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BYU Law Review

Policies

Contents

Philosophy of BYU Law Review

For more information, please see BYU Law Review Aims and Scope page.

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in the BYU Law Review provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).

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General Submission Rules

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by accepting an offer from BYU Law Review, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at BYU Law Review. If you have concerns about the submission terms for BYU Law Review, please contact the editors.

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Formatting Requirements

BYU Law Review has no general rules about the formatting of articles upon initial submission. There are, however, rules governing the formatting of the final submission. See Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details. It is ultimately the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the article as a high-quality PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format) file, or a Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or RTF file that can be converted to a PDF file.

It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.

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Publication Process—Student Pieces

Currently, the BYU Law Review publishes student articles only from current BYU Law students.

The BYU Law Review will stage a series of collection periods for student pieces, depending on available space. Authors whose pieces are not accepted in one collection period are encouraged to review their work, make any necessary improvements, and submit the piece again in one of the later collections. Pieces already published in other journals will not be accepted for republication in the BYU Law Review.

Authors' pieces are evaluated based on a number of criteria, including the strength and originality of arguments presented, degree of relevance to current legal issues, contribution to scholarship, depth of research, and technical quality. The length of an article is not a primary criterion for publication. However, articles that are excessively short or long may indicate an inadequate analysis of the subject or lack of focus. Instances of plagiarism, whether intentional or inadvertent, will be referred to law school administration for appropriate disciplinary measures.

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Rights for Authors and BYU Law Digital Commons

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to BYU Law Digital Commons all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal--use exceptions described below.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of BYU Law Digital Commons, requires credit to BYU Law Digital Commons as copyright holder (e.g., BYU Law Digital Commons © 2024).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from BYU Law Digital Commons provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial;
  • Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g., a Phrenology professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Phrenology online publication series); and
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author.

People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

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General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the BYU Law Digital Commons website and/or software agree not to misuse the BYU Law Digital Commons service or software in any way.

The failure of BYU Law Digital Commons to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between BYU Law Digital Commons and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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