The Journal of College and University Law is a publication of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). It is a refereed, professional journal specializing in contemporary legal issues and developments important to postsecondary education.
Manuscripts
The Journal publishes articles, commentaries (scholarly essays), and book reviews. Experts in the law of higher education review all manuscripts.
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically via a Microsoft Word document. Please use this MSWord template to format your article (this is an adapted version of the law review template by Eugene Volokh). Footnotes should reflect the format specified in the 21st edition of A Uniform System of Citation (the “Bluebook”). Note: The MSWord template will download to the bottom of your browser.
- A paragraph on the title page should provide the position, the educational background, the email address and telephone number of the author.
- Each author is expected to disclose in an endnote any affiliation or position—past, present, or prospective—that could be perceived to influence the author’s views on matters discussed in the manuscript. This should be included in the author footnote (asterisk not numeral footnote) on the title page
- Authors must include a short (3-4 sentence) abstract for their manuscript on the first page of the document.
- The second page should include a table of contents with each section heading in the article. This is especially important for manuscripts over 35 pages. The MSWord template linked above has instructions about how to create an automatically generated table of contents from your manuscript’s section headings.
- Please use section headings throughout articles and notes and any other submission longer than 5 pages.
- Please do not include any information for the editors in the manuscript document, instead send any additional information for the editors in an email to jcul@nacua.org.
Decisions on publication usually are made within within six to ten weeks of a manuscript’s receipt; however, as a peer-reviewed journal, outside reviewers advise the Faculty Editors before they make the final publication decision and this can prolong the process. The Journal submits editorial changes to the author for approval before publication. The Faculty Editors reserve the right of final decision concerning all manuscript revisions. When an article is approved for publication, the Journal requires a signed License Agreement from its author(s), pursuant to which NACUA must be granted the first right to publish the manuscript in any form, format or medium. The copyright to the article remains with the author, while NACUA retains all rights in each issue of the Journal as a compilation.
As of September 1, 2020, editorial responsibility for the Journal has shifted from Rutgers School of Law to NACUA, with Barbara Lee serving as editor. The email address of the Journal is: jcul@nacua.org.
PLEASE NOTE: Bluebook 21st edition, the author footnote should be an asterisk and not a number. Please be sure that your submission complies with this rule, else your footnote references could be compromised in the editing process. All authors are responsible for making corrections to their own footnotes.
Submission Instructions for the Journal of College and University Law:
Authors should use the simple submission instructions listed below.
Submission Instructions:
- After following the author guidelines, please attach your manuscript as a Word document (.doc or .docx) to an email to jcul@nacua.org with the subject “Manuscript Submission.”
- Please be sure to include (in the body of the email and/or in the manuscript itself) a short abstract (3-4 sentences).
- In the body of the email, please disclose if you have been in contact with any of the authors cited in your manuscript about this paper to ensure the integrity of the peer-review process.
- Note: The JCUL editors assume the person who submitted the manuscript is the corresponding author of the manuscript unless specifically noted in the email. JCUL is not responsible for corresponding with coauthors; all correspondence will be with the corresponding author.
You should receive acknowledgement of receipt of your manuscript within one week of submission; if you do not, please follow up by replying to your submission email (double check the email address is correct) to ensure it was received.
Student Submissions:
Law or graduate students who submit manuscripts to JCUL should include in their submission a note from a faculty member (who has read their submission) recommending the paper for publication. In exceptional circumstances the Journal may consider an undergraduate’s submission, which also must be accompanied by a note from the faculty member who has read it.
Upon deeming the manuscript appropriate for the journal, the student author is paired with a mentor reviewer who is an expert in higher education law. The reviewer will read the manuscript and offer comments and suggestions for improvement. Upon receiving the review, the editorial team will determine whether the note should be accepted for publication (as is or upon the meeting of certain conditions), should be revised and resubmitted for another formal round of expert review, or should be rejected. Some mentors offer to work with students directly on revising and resubmitting or on meeting the conditions for acceptance. The decision is left to the reviewer and the author on whether to work together in this way.
If you have any questions about our process (before or after submission) please feel free to contact the editorial team at jcul@nacua.org.