New Editorial Policy of the Columbia Law Review

Effective February 28, 2005, the Columbia Law Review will no longer review nor publish articles or essays in excess of 37,000 words in length (including text and footnotes; measured by Microsoft Word's word count feature), barring exceptional circumstances. In addition, we will give preference to articles and essays submitted under 32,000 words in length. For those who have submitted articles or essays prior to February 28, your pieces will not be subjected to this new policy, although we will offer you the opportunity to revise your piece if you wish to take advantage of our strong preference for more concise pieces. Articles that are revised and resubmitted for this purpose will be reviewed in the original order in which they were received.

This new policy reflects our commitment to what a number of law reviews around the United States have realized; we can do our part to make legal scholarship more focused and effective. If you believe that additional background material is necessary for a complete understanding of your submission, please feel free to include that information with your piece.

Article submissions can also be mailed to the Articles Committee; Essays and Reviews to the Essay & Review Editors. Our address for both mail and courier delivery is:

Columbia Law Review
435 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10027

We regret that manuscripts cannot be returned. Please allow 2-4 weeks for processing of all electronic submissions, and 8-10 weeks for all mailed submissions.

Submission requirements:

• Submit only one, double spaced copy of your manuscript. We greatly prefer if submissions appear in Microsoft Word format. Regular submissions are only accepted electronically via our website-based submissions system. Please note that we do not accept regular submissions by e-mail, disk, or facsimile.
• Text and citations should conform to A Uniform System of Citation (18th ed. 2005) ("The Bluebook"). Footnotes are strongly preferred over endnotes.
• If you submit your piece via mail, enclose a cover letter that references the name of your manuscript, and provides your address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
• The Review encourages the use of gender-neutral language.

Expedited Review
If you have received an offer from another journal for your Article, Essay, or Review and would like to request an expedited review, please send an e-mail to the Executive Articles Editor (for articles) or the Executive Essay & Review Editor (for essays and book reviews). In the body of the e-mail, please include

• your name
• the title of your manuscript
• the name of the journal that has extended an offer to you
• the date the offer expires
• the phone number or e-mail address of a contact person at that journal
• If you submitted electronically, the identification number assigned to your piece

The editors of the Review attempt to honor all requests for expedited review for which the above information is provided. To increase the chances of timely review, please attach to the e-mail an electronic version of your manuscript, in Word (.doc) format. While we strongly discourage it, if you are unable to send e-mail, you may request expedited review by calling the Executive Articles Editor at (212) 854-6185 (for articles) or the Executive Essay & Review Editor at (212) 854-6014 (for essays and book reviews); expedited review requests sent by facsimile are also strongly discouraged.

Please be aware of the Review's policy concerning expedited reviews: If the Review makes an offer of publication for an Article, Essay, or Review following an expedited review, the author has only one hour from the time of actual notification in which to accept the offer.