Submissions

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.

Submission Instructions

Overview:

We welcome article, note, essay, and book review submissions from scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and students. We seek to publish innovative scholarship providing analytical, qualitative, descriptive, prescriptive, or normative treatment of topics in tax law, policy, or economics. As our Journal serves the three constituents of the tax audience, namely, policymakers, practitioners, and professors, we appreciate submissions coming from or targeted towards these groups.

Requirements:

Authors may submit to our Journal using Scholastica. Submissions may also be emailed directly to us as Microsoft Word attachments, along with a CV and cover letter including an abstract, to taxjournal-articles@law.columbia.edu. The cover letter should also include the authors’ names, email addresses, and direct phone numbers. Authors using Word 2007 should save the document as a Word 1997–2003 document, which should bear a .doc extension in the file name.

We request that the submissions adhere to the following style guidelines:

  • Body text should be double-spaced, 12-pt. Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins.
  • Footnotes should be single-spaced, 10-pt. Times New Roman font, and should conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (Columbia Law Review Ass’n et al. eds.,20th ed. 2015).
  • The title should be centered. The author or authors’ name(s) should appear centered, below the title, and with any information about the authors’ background and acknowledgements as the opening footnotes. These footnotes may be indicated with an asterisk, double asterisk, etc. All other footnotes should be numbered using MS Word’s automated footnotes. In MS Word 2003 and earlier, these are inserted by selecting Insert, Reference, Footnote, Insert, or as a shortcut, hitting Alt + I, N, N, I. In MS Word 2007, these are inserted by selecting References, Insert footnote, or as a shortcut, by hitting Alt + Ctrl + F.
  • Article and note submissions should not exceed 35,000 words, including footnotes. Essay submissions should not exceed 20,000 words, including footnotes. Book reviews should not exceed 5,000 words. Abstracts for articles, notes, and essays should not exceed 250 words.

Authors who are unable to submit electronically may send printed manuscripts, CV, and cover letter, along with an electronic copy on disk, flash drive, or CD, to:

Columbia Journal of Tax Law

ATTN: Head Solicitations Editor

435 West 116th Street

New York, NY 10027

Timing:

We accept submissions on a rolling basis, though it is best to submit by the end of August to be reviewed for the Fall issue, by the end of December to be reviewed for the Winter issue, and by the end of April to be reviewed for the Spring issue.

Expedited Review:

Authors may request an expedited review of a submission when faced with a deadline for response to another publication offer. Requests for expedited review may be made through Scholastica. Authors may also request expedited review by direct email to the Head Solicitations Editor at taxjournal-articles@law.columbia.edu, with the subject line “Please expedite: ” followed by the title of the article. Requests for expedited review should please include:

  • Authors’ names, email addresses, and direct phone numbers
  • Submission title
  • Existing offer and deadline
  • Date by which the author would like a response

We will endeavor to accommodate expedited review requests, though may ask the author to request an extension from the publication that extended their existing offer. We wish to ensure that each author receives a full and adequate review.

Selection Process:

Submissions are reviewed by a committee consisting of J.D. and L.L.M. student Editors and, when possible, Staff. The Senior Editorial Board makes final decisions on selections, with the advice of members of the Board of Advisors as appropriate. Once a submission has been selected for publication, the Editor-in-Chief will contact the author(s) regarding our contract and publication process. Authors should please expect to work closely with the Editors regarding substantive and technical revisions in preparation for final publication.

At the Columbia Journal of Tax Law, we view our authors as our partners in a mutual exchange of ideas. We look forward to reviewing your submissions and will seek to provide our response as quickly as possible.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.