Download TortSource Editorial Guidelines for Feature Articles • Word count

TortSource Editorial Guidelines for Feature Articles
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Word count: maximum 1200 words
Subheads: Newsletter style allows for one level of subheads, no outlines
Tone: conversational, as opposed to the more academic, scholarly approach of a
law review article or even a feature article for The Brief
No footnotes or endnotes
Citations in text discouraged; limited to only those essential to support key
statements or quotations (no string cites)
Manuscript must be original; TortSource does not publish reprints of previously
published articles.
Content from current and past TortSource issues is available at
www.americanbar.org/publications/tortsource_home.html.
Word Count: The recommended word count for a feature article for the TortSource
newsletter is 1000 to 1200 words maximum. Please adhere to these parameters as closely
as possible, as any draft exceeding 1200 words is generally returned to the author if
substantive edits are required to reach a length the limited “real estate” available in the
newsletter can accommodate. As a guideline, it may help to know that a double-spaced
page in Microsoft Word is about 350 words, so a draft of only about three double-spaced
pages is a good target.
Subheads: The newsletter style employs one level of subheads; no outline style. The tone
of articles for TortSource is informative but conversational and broad in focus, directed to
a general national Section audience rather than to a readership in a narrow legal specialty
area. Articles are more detailed than quick-news-type updates but—by virtue of length
limitations alone—are more general than legal features published in The Brief (TIPS’s
quarterly magazine) and are designed to be much less scholarly in content and tone than
manuscripts for the TIPS Law Journal. Upon request, the managing editor will send
sample copies of recent issues of TortSource to acquaint an author with the newsletter's
content, tone, and style. Copies of current and past issues of TortSource can also be
accessed online at www.americanbar.org/publications/tortsource_home.html.
Citations discouraged: The style of the newsletter does not employ footnotes or endnotes,
so citations for any significant statements that require attribution should appear within the
body of your manuscript. However, because articles for the newsletter are relatively short
and of an overview nature about a given legal subject, citations should be kept to a
minimum. If you have questions about statements or portions of your manuscript that you
believe would require citations, contact the managing editor.
Submission to Managing Editor: Send your final draft manuscript to Jane Harper-Alport
at [email protected] as a Word file attached to an e-mail message.
Peer Review: Each manuscript will be assigned a due date by the managing editor. Any
review and edits by TIPS leaders who may desire to see the manuscript prior to
publication should be performed before that date.
Copyediting: All manuscripts published in TortSource are copyedited by the managing
editor and/or contract copyeditors to meet the newsletter's style and length requirements.
Each author has an opportunity to review the copyedited manuscript before it is typeset.
At that stage, minor revisions may be made to the text. Note that the review of the
copyedited Word file will be the author’s last opportunity to make changes, as the
production schedule does not allow for further outside review after copy goes into
production. Approval of the copyedited file will most likely be due within the week
following submission of the draft to the managing editor. However, if a major change in
the law were to occur regarding any article, contributing authors are asked to bring such
important developments to the managing editor’s attention as quickly as possible at any
stage prior to final printing.
Author’s Bio: A few short biographical sentences about the author are published with
each article that include name, professional title/position, area of legal specialization (to
establish expertise in the article topic), and e-mail address. Authors are asked to include a
couple of bio sentences at the beginning or end of their manuscript draft. TortSource does
not, however, publish author photographs with feature articles, so only a bio is requested.
Originality of Work: All material published in TortSource must be the original work of
the author and must not have been published previously (other than as program material
for an ABA program/presentation). Following receipt of an author’s manuscript, an ABA
Publishing staff member will contact the author with a standard ABA publication
agreement that will address copyright issues. Each author is requested to review, sign,
and return the publication agreement as soon as possible. When the newsletter is
published, five complimentary copies of the issue containing the author’s article will be
mailed to the author directly from the printer.