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Political Science Job Rumors » General Job Market Discussion » Judical Politics/Public Law Job Rumors and Discussion
Best Judicial Journals
(35 posts)-
Posted 1 month ago #
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could the person who said submitting to JELS (empirical legal studies) was a bad experience explain why? I'm considering submitting something there.
Posted 1 month ago # -
^ I second that. JELS is an option for me for a new project, but I haven't submitted or reviewed there. Any specifics you can offer would be appreciated.
Posted 1 month ago # -
JELS: I've both published there and been rejected. It takes a really, really long time to hear back (six months plus). I'd say it caters to a law school audience, but is open to political science. As one of the first "peer reviewed" law journals, it has an interesting niche and a big impact factor. But, it takes a very long time to hear back (suggesting other outlets for non-tenured faculty might be advisable).
Posted 1 month ago # -
Thanks. Did they get the right sorts of reviewers for the papers you submitted?
Posted 1 month ago # -
I had published in JELS. A giant waste of time, essentially. It took 6 months for the initial reviews (plus another 13 months until publication). One of the reviews was nonsense (from someone who had seemingly googled the statistical methods we used and commented on them that way), the other wanted us to "have more footnotes" (which is a JELS no-no), and the third review was three lines about how the subject matter was "uninteresting" (have you read a law review lately?). I wouldn't actually consider them peer-reviewed, because they don't get "peers" to review anything - it just seems to be a bunch of law faculty at Cornell.
For a law-related quant piece, look elsewhere. Law and society is a good option. Judicature (especially if you have an implications piece) is well-managed. Many mainstream poli sci journals have a few slots for judicial pieces. Many law schools are moving towards having one or two hybrid journals, either "peer-accepted" pieces, where professors decide what gets into the journal or something like Law and Contemporary Problems, where articles are by invitation only.
Posted 1 month ago # -
I'm the, two above, poster, and I don't disagree with the last post. I'd add that I really believe that Justice System Journal may be the judicial journal with the most promise. Under Wasby, things were a bit hit or miss, but I am fairly confident that quality is improving under Bob Howard. If I had a paper that was too narrow for the top three, I'd probably send it to APR?PRQ, then JSJ. One of the nice things that you get out of a law journal is that you don't get reviewers that say "this is too narrow." It might not be the equal to LSQ, but I think it will be pretty close in a few years (provided that there isn't a section journal, which seems likely)
Posted 1 month ago # -
Agreed re: JELS. The mgmt of that journal is a joke.
Posted 1 month ago # -
Speaking of the "this is too narrow" refrain, why is it that as judicial scholars we tend to eat our own with these kinds of reviews? I mean, unless you are writing about the Supreme Court it seems like you have an uphill battle on the "too narrow" question, never mind the kind of "narrow" things going on in both the Congress and public opinion/behavior literatures.
Posted 1 month ago # -
I don't think of JELS as peer-reviewed in the way we typically think about the phrase as political scientists. After sharing notes with colleagues in law and courts, my sense is that the reviewers typically know very little about methodology. They do, however, know just enough to be dangerous. JELS does publish a good piece now and then, but for purposes of, say, reading over a job applicant's file, I'd have to give an extra look to a piece beyond what I'd give to something in LSR, JSJ, etc., just because of the shenanigans that seem to be going on with the folks running JELS.
Posted 1 month ago #