PhD students, and faculty in its editorial and selection processes. Our blended model allows MJLS to publish cutting-edge scholarship at a faster rate than a traditional peer-reviewed journal without sacrificing quality or subject-matter expertise.
MJLS accomplishes these aims through a seven-stage process. It begins with student screening, incorporates faculty review and selection, and ends with line editing by student editors. The following bullet points describe our procedure in greater depth.
- MJLS Publication Process
- Step 1: Content is Submitted to mjls.execs@umich.edu.
- Step 2: Initial Screening → Student Leadership screens out content that does not conform with MJLS’ substantive scope or inaugural theme.
- Step 3: Student Editorial Review → A mixed group of law and PhD students review the remaining submissions. Teams are selected based on relevant expertise, and they perform an in-depth review. They take detailed notes on needed substantive edits and line edits; and they give the piece a score based on its originality, strength of argument, relevance, and degree of required edits.
- Student Leadership then reviews the content with the highest scores and selects which content will be presented to the faculty editorial board.
- Step 4: Faculty Review → The faculty editorial board reviews each submission and selects the content that has the greatest potential to influence relevant scholarly literature.
- Authors of selected articles are made an official publication offer by MJLS.
- Step 5: Finalizing Changes → The same team of law and PhD students who conducted the piece’s initial review (step 3) suggest substantive and line edits. These proposed edits are reviewed by Student Leadership, who contact the author about making the requested changes.
- Step 6: Copy Editing & Citations → After the author incorporates the suggested changes and resubmits, the piece is reviewed by the copy editing and citation team. This team ensures that citations conform with the Bluebook and make any remaining above-the-line objective edits.
- These edits are subject to a final review by Student Leadership.
- Step 7: Publication!