The Journal of Medicine and Law
Submission Information

AN INVITATION TO AUTHORS

The Michigan State University Journal of Medicine and Law welcomes the submission of original and innovative articles on a wide-variety of medical-legal topics. Submissions are considered for publication by the Chief Editor of Articles and the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Board.

The content of each issue is comprised of the following types of writing:

  • Articles: Approximately six articles per issue.
  • Student Notes or Comments: Approximately four student notes or comments per issue.
  • Book Reviews: The Journal may also occasionally publish up to two reviews per issue of recently published books in the medical-legal field.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS

Submissions are considered on a rolling basis. The Journal does not reject articles due to lack of space, but will instead consider such articles for publication in a subsequent issue. However, please note that the Michigan State University College of Law is not in session from late-December to mid-January, and again from mid-May to mid-August. As a result, it may take longer than usual for articles to be reviewed during this period. Please be patient. For best results, materials for publication should be sent to the Michigan State University Journal of Medicine and Law via email at msujml@msu.edu.

Electronic submissions are also accepted by the Journal through the following service:

Although electronic submissions are preferred, hard copies of articles may also be submitted. Please send hard copies of articles to the following postal address:

          Chief Editor of Articles
          Journal of Medicine and Law
          215 Law College Building
          East Lansing, MI 48824-1300

          Tel: 517.432.6933

Please provide the following materials with your submission:

  • Your current postal address, email address, and telephone number.
  • An email or hard copy version of your article.
  • A brief abstract of your article (approximately 100 words).
  • A copy of your Curriculum Vitae or Resume.
  • A cover letter (optional).

Formatting and Citations:

  • There are no length requirements, although historically, most Journal articles have been between 30 and 70 pages in length. In keeping with the dominant law review zeitgeist, papers in excess of 70 pages are discouraged but will still be considered on a case-by-case basis.
  • Sources should be cited as footnotes, rather than endnotes. Conciseness and brevity in the content of footnotes is also desirable. Lengthy footnotes tend to distract the reader from the main text and detract from the orderly flow of a paper. Therefore, they are strongly discouraged. In general, footnotes should not constitute an entire page. Instead, extensive footnotes should be converted to table or figures and placed as appendixes at the conclusion of the article.
  • Tables and figures with titles should appear on separate pages. However, placement of tables and figures should be specifically indicated within the text.
  • Citations should conform to THE BLUEBOOK: A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF CITATION (18th ed. 2005) and/or the Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed. 1993).
  • A one- to two-sentence biography of the author, and any acknowledgments, should appear as an unnumbered footnote, or as footnote number one.
  • All documents should be submitted in Microsoft Word format.
  • Submissions should be double-spaced, single-sided, and preferably in 12-point Times New Roman font with standard one-inch margins.
  • The use of gender-neutral language is preferred.
  • All external sources of research funding should be disclosed in the first footnote.
  • Once your article has been accepted for publication, please send copies of sources, such as personal correspondence, redacted medical records, obscure articles, books, and/or cases, etc., that would be difficult for our cite-checking staff to locate.

EXPEDITED REVIEW

If you have received an offer of publication from another journal and would like to request an expedited review of your submission, please send a message to the Chief Editor of Articles at msujml@msu.edu indicating your name, the title of your article, the date by which an answer is required, and your telephone number and email address.

We make every effort to accommodate requests for expedited review. However, to serve you better, we recommend submitting your work exclusively to the Michigan State University Journal of Medicine and Law before submitting it elsewhere. Although not required, exclusive review will give our staff the time necessary to carefully consider your article. If you exercise this option, please notify the Journal as to the date on which you will submit your article to other journals for consideration.

