Submissions

The American Indian Law Review (AILR) welcomes submissions of articles by legal scholars and practitioners in the areas of law relating to Native Americans and indigenous peoples. 

AILR publishes two issues a year:

  • Issue No. 1 – December

  • Issue No. 2 – May 

Submission Deadlines

AILR has two waves of deadlines for author submissions: August and December. 

If you submit your paper BEFORE:

  • August 1: AILR will notify you of our publication decision before or by December 1.

    • If selected, you will then have until May to make additional edits to your paper before we need your final draft to begin the publication process.

  • December 1: AILR will notify you of our publication decision before or by May 1.

    • With this deadline, you have four extra months to write or edit your paper before submitting it to us, but the turnaround is quicker because once we notify you of our publication decision in May, we will immediately need your final draft to begin the publication process.

Choose whichever submission date is better for you, and do not worry about submitting as quickly as possible. There is no first-come-first serve limit to how many papers AILR will review, and AILR does not begin reviewing submissions until after each deadline. Meaning, if you initially submit to us on June 1 but then make more edits before August 1, you can resubmit your updated paper to us. AILR will only consider the version of the paper we received closest to the deadline.  

Note, the submission deadlines do not correspond to which issue the papers will be published in the following year. AILR has a 200–250 page budget (single spaced) for each of the two issues and will decide which volume the papers get published in once AILR has finalized all publication decisions in May.

How to Send Us Your Submission

Submissions may be sent to AILR in one of three ways: 

(1) Electronically via the submission service Scholastica

(2) Electronically via email to AILR directly at ailrsubmissions@groups.ou.edu with the subject line "Last Name, AILR Submission" (for example: Echo-Hawk, AILR Submission). All versions of Microsoft Word and PDF formats are welcome. 

(3) Mailed hardcopy to:

American Indian Law Review
University of Oklahoma College of Law
Andrew M. Coats Hall
300 Timberdell Road
Norman, OK 73019

When you submit an article, please indicate if your article is being submitted to more than one publication. Additionally, please include the following biographical information: present position or occupation, degrees (with dates and name of each conferring institution), bar associations and/or learned societies of which you are a member, official positions held that are relevant to the article, and if applicable, the tribe you are enrolled with. Because tribal status is a political classification, please also include your tribal enrollment number.

AILR Writing Guide

Form

The American Indian Law Review, in general, follows The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (22nd edition, 2025), published by the Harvard Law Review Association. The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition) is followed for style, in hyphenation, capitalization and spelling. If these sources are not available to you, please consult a current copy of the American Indian Law Review for matters of style and citation form.

AILR Specific Formatting Requirements

  • Citations must be footnotes.

  • If the Bluebook requires small caps/large caps: use boldface instead.

  • If the Bluebook requires italics: use underline instead. For example:

Id. (the period after Id. is always underlined)

          See

          See id.

  • For case names:

  • In text: Italicize case names. 

  • In footnotes: 

  • Long cite: Leave as regular roman font.

             Example: Haaland v. Brackeen, 599 U.S. 255, 312 (2023)
     

  • Short cite: Underline case names.

             Example: Brackeen 599 U.S. at 312
     

  • When providing an acronym in text, do not put quotation marks in the parentheses.

        Correct: The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).

        Incorrect: The Indian Gaming Regulatory ("IGRA").

  • When citing Oklahoma Statutes: Do not use “tit.” 

         Correct: 7 Okla. Stat. § 50

         Incorrect: Okla. Stat. tit. 7, § 50

Length

The Review imposes no general restrictions on the length of lead articles, commentaries or student notes.

Questions Regarding Submissions

For questions or issues regarding submissions, please contact AILR's Articles Development Editor (ADE) by email at ailrade@groups.ou.edu; or by regular mail at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, 300 Timberdell Rd., Norman, OK 73019. 

Publication

The following applies to authors who are selected for publication in the American Indian Law Review.

The publication process for AILR begins in May. In May, the Editor-in-Chief will send authors who are selected for publication a schedule with specific deadlines, but the following is an overview of what to expect.

Overview of the Publication Process

In May, authors will sign a publication agreement, and their paper is turned into a manuscript for editing.

From June to the Fall semester, each paper goes through the "front-end process" of publication. This entails an initial review by the Managing Editor (below the line) and Executive Editor (above the line), 2 rounds of student cite checks, 2 rounds of Assistant Managing Editor cite checks, 1 round of Managing Editor cite checks, and 1 round of Editor-in-Chief cite checks. Additionally, the papers also go through 1 round of above the line substantive edits by Assistant Executive Editors, 1 round of Executive Editor substantive edits and 1 round of Editor-in-Chief substantive edits. 

For papers in Issue 1: The "front-end process" of publication occurs from June to August.

For papers in Issue 2: The "front-end process" of publication occurs in June, and then August to November.

Once the "front-end process" is complete, each paper goes to the "back-end process" of publication. This entails a technical review by a faculty member, first edits by the Editor-in-Chief, two weeks of first edits by the author, second edits by the Editor-in-Chief, one week of second edits by the author, a final check by the Exec Board (Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, and Executive Editor), and then a final check by the author before the paper is sent to publication.

For papers in Issue 1: The "back-end process" of publication occurs from August to November.

For papers in Issue 2: The "back-end process" of publication occurs from January to April.

Reprints

Upon publication, each author will receive 25 free reprints of the article. Authors are also given the opportunity to order additional reprints at cost.

If you have any questions about reprint ordering, please contact Michael Waters, editorial advisor, at mwaters@ou.edu.

Author Questions Regarding Publication

For authors selected for publication that have questions or issues regarding publication or their paper, please contact AILR's Exec Board by email at ailrade@groups.ou.edu; or by regular mail at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, 300 Timberdell Rd., Norman, OK 73019.