Given that we're all blogging about what and when to submit articles in the fall, has anyone given any thought to using LexOpus (W&L's newish submission service)? It looks interesting and includes a number of international journals – although I haven't checked to see how this list stacks up with Expresso. I understand that you have two choices on LexOpus as an author: (a) submit exclusive offers to publish to individual journals on a sequential basis; or, (b) invite all journals generally to make offers on the piece. More details of the submissions process options are here. If you choose the first option, LexOpus apparently handles the rolling offer process. Thus, if your first ranked journal doesn't respond or accept the piece within the window of time that the offer to publish is open, the piece is then sent to the next journal you have identified. If it does accept your offer to publish, there is no expediting because you have made a firm offer that the journal has accepted. Whilst going through the sequential offer process, it seems that other journals can still make offers to you on the piece. Additionally, a first ranked journal that has not made an offer within the original offer period is not precluded subsequently from offering to publish the piece, but has no guarantee that you will accept the offer at that point.
This sounds like a really interesting idea, but methinks that the submission process may now be getting too complicated for people who were already having trouble coping with even managing electronic submissions on Expresso, particularly when not all journals are open to receiving articles at the same time and you have to remember to do follow-up submissions for some of them. I'd be interested in hearing about other people's experiences with the competing electronic services as the season moves forwards.
Just got an email from Wash/Lee prof John Doyle, promoting this service. I'm guessing most readers received the same. If not, and you're interested, contact me via email and I'll be happy to forward his message.
Thanks- I got the email too. I'm just interested to see how it all plays out in the coming season. I'd be interested in posts from law review editors as well re their experiences of the service.
Hi Jacqui! The thing that makes me wary about LexOpus's exclusive submission system is the idea of giving each journal one week to consider the article exclusively. Since the submission season itself is only a few weeks long, and journals aim to fill up as quickly as possible, how can it possibly make sense to do rolling exclusive submissions for one-week periods? Presumably, one couldn't get an article looked at by more than 3-4 journals before all of the other journals stop accepting articles for the season. And without the exclusive submission system, it sounds a lot like ExpressO, but free (which of course may be worthwhile in and of itself).
Thanks, Jessie. I don't know that the exclusive submission thing precludes you also doing a general submission via Expresso and/or LexOpus at the same time. If I'm right about that, you could potentially target 4-5 journals from whom you would happily accept an offer if they made one during the exclusive submission phase, but in the meantime if you got an offer from someone else via, say, Expresso, you could trade up the offer in the usual way. Of course, if that IS correct, then presumably you would have a problem if the "exclusive offer" journal accepted your offer at the same time a random journal picked up the piece. In that case, I assume you would be honor-bound to accept the offer from the "exclusive offer" journal. So, for example, if you had made an exclusive offer to Minnesota via LexOpus and then Texas made you an offer, presumably you would be honor bound to take Minnesota over Texas (I should be so lucky!)
Hmmm…. I see what you mean about the submission process becoming too complicated….
I'd like to see how this service works is that, with respect to the package of magazines, I feel that it is not clear but if the article is of my interest.