Contributor Information
Scope:
Public Law is peer-reviewed and seeks to publish research-based work of the highest quality. The journal publishes work across the whole range of scholarship in constitutional and administrative law, including doctrinal analysis, empirical and other socio-legal work, history, comparative studies and legal theory. The Editorial Committee is committed to Public Law reflecting the diversity and range of the discipline, and welcomes contributions from colleagues at all stages of their careers.
Public Law is published four times a year: in January, April, July and October. Its readership includes academics, practitioners and policy-makers in the UK, Europe and in common law jurisdictions around the world. Submissions are invited for two sections of the journal: the Analysis section contains shorter items, while the Articles section contains more in-depth contributions.
It is recommended to all contributors that they contact the Editor before making a formal submission in order to receive guidance about timing and to be warned of any overlap with work of other authors that may already be in the pipeline.
Length:
Public Law accepts articles of up to 12,000 words. Pieces in the Analysis section are normally up to 4,000 words in length. Both of these wordcounts are inclusive of footnotes. Careful attention should be paid to the preferred word lengths for the Analysis and Articles sections.
Presentation:
Footnotes should be kept to a minimum and numbered consecutively throughout the text with superscript Arabic numerals. Wherever relevant and appropriate, reference should be made in footnotes to previous articles that have appeared in Public Law.
In preparing typescripts, authors should conform to the journal's House Style. Please follow the format used in a recent issue of Public Law; a style sheet is available here.
Articles should be accompanied by an abstract of up to 300 words. Both articles and analysis pieces should be accompanied by up to five keywords.
Authors should provide their biographical information in the form in which they wish it to appear in Public Law. Submission of Articles or other contributions will be held to imply that they contain original, unpublished work and are not being submitted for publication elsewhere. No liability is accepted for loss or damage to material submitted.
The Editors request that formal submissions be made via email to public.law@durham.ac.uk. Please include the words "Submission to Public Law" in the subject line. Contributions should be in Word format.
Contributors must supply their full contact details for further correspondence and are responsible for complying with the house style guide before making a submission.
Review process:
An initial assessment is carried out by the Editors, usually within two weeks of receipt of a submission. At this stage some submissions are rejected because of overlap with other submissions in the pipeline, or because the subject matter falls outside the scope of the journal, or the Editors feel that the submission clearly falls below the quality threshold for publication.
Potentially publishable submissions are subject to anonymous review by members of the Editorial Committee or other experts in the field. The review process is designed to be a positive experience for authors. Whether or not a submission is accepted for publication, it is the aim of the reviewers to give helpful guidance on how the presentation or content of a submission could be developed. The reviewers do their best to reach a conclusion within six weeks of submissions although, in some cases, the process may take longer.