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Journal Staff Research

A guide to help law journal members with writing and editing articles.

Overview of law journal staff work

The two main tasks that 2L law journal staff members are typically responsible for are: (1) writing a student article of publishable quality, and (2) reviewing and editing the citations in articles written by scholars or practitioners that are being published in your journal.

The 3L members typically fill the senior editorial staff positions. They are responsible for reviewing and selecting articles for publication, managing the editing process, and assisting 2L staff members with writing their student articles.

This guide is designed to help all law journal staff members with their writing and editing tasks.

How this guide is organized

This guide first covers tips for writing your student article, including how to find an article topic and how to conduct a preemption check.

The guide also walks you through the basic process of how to complete a source and cite assignment, including how to track down sources cited in an article that you are reviewing and how to format citations according to The Bluebook.

Finally, there is a list of helpful resources for writing, editing, and formatting legal citations, in case you need additional help with a specific writing or editing problem.

Quick links

A list of common resources and databases discussed and linked in this guide:

Links for finding an article topic

Links for preemption checking:

Links for locating sources:

Links for formatting citations: