Journal of Tort Law

Author Guidelines for Journal of Tort Law

This document provides details on copyediting, typesetting, and layout requirements and recommendations pertaining to final manuscript submission to a bepress journal. Authors interested in the technical details of producing quality electronic documents in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) should consult the manual:
A Guide to PDF for Scholars Using the bepress System

Copyediting

The bepress system has been designed to improve the scholarly publication process for authors. Among the many improvements we offer over traditional journals, the most significant is that we have dramatically shortened the period between initial submission and the final publication of a peer-reviewed article. Much of this time savings is due to innovative use of electronic publication. These innovations, however, require subtle, but important changes in the way authors need to prepare accepted manuscripts for electronic publication.

bepress does not copyedit the manuscripts, and with the exception of adding the title page, pagination, and headers/footers, bepress does not make any formatting changes to the submissions. Therefore, authors are their own copyeditors and typesetters. This means that authors need to pay greater attention to the editing and look of their manuscripts than is typically required by print journals, which may do copyediting and typesetting — but not, however, without headaches such as the introduction of errors and the need for authors to do careful reviews of page proofs.

If you have reasons to doubt your proficiency with respect to spelling, grammar, etc. (e.g., because English is not your native language), then you may also wish to employ — at your expense — the services of a professional copyeditor.

Formatting Requirements

• Do not include a title page or abstract. (Begin the document with the introduction; a title page, including the abstract, will be added to your paper by the bepress system.)
• Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. (The bepress system will add the appropriate header with page numbers).
• Write your article in English (unless the journal expressly permits non-English submissions).
• Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word, WordPerfect, RTF, or PDF files are accepted).
• Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
• All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), including your tables and figures.
• Single space your text.
• Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.
• Font:
  1. Main Body — 12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
  2. Footnotes — 10 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
  3. Footnotes should comply with The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (18th ed. 2005), or with the Cambridge style. Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper. Footnotes should be in 10 pt. Times or closest comparable font available, they should be single spaced, and there should be a footnote separator rule (line). Footnote numbers or symbols in the text must follow, rather than precede, punctuation. Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix.
• Include a proper bibliography following the bepress guidelines.
• If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).
• Copyedit your manuscript.
• When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.
• Use the following document structure (remember there is no title page):
  1. Introduction (titling this section is optional)
  2. Subsequent sections including all tables, figures, and footnotes referenced in the text.
  3. Appendices (if any)
  4. References

Please note that acknowledgments should be entered in the submission form so that they may be incorporated into the title page produced for publication.

Additional Recommendations

Indenting, Line Spacing, and Justification

Indent all paragraphs except those following a section heading. An indent should be at least 2 em-spaces.

Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below.

Don't "widow" or "orphan" text (i.e., ending a page with the first line of a paragraph or beginning a page with the last line of a paragraph).

All text should be left-justified (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented). Where possible, it should also be right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin). "Where possible" refers to the quality of the justification. For example, LaTeX and TeX do an excellent job of justifying text. Word does a reasonable job. But some word processors do a lousy job (e.g., they achieve right justification by inserting too much white space within and between words). We prefer flush right margins. However, it is better to have jagged right margins than to have flush right margins with awkward intra- and inter-word spacing. Make your decision on whichever looks best.

Language & Grammar

All submissions must be in English (unless the particular bepress journal explicitly states submissions in other languages are permitted). Except for common foreign words and phrases, the use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided.

Authors should use proper, standard English grammar. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (now in its fourth edition) is the "standard" guide, but other excellent guides (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press) exist as well.

Article Length

Submitted papers should not normally exceed 40-45 pages.

Fonts

The following is a brief guide to fonts with respect to layout. See also the discussion in "A Guide to PDF for Scholars Using the bepress System" (http://www.bepress.com/manuals.html) for font-related issues in the production of good PDF files. We cannot accept Type3 fonts.

Colored text

Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. bepress encourages authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc., however, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers problems when they print the document on a black & white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.

Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to “accept all changes” in track changes or set your document to "normal" in final markup.)

Emphasized text

Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it. The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.

Font faces

Except, possibly, where special symbols are needed, use Times or the closest comparable font available. If you desire a second font, for instance for headings, use a sans serif font (e.g., Arial or Computer Modern Sans Serif).

Font size

The main body of text should be set in 12pt. Avoid the use of fonts smaller than 6pt.

Foreign terms

Whenever possible, foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Headings

Headings (e.g., start of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text by their fonts or by using small caps. Use the same font face for all headings and indicate the hierarchy by reducing the font size. There should be space above and below headings.

Main text

The font for the main body of text must be black and, if at all possible, in Times or closest comparable font available.

Titles

Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Footnotes

Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper. Footnotes should be in 10 pt. Times or closest comparable font available, they should be single spaced, and there should be a footnote separator rule (line). Footnote numbers or symbols in the text must follow, rather than precede, punctuation. Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix. All footnotes should be left and right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin), unless this creates awkward spacing.

Tables and Figures

To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type in tables. In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file. All tables and figures must fit within 1.5” margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

See the appropriate discussion in A Guide to PDF for Scholars Using the bepress System (http://www.bepress.com/manuals.html) for details on how best to prepare figures electronically.

Mathematics

Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables should be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Whenever possible, subscripts and superscripts should be a smaller font size than the main text.

Short mathematical expressions should be typed inline. Longer expressions should appear as display math. Also expressions using many different levels (e.g., such as the fractions) should be set as display math. Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.

Equations should be numbered sequentially. Whether equation numbers are on the right or left is the choice of the author(s). However, you are expected to be consistent in this.

Symbols and notation in unusual fonts should be avoided. This will not only enhance the clarity of the manuscript, but it will also help insure that it displays correctly on the reader's screen and prints correctly on her printer. When proofing your document under PDF pay particular attention to the rendering of the mathematics, especially symbols and notation drawn from other than standard fonts.