Review of Law & Economics

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 light copyediting of manuscripts for the Review of Law & Economics. The author's final manuscript submission should be in Microsoft Word. After you submit your final manuscript, a production editor at the journal will do light line-editing to improve language and also formatting to assure conformity and uniformity. The production editor will also add pagination and headers/footers. To speed production, authors need to pay greater attention to the editing and look of their manuscripts than is typically required by print journals, which may do extensive 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. After the production editor finishes light line-editing and stylistic reformatting, the revised Microsoft Word file will be returned to the author. The author can view the changes and accept or reject them by using the ''Track Changes'' tool in Microsoft Word. After the author accepts or rejects the changes, the article will be published.

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

Write your article in English

Copyedit your manuscript

Do not include a separate title page

Use the following document structure:

1. Title
2. Author(s)
3. Author Affiliation
4. Abstract
5. Introduction (titling this section is optional)
6. Subsequent sections including all tables and figures
7. Appendices (if any)
8. Bibliography

Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. (The bepress system will add the appropriate header with page numbers).

Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word or Latex files are accepted).

Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches; margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm).

Single space text; use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.

Font:

• Main Body -- 12pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
• Footnotes -- 10pt. Times or the closest comparable font available

Include a bibliography following the guidelines below.

If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).

Additional Recommendations

Article Length

Because bepress publishes electronically, page limits are not as relevant as they are in the world of print publications. We are happy, therefore, to let authors take advantage of this greater ''bandwidth'' to include material that they might otherwise have to cut to get into a print journal. This said, authors should exercise some discretion with respect to length.

Text

The font for the main body of text must be black and in Times 12pt. or closest comparable font available, except where special symbols are needed. All text should be justified (i.e., flush with the margins--except where indented). Indent all paragraphs except those following a section heading. 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.

Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it. Titles of books, movies, etc., should also be set in italics rather than underlined.

Language & Grammar

All submissions must be in English. Use American standard spelling, i.e., color rather than colour, legalize rather than legalise. Do not italicize foreign or latin terms in common usage in the field, such as ex ante, ex post, and a priori. Non-common foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined. For questions regarding 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 exist as well (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press). Indent all paragraphs except those following a section heading. An indent should be at least 2 em-spaces.

Headings

Headings (e.g., start of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text by use of a sans serif font (e.g., Arial) or by use of small caps, and should be numbered sequentially using this pattern:

1. Heading Level 1: 1.
2. Subheading Level 2: 1.1
3. Subheading Level 3: 1.1.1
4. Subheading Level 4: 1.1.1.1

Tables and Figures

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.

While bepress encourages authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc., you need to appreciate that this will cause problems for some of your readers 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.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.

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 in PDF pay particular attention to the rendering of the mathematics, especially symbols and notation drawn from other than standard fonts.

References

Footnotes: All footnotes should be numbered sequentially and appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper. They should be in 10pt. Times or closest comparable font and single-spaced. Footnote numbers in the text should follow, rather than precede, punctuation. Cases and statutes used or cited should be in the style of the Harvard Law Review's A Uniform System of Citation (commonly called ''Bluebook form''). Do not use supra, op. cit., id., or similar terms. Do not italicize ''See'' and ''e.g.''

Footnotes should contain substantive comments and additional references not immediately relevant to the text. Mere citations, regardless of number, should be incorporated in the text, referencing full citations which appear in a bibliography at the end. Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix.

Text Citation: Notes that consist merely of supporting citations should be placed in parentheses in the text following the statement they support: e.g., ''or the labor market (Weber, 1990; Keynes, 1992).'' If the author's name is mentioned in the text, insert the reference date in parentheses after the author's name: ''Marx (1997) builds a model.'' For page cites use this form: (Pitchford, 1998:102) or (Dharmapala and Pitchford, 1999:303-309). Use and rather than ''&'' for two authors. If there are three or more authors, give the last name of the first author and append "et al.": a work by Abel, Baker, and Charley, would thus be cited as ''(Abel et al., 1987).'' If two or more cited works share the same authors and dates, use ''a,'' ''b,'' and so on to distinguish among them.

For instance, ''Jones (1994b) provides a more general analysis of the model introduced in Example 3 of Jones (1994a).'' When citations appear within parentheses, use commas rather than parentheses or brackets to separate the date from the surrounding text. For instance, '' ...(see Smith, 1776, for an early discussion of this).'' After the first cite in the text using the author-date method, subsequent cites can use just the last names if that would be unambiguous.

Bibliography: It is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information. The full citation should be placed in a bibliography following the text. Use hanging indents and single-spacing, with extra space between citations. List more than one publication by the same author in chronological order by date of publication, beginning with the earliest. Author first name may be spelled out, or you may use first initial only, so long as you are consistent throughout bibliography. For more than one publication in one year by the same author, add lowercase letters,; for example, 1972a and 1972b. Hyperlinks may be included, but the links should be formatted as black text.

Sample references:

• Alpert, W., and H. Raiffa. 1969. ''A Progress Report on the Training of Probability Assessors,'' unpublished manuscript.
• Arrow, Kenneth J. 1982. ''Risk Perception in Psychology and Economics,'' 20 Economic Inquiry 1-9.
• Ayres, Ian. Forthcoming. Optional Law: Real Options in the Structure of Legal Entitlements. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Bar-Gill, Oren. 2002. ''The Evolution and Persistence of Optimism in Litigation,'' Discussion Paper No. 373, John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business, Harvard Law School.
• ________. 2004. ''Seduction by Plastic,'' 98 Northwestern University Law Review 1373.
• Bazerman, M.H. 2002. Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, 5th ed. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
• ________ and E.J. Zajac. 1991. ''Blind Spots in Industry and Competitor Analysis: Implications of Interfirm (Mis)perceptions for Strategic Decisions,'' 16 Academy of Management Review 37-56.
• Calabresi, Guido, and Douglas Melamed. 1972. ''Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral,'' 85 Harvard Law Review 1089-1128.
• Coase, Ronald 1960. ''The Problem of Social Cost,'' 3 Journal of Law and Economics 1-44.
• Faure, Michael G. 2002. ''Economic Analysis,'' in Bernhard A. Koch and Helmut Kotziol, eds. Unification of Tort Law: Strict Liability. The Hague: Kluwer.
• Jolls, Christine, and Cass R. Sunstein. 2004. ''Debiasing Through Law,'' Discussion Paper No. 495, John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business, Harvard Law School.
• ________, ________ and Richard H. Thaler. 1998. ''A Behavioral Approach to Law and Economics,'' 50 Stanford Law Review 1471-1550.
• La Porta, Rafael, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer. 1999. ''Corporate Ownership around the World,'' 54 Journal of Finance 471.
• ______, ________, and ________. 2003. ''What Works in Securities Laws?'' SSRN Working Paper, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=425880.
• Polinsky, A. Mitchell, and Daniel L. Rubinfeld. 1988a. ''The Welfare Implications of Costly Litigation for the Level of Liability,'' 17 Journal of Legal Studies 151-164.
• ________ and ________. 1988b. ''The Deterrent Effect of Settlements and Trials,'' 8 International Review of Law and Economics 109-116.

Other works: Provide author's (s') name(s), title of work, year (or ''n.d.'' if no date), and information about how the reader could obtain a copy.