NLSIU Law School Policy Review Call for Blogs
The NLSIU Law School Policy Review call for blogs invites students, academics, professionals, and practitioners to submit original pieces on relevant and contemporary issues in law and government policy. If you are looking for an opportunity to publish a well-researched legal or policy article, LSPR provides a platform for engaging with current legal and policy debates.
Before submitting, authors should carefully check the word limit, formatting requirements, eligibility rules, and review process. Here is everything you need to know about the submission.
Submission Guidelines
The Law School Policy Review accepts submissions from students, academics, professionals, and practitioners. Articles should address a relevant and contemporary issue in law or government policy and should offer a clear argument rather than simply describe the law or a recent development.
Only original work is considered. Submissions are screened for plagiarism, and pieces that are already under review elsewhere will not be accepted.
Manuscripts must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document (.docx) through the official submission form. The manuscript itself should not contain the author’s name, institutional affiliation, or other personal identifiers. Authors should instead provide their short biography and institutional affiliation separately through the submission form.
Up to three authors can collaborate on a single submission. However, students of the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru have a separate submission route and must send their work directly to lawschoolpolicyreview@nls.ac.in.
Eligibility and Word Count
The call is open to a broad range of contributors. Students, researchers, academics, legal professionals, and practitioners can submit their work, provided the piece meets the Review’s editorial requirements.
The preferred length for a standard submission is 1,800–3,000 words. Editors may consider submissions outside this range in exceptional circumstances.
The Axes of Difference Column has a separate word range of 1,000–3,000 words. Authors submitting under this category should indicate it in the submission form.
Every submission should also include a short abstract and author bio. The document title must contain five keywords describing the subject of the article.
References should generally appear as hyperlinks within the text. Footnotes or endnotes should only be used when a hyperlink is not available. Where footnotes or endnotes are necessary, the guidelines require OSCOLA (4th edition). Authors should follow the publication’s stated requirement even though Oxford’s official website now provides OSCOLA 5th edition as the current edition.
Authors should also provide a high-quality image related to the article. The image should be at least 1000 pixels wide, have a 2:1 aspect ratio, and include its source so that appropriate creator credit can be provided.
How to Submit to LSPR
All eligible contributors should submit their manuscript through the official LSPR submission form.
Submit your manuscript to LSPR
The manuscript should be uploaded in .docx format and must not include personal identifiers in the title or body. Your author bio and institutional details should be entered separately in the form.
NLSIU students should follow the separate email submission process mentioned in the guidelines rather than using the general form.
If you are preparing a submission for LSPR, you can also explore our other call for blogs, call for papers, legal writing, and law journal opportunities for additional publishing opportunities.
Review Process
The LSPR Editorial Board evaluates submissions based on originality, argumentation, language, structure, and analysis. A strong submission should therefore do more than explain a legal issue. It should present a clear argument and offer meaningful analysis.
Purely descriptive articles are discouraged. Authors should also check whether the central theme and argument have already been substantially covered in earlier LSPR publications. Such submissions may be rejected without review. However, responses or contrary views on previously published pieces are not excluded on this ground.
LSPR follows a two-stage review process. The Editorial Board may take up to 14 days to respond to a regular submission. Once a piece has been accepted, publication generally follows within 7 days.
Because of the volume of submissions, the Editorial Board does not send formal acknowledgements of receipt. Authors will receive a response directly when the editorial decision is made.
If editors provide comments, authors should retain those comments in the document and make their revisions using Track Changes.
Expedited Review
Some legal and policy developments become less relevant very quickly. LSPR therefore allows authors to request an expedited review for pieces dealing with developments that may lose their novelty within days.
To request this option, authors should add “Expedited” to the title of the submission.
Expedited submissions are reviewed within 7 days, but expedited consideration remains entirely at the Editorial Board’s discretion. Adding the label does not guarantee acceptance or publication.
Publication Guidelines
Once an article is accepted and published by LSPR, authors may cross-post it on other platforms. However, the republished version must clearly state:
“First posted on Law School Policy Review”
The cross-post should also include a link to the original LSPR publication.
This requirement helps preserve the connection between the original publication and later versions of the article.
Before You Submit to LSPR
A final check can help avoid unnecessary delays. Make sure your article is original, falls within the relevant word limit, contains five keywords in the title, and includes an abstract and author bio.
Also check that the manuscript contains no personal identifiers, references are properly linked, and the image meets the required size and aspect ratio. Finally, review the article for clarity, structure, argument, and originality before submitting.
For citation questions, authors can consult the official OSCOLA guide from the University of Oxford. Oxford’s current page identifies OSCOLA 5th edition as the current edition, while the LSPR call specifically states that submissions requiring footnotes or endnotes should follow OSCOLA 4th edition.
The NLSIU Law School Policy Review call for blogs is therefore a useful opportunity for anyone interested in publishing thoughtful work on law and public policy. A focused argument, strong analysis, clear writing, and careful adherence to the submission rules can make your piece much more suitable for editorial consideration.
