Submitting Papers to the WJLS

The Western Journal of Legal Studies publishes articles on a rolling basis and accepts submissions at all times. Consequently, submissions for forthcoming issues may be accepted between three and eight months before publication. Novel, non-obvious, and useful articles from any authors dealing with Canadian or international legal issue or issues are welcome.

We ask that submissions adhere to the following guidelines:

  1. Please submit articles through the website.
  2. The author’s full name and contact information should be included in the appropriate fields on the submission page. Do not include any such details within the text of the attachment containing the paper. Since the papers are reviewed on a blind basis, any details that may alert the reviewer of the identity of the author must be withheld from the text of the paper itself.
  3. Articles must be submitted as OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF files.
  4. Articles should conform to the most current edition of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation ("the McGill Guide").
  5. The preferred length is 5,000-12,000 words (inclusive of footnotes). Articles that exceed or fall short of this limitation—but are of exceptionally high quality and concise—may be considered by the Editors.
  6. An abstract of no more than 200 words, clearly summarizing the arguments made in the article, should be included in the submission. Authors who submit articles without such an abstract will be asked to submit one at a later date.

Please note: Papers that have been submitted for publication elsewhere will still be considered for publication in the WJLS so please do not hesitate to submit such papers.

The WJLS selects articles through a double-blind peer review process. The Executive Board reviews submissions for upcoming issues without knowledge of the author's identity. A second reader, also without knowledge of the author’s identity, subsequently reviews papers selected by the Executive Board.

Only the WJLS Editor-in-Chief is aware of the identities of the authors and retains this information on a confidential basis. Only the names and contact information of authors whose articles will be published are disclosed to the WJLS Managing Editors once the review process is complete. Our Managing Editors work in collaboration with authors to develop articles in order to meet the WJLS’s publication standards.

Review process decisions may range from an offer to publish the submission in its current form, an invitation to resubmit following editorial or substantive revisions, or an assessment that the WJLS must decline to publish the submission. Authors will be informed of the Executive Board’s decisions by the Editor-in-Chief.

Submissions that have been selected for publication undergo several rounds of vigorous editing for substantive and technical changes. Each article is assigned to a Managing Editor and a team of Staff Editors to work with the author to bring the article to publication standards. Articles also undergo faculty review to identify potential areas of research or analysis that may need to be addressed. Authors can expect to work in close collaboration with their Managing Editors over the course of several weeks or months leading up to the publication of the next issue. 

Questions concerning the status of submissions may be directed to the Editor-in-Chief by email at wjls@uwo.ca.