American Indian Law Review Writing Guidelines

Form

The American Indian Law Review, in general, follows The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (21st edition, 2020), 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 Review for matters of style and citation form.

Production Deadlines

The Review is published online twice a year. For information on space availability, topic and content evaluation, and specific publishing deadlines, contact J. Santana Spangler-Day, editor-in-chief, at jack.s.spanglerday-1@ou.edu or by phone at (405) 325-2840; or contact the Review by mail at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, 300 Timberdell Rd., Norman, OK 73019. 

When you submit an article, please indicate if your article has been submitted to more than one publication. 

Articles will be submitted for peer review, subject to a double-blind review process. Decisions for publication will be made only after completion of the peer review process.  Depending upon the length of the submission, this may take anywhere between six and eight weeks. Please inform us if your submission is accepted for publication elsewhere. 

Submission Requirements

See the Submissions page.

Formatting Requirements

Please do not capitalize entire words to indicate small caps/large caps in either text or footnotes. If using Microsoft Word software, you may use boldface to indicate words which should be placed in small caps/large caps (according to the Bluebook, small caps/large caps words include titles of books, names of periodicals, names of government agencies and titles of most government documents).

Indicate emphasis by underlining. When you wish to add emphasis on quoted material, the footnote following the quote should include the phrase "(emphasis supplied)."

The word "section" is spelled out in the text, but the symbol "§" is used in footnotes unless it is the first word of a sentence.

Length

The Review imposes no general restrictions on the length of lead articles, commentaries or student notes. However, authors who submit work for possible inclusion in a specific issue of the Review are cautioned to inquire in advance, by phone or email, to insure no length restrictions apply to that particular issue.

Footnoting

Generally

All statements requiring footnoting should be accompanied by full and accurate information as to the source. Generally, footnoting is required for: (1) all quotations; (2) all statements attributing options to specific persons or groups; (3) all references to, or statements made in reliance upon, cases, statutes, treatises, periodicals, pamphlets, government publications, newspapers, manuscripts, or any other written or printed source.

Cases

The reference should include the name of the case, citation by volume, page, and date, and case history when applicable and relevant. Cite the reporter listed in Table 1 of the Bluebook.

Examples:
• High v. Low, 23 U.S. 45 (1900)
• [For recent cases where the U.S. reporter is not available, use -- S. Ct. -- cite]
• High v. Low, 145 F.2d 58 (9th Cir. 1944)
• High v. Low, 837 F. Supp. 567 (W.D. Okla. 1970)
• High v. Low, 290 P.2d 118 (Okla. 1955)

Refer to the source of material quoted from cases by giving the complete case citation and adding the page on which the quotation begins, both in the official and unofficial reporters.

Statutes

United States statutes are cited by reference to the Statutes at Large and the United States Code, thus 49 Stat. 449 (1935), 29 U.S.C. § 151. (The 21st edition of the Bluebook does not require a date for U.S.C. citations.) When dealing with tax questions, cite the Internal Revenue Code if applicable.

• Oklahoma Constitution: Okla. Const. art. 2, § 6
• Oklahoma Statutes: 12 Okla. Stat. § 172 (1991). If citing to a supplement, use: 12 Okla. Stat. § 183 (Supp. 19--).
• Oklahoma Session Laws: 19-- Okla. Sess. Laws ch. 2, § 2.

Note: The Review does not supra or infra to cases or statutes, nor should these authorities be abbreviated, except as stated in the Bluebook. You may use "Id." to refer to an authority which is (a) the only authority in the immediately preceding footnote, or (b) the immediately preceding authority in the same footnote.

Cases and Statutes: Order of Citation

Cases and Statutes should be cited in the following order: United States Supreme Court cases, lower federal court decisions, decisions of other states, alphabetically by state, United States Constitution, federal statutes, state constitutions, state statutes.

Books and Treatises

Volume number, if more than one, author's full name is it appears on the publication, title, specific portion referred to, date of publication: 3 Eugene O. Kuntz, Oil and Gas Law 421 (1966).

Periodicals

Author's full name as it appears on the publication, title of article, volume number, title of publication, page numbers, date: Maurice Merrill, The Basic Doctrine of Oklahoma Public Law, 1 Okla. L. Rev. 262 (1948). Footnoting: Newspapers and Non-Scholarly Magazines Name of publication, date, page, column (if applicable): N.Y. Times, Feb. 14, 1947, at 1, col. 1; Newsweek, Aug. 24, 1982, at 31. Author's full name (if one is named) and title of article may be added at the beginning of the citation.

Books, Periodicals, and Newspapers: Order of Citation

Books, periodicals and newspapers should be cited in the following order: books and treatises, alphabetically by name of author; lead articles in law reviews, alphabetically by name of author; notes and comments, alphabetically by name of periodical.

Biographical Information

Upon acceptance of your article, please furnish us with the following personal data: present position or occupation, degrees (with dates of each and name of conferring institution), bar associations and learned societies of which you are a member and official positions held that are relevant to the article.

The Contract and the Editorial Process

We will send you a publication agreement to be signed and returned to us. At an early point in production of the Review issue in which your article will appear, you will be sent a first proof of the article in type. Do not be unduly concerned by typographical errors; the production process is designed to eliminate them.

The primary purpose of providing a first proof to authors is to provide an opportunity to reread the article as it will appear when published, to make any changes necessitated by developments since the completion of the manuscript, and to check the changes made by the editors. At the time of first proof, a comparison copy will also be sent to the author showing all changes made to the article during the editorial process.

An author should not expect first proofs to conform literally to the manuscript as submitted. Certain changes are essential to maintain uniformity in the style of the publication. This is especially true of footnotes. It is assumed the author consents to such editing as may be necessary to achieve uniformity in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, numbering, and the like, and also to any changes necessary to correct unclear or ungrammatical expressions.

Should the author not wish to give the editors such license, the opportunity to read the proof provides sufficient time to make changes before publication. It is stressed that at all times, editors strive to retain author intent and style, and that author changes made to any extent on the proof often prove costly and delay the publication of the issue, both to the detriment of the timeliness of the article and of the publication. Substantial editorial changes or cutting are never done without the author's approval.

Prior to publication, a final proof is sent to authors as well, to allow for a final chance to insure the published version of each article is error-free.

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, or by phone at (405) 325-5191.