WITHDRAWAL OF A SUBMISSION

If you wish to withdraw your article from consideration, please send an email with "Withdraw" as the subject to msujml@msu.edu. Also, please indicate your name, the title of your article, and the reason for the withdrawal in the body of the email. If the Journal has already declined your article, there is no need to submit a withdrawal.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

The Journal is continuously striving to introduce well-written and meticulously researched papers into the academic discourse by soliciting scholarship from the best and brightest in the field, as well as from up-and-coming scholars who are working to establish their careers in academia. In furthering this purpose, the Journal accepts articles written by both academics and professionals. The Journal also accepts student-written articles on various topics.

The Journal is student-reviewed, and all submissions are vetted by at least two reviewers, including the Chief Editor of Articles and the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Board. The Journal extends offers of contract for those articles that it wishes to publish. View a sample Author-Publisher Agreement here.

PRINTER INFORMATION

The Journal of Medicine and Law is printed by:

          Western Publishing Co., Inc.
          557 E. Ohio Street
          Indianapolis, IN 46204

          Tel: 800.807.8833
          Fax: 317.636.4180

WHAT THE JOURNAL HAS TO OFFER AUTHORS

A Dedicated and Educated Staff

In addition to working on the Journal, the majority of our staff members are pursuing a health law concentration, which requires them to complete at least fourteen credit hours of health law-related course. Classes offered in the concentration include the following:

  • Administrative Law
  • Antitrust Law
  • Bioethics and the Law
  • Food and Drug Law
  • Health Care Fraud and Abuse
  • Health Organization and Finance
  • Insurance Law
  • Legislation
  • Legislative Drafting
  • Managed Care Law
  • Medical-Legal Problems
  • Public Health Law

As indicated by this intensive curriculum, our membership is not only interested in and committed to the field of health law, but they are also broadly educated in the area. Our staff applies their medical-legal expertise, as well as their enthusiasm for health law, in reviewing and editing each article submission received.

An Author Friendly Copyediting and Production Process

The Journal is committed to providing its authors with a timely and responsive publication process. The Chief Editor of Articles and the Editor-in-Chief respond to submissions on a daily basis to confirm receipt, and endeavor to either decline or accept each article for publication within one week of receipt.

Moreover, after an article has been contracted for publication, the Journal is committed to regularly communicating with its authors as an issue moves through the production process. Mandatory updates occur at the completion of the following stages of production: 1. cite-checking, 2. editing of the first stage of page proof, 3. editing of the second stage of page proof, 4. editing of the final stage of page proof, 5. review of the Blue Line proof, and 6. the final printing. Additional updates occur as necessary or at the request of the author.

Finally, the Journal respects our authors, and understands that the writing process is both highly personal and highly subjective. Consequently, our staff uses a delicate touch when copyediting. Although we are interested in helping our authors to perfect their citations, grammar, punctuation, and spelling, we find it unnecessary and undesirable to rewrite our authors' papers or to make major revisions to content. Our chief aim in the editing process is to improve clarity of expression and to verify that assertions are properly supported by reputable legal sources. As such, authors can expect a relatively painless copyediting process when working with the Journal.

Print and Electronic Distribution of Articles

With a current subscriber base of more than 350, and availability on Hein Online, LexisNexis, and Westlaw, the Journal is reaching more readers than ever. Further, the Journal is always seeking out new outlets for disseminating our author's work. Additional outlets currently under consideration for distributing our authors' work include FindLaw, PubMed, and MedLine.

Monetary Awards for the Best Submissions

In a continuing effort to recruit scholarship of the highest caliber, the Journal Editorial Board reserves the right to award a modest honorarium to those articles that they deem to be exceptionally well-written, innovative, and reform-minded. Honoraria range from $150 to $200, and are determined at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Board. Such honoraria may be referenced in authors' resumes and curriculum vitae as "The Michigan State University Journal of Medicine and Law Award for Exceptional Writing in Medical-Legal Scholarship."

Aggressive Marketing

Upon request, the Editorial Board will work with our authors to develop a personalized and expansive marketing plan to get the broadest array of coverage and target distribution possible.

Thank you for your interest in the Michigan State University Journal of Medicine and Law.