Information for Contributors
- Submit
- Philosophy of Dalhousie Law Journal
- Submission Standards
- Content
- Format
- Copyright & Exclusivity
- Editorial Process
- Early Publication
- Editorial Policy on Generative AI
- Text Integrity and Plagiarism
- Acknowledgements
- Publication Ethics
Submit
Send articles, book reviews, notes and comments to:
editor.dlj@dal.ca
The Editor
Dalhousie Law Journal
Schulich School of Law
6061 University Avenue
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H 4R2
CANADA
Philosophy of Dalhousie Law Journal
For more information, please see the About the Dalhousie Law Journal page.
Submission Standards
When assessing submissions, the DLJ editor considers the following elements:
Content
The Dalhousie Law Journal accepts submissions from anywhere in the world, in either English or French, from academics, practitioners, judges, and students. Where possible, the DLJ prioritizes promising papers by emerging scholars. Submissions on any law-related topics are considered, but the DLJ generally does not publish articles devoted exclusively to the law of foreign countries.
Format
The Dalhousie Law Journal does not accept articles over 15,000 words (including footnotes). Submissions must include a 150-300 word abstract and approximately 5 keywords. The DLJ accepts submissions that use either the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (McGill) or the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL). The DLJ is committed to open access legal scholarship and as such is moving towards the full adoption of COAL however, will continue to accept articles using the McGill guide. Authors should also familiarize themselves with Best Practices for Writing About Indigenous Peoples in the Canadian Legal Context: An Evolving Style Guide. Please send submissions via email in Microsoft Word format only.
Copyright & Exclusivity
Copyright for all published manuscripts remains with the author. We have an author agreement that is consistent with open access principles and based on Creative Commons BY 4.0 licensing. Articles published on this site are under the same CC BY 4.0 license. There is no fee to publish in the DLJ. Authors can deposit pre-print versions of their work in an institutional repository or other repository of their choice (e.g. SSRN) prior to the publication of the version of record. The DLJ does not accept papers under consideration by other journals.
Editorial Process
The DLJ reviewal process begins with a preliminary decision by the Editor (or French Language Editor, when applicable) to accept or reject the work based on the submission standards above. If subject matter expertise is required, the board and other faculty of Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie may be consulted.
Upon acceptance, the work will be put through an external anonymous peer review. Reviewers are asked to respond with their feedback within eight weeks. The Editors then review the feedback and decide whether the article should be accepted (with revisions or not), or rejected. If the article is to be accepted with revisions, the author is given time to incorporate these. In rare circumstances (primarily when the DLJ wishes to support a junior scholar) a rating of “reject but encourage resubmission” is applied. In these cases, the Editors intend to work closely with the author should they choose to continue to work on their article with a view to publication in the DLJ. Once an article is accepted, it is moved through the editorial process.
An editorial board including student editors conduct a substantive edit providing feedback for review by the author and ensuring that any feedback given by peer reviewers is acknowledged. The DLJ is moving towards the full adoption of the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL) for formatting and citations, however, papers will continue to be accepted using either the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (McGill Guide) or COAL. Where gaps exist, an internal style guide (available upon request) is used by the journal. Any substantive or content changes from the internal or external reviewers may be accepted or rejected at the discretion of the author.
DLJ student editors rigorously review all citations to sources, ensuring the accuracy and quality of claims. The DLJ may request any obscure or difficult-to-find sources from authors. Appropriate opportunities are given to authors to read, accept, or correct editorial and footnote proofs before final publication.
Overall the review process can take from 6-16 weeks, allowing for the schedule and availability of peer reviewers, proximity to publication deadlines, and the academic calendar.
Please note: DLJ Special Volumes, especially those based on workshops in substantive areas with limited academic experts, may require that one peer reviewer know the identity of the author. The identity of the peer reviewers remains anonymous. The JSD Tory Writing Award is selected with different criteria and follows a separate process.
Any concerns or questions should be addressed to the Editor at editor.dlj@dal.ca.Early Publication
The conversation of ideas happens at an increasingly rapid pace. The DLJ publishes articles online as soon as we have completed our review and editorial process. Your work gets out in the world sooner.
If you have concerns about the submission terms for Dalhousie Law Journal, please contact the editors.
Editorial Policy on Generative AI
Authors are permitted to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process to improve readability and language. The application of generative AI should be subject to close human oversight and control, with authors carefully reviewing and editing the results. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as authors or co-authors or cited as authors.
Authors must disclose their use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, including the nature of the AI use, by including a statement in the acknowledgments section of the submitted manuscript. The Editor will work with the author to determine how disclosure will appear in the published version of the article, which could include a mention in the acknowledgements, as a citation or as part of a methodology section.
No disclosure is required for the use of software to check grammar and spelling or when used to format references.
Text Integrity and Plagiarism
Authors must disclose, at the time of manuscript submission, any actual or potential conflicts of interest that may arise in connection with the submitted manuscript through or as a result of their consulting activities, financial interests, or other non-academic activities.
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the work and for ensuring that the work involves no plagiarism. Plagiarism includes the misappropriation of intellectual property and unattributed textual copying of another's work. An author’s substantive re-use in a current submission, without appropriate citation, of text or figures previously published by that author is considered self-plagiarism. Authors must ensure that all sources are appropriately cited and should review their work to guard against biases, plagiarism, and citation errors that may be introduced by AI and AI-assisted technologies.
Incidents of plagiarism are subject to the processes and consequences outlined in the DLJ Publication Ethics policy.
Acknowledgements
Given that authors are responsible for the content of their work, only those individuals who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to an article and agree to be accountable for the content should be credited as an author. In most cases, there will be individuals who made contributions to the research who are not authors, but who nonetheless should be acknowledged. Authors should include with their manuscript a note of acknowledgement, which includes individuals who provided help during the research and writing process. Contributions authors may consider for acknowledgements include helping with research design or creation; writing or proofreading; peer review or feedback solicited by the author from colleagues; and work done by student research assistants.
For research requiring approval by a research ethic board, authors should include information about the ethics approval process with the acknowledgements, including the file number for the approval.
