Author Guidelines

Legal Research & Analysis (Leg. Res. Anal.) welcomes submissions that fall within the journal’s Focus and Scope. These guidelines explain how to prepare and submit a manuscript for double-blind peer review. Manuscripts that do not follow them may be returned to the authors before review.

Publication Charges

Legal Research & Analysis does not charge any article submission, processing or publication fees . All published articles are freely available to readers without charge.

Copyright and Licensing

Authors retain copyright of their work without restrictions. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, which permits anyone to share and adapt the work provided the original authors and source are properly credited.

Submission Requirements

  • Manuscripts must be original, not previously published, and not under consideration by another journal. Posting a preprint is permitted .
  • Only manuscripts written in English are considered.
  • All listed authors must have contributed significantly to the work and must consent to being identified as authors and to the submission.
  • Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year.

Article Types

  • Research articles: original doctrinal, theoretical, empirical, comparative or interdisciplinary legal research.
  • Review articles: critical surveys of literature, doctrine or developments in a particular area of law .
  • Case comments: critical analysis of significant recent judicial decisions and their implications.

Manuscript Preparation

Files

Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx). Authors should submit two files:

  1. Title page containing author information (see below)
  2. Anonymised manuscript containing the title, abstract, keywords, main text and references, with no information that identifies the authors

To ensure anonymity, authors should remove their names and affiliations from the manuscript, refer to their own previous work in the third person, and remove identifying details from the file properties.

Title Page

  • Title of the article
  • Full names of all authors
  • Institutional affiliation(s) at the time the research was carried out
  • Email address of each author
  • ORCID iD of each author (strongly recommended)
  • Identification of the corresponding author
  • Author contributions, funding information, acknowledgements and conflict-of-interest declaration (see Ethics and Declarations)

Title

The title should be informative, concise and reflect the content of the article, preferably in no more than 20 words.

Abstract

The abstract should be 150–250 words. It should summarise the research problem, objectives, methodology (where applicable), key findings and conclusions, and should not contain citations.

Keywords

Provide 3–10 keywords, arranged alphabetically and separated by semicolons (;).

Main Text Structure

  • Introduction: the research question, its significance and the objectives of the study
  • Methodology: optional for doctrinal work, required for empirical research
  • Analysis/Discussion: the core legal arguments, findings and critical evaluation
  • Conclusion: response to the research objectives, implications, limitations and directions for future research

Sections should be numbered sequentially (e.g., 1, 1.1, 1.2). Authors should use clear, inclusive and non-discriminatory language.

Tables and Figures

  • Number tables and figures sequentially and cite each one in the text.
  • Provide an informative caption for each.
  • Create tables in Word or Excel. Do not insert them as images.
  • Figures should be high resolution and will be requested as separate files on acceptance.

Citation Style

The journal uses the Chicago Manual of Style (author-date), with footnotes for legal authorities:

  • Cases, statutes, acts and other legal instruments are cited in numbered footnotes.
  • All other sources are cited in the text in author-date form and listed in an alphabetical reference list at the end of the manuscript.
  • Every in-text citation must appear in the reference list, and every entry in the reference list must be cited in the text.
  • Include a DOI or stable URL wherever available.

Examples

In-text citations: (Smith 2020); (Smith and Brown 2020); (Smith et al. 2020, 45)

Reference list:

  • Book: Smith, John. 2020. The History of Law. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Journal article: Brown, Emily. 2023. “Constitutional Challenges in the Digital Era.” Journal of Legal Studies 3 (1): 45–67. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxx

Footnotes:

  • Case: Party A v. Party B, [Year] [Reporter] [Court] [Page].
  • Statute: Name of Act [Year], s. [section number].

Ethics and Declarations

Legal Research & Analysis follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Authors should declare the following on the title page:

  • Conflicts of interest: any financial, personal or professional interests that could be seen to influence the work, or a statement that there are none.
  • Funding: all sources of funding for the research, including grant numbers, or a statement that no funding was received.
  • Author contributions: a brief description of each author’s role, for multi-authored papers.
  • Use of AI tools: any use of generative AI tools in preparing the manuscript, and how they were used. AI tools cannot be listed as authors, and authors remain fully responsible for the content.

All submissions are screened for plagiarism using Turnitin. Manuscripts with a high similarity index (>19%), or showing evidence of plagiarism, duplicate publication or other misconduct, will be handled in accordance with COPE guidance and the journal’s R-W-C-R-R Policy.

Language

Authors are responsible for the language quality of their manuscripts. Authors who are not confident in their written English are encouraged to have the manuscript professionally edited before submission.

Online Submission

All manuscripts must be submitted through the journal’s online system using the Make a Submission button. New users should first register for an account. Registered users can log in to submit new manuscripts and track existing ones.

  1. Start: select the section (Research Article, Review Article or Case Comment) and confirm the submission checklist.
  2. Upload files: upload the anonymised manuscript as the article text, and the title page and any supporting files (e.g., cover letter, permissions) separately.
  3. Enter metadata: title, abstract, keywords, all authors’ details and references.
  4. Confirm: review the submission and complete it.

The corresponding author will receive an email confirmation and can follow the manuscript’s progress through their account.

Submission Preparation Checklist

Before submitting, authors must confirm that:

  • The manuscript is original, unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere.
  • All authors have approved the submission and consent to being listed.
  • The file is in Microsoft Word format.
  • The manuscript has been anonymised, and author details are provided on a separate title page.
  • The abstract, keywords and all required sections are included.
  • Citations and references follow the journal’s Chicago author-date style, with legal authorities in footnotes.
  • Permissions have been obtained for any third-party material.
  • Conflicts of interest, funding and any use of AI tools have been declared.
  • The language is clear, professional and non-discriminatory.

Peer Review and Publication

Each submission first undergoes editorial screening for scope, quality and originality, including a plagiarism check. Suitable manuscripts are then sent for double-blind peer review by at least two external reviewers. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision based on the reviewers’ recommendations. Authors can normally expect a first decision within 3-4 weeks of submission.

Authors asked to revise their manuscript should return the revised version, with a point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments, within 15 days for minor revisions and 30 days for major revisions. Revisions returned after this period may be treated as new submissions.

Accepted articles go through copyediting, typesetting and author proofreading before publication online with a Crossref DOI.