FAQ

What is Jotwell?

Jotwell, the Journal of Things We Like (Lots), is intended to provide a space where legal scholars can go to identify and celebrate the latest work of their colleagues. The goal is to help Jotwell’s readers locate interesting developments both inside and outside of their particular areas of interest and to encourage positive reviews and discussion of legal scholarship. To learn more about Jotwell, please visit our Mission statement.

How do I contact Jotwell?

Email editor@[our site name] to reach the editor-in-chief. If you want to reach the editors of a section write to eds@[the full section domain name].

How often do you update the site?

On the Jotwell main page you should expect new content five times a week 48 weeks a year. We take a break around New Years, in late August, and have experimented with moving a week from the New Years break to Spring Break. Each of the subject-specific sections should have something new at least once a month. In any case, every time a new review appears in any of the sections, an excerpt with a link to the full text will also appear here on our front page at https://jotwell.com.

What is the best way to read Jotwell?

There are many ways to read Jotwell.

    1. You can visit the Jotwell ‘front page’, which aggregates all the sections; or you can sample just the sections you like, choosing from the list in the right column.
    2. If you use a newsreader, you can sign up for the RSS feed for the main Jotwell section, or select among the feeds for the subject sections by choosing the link to the RSS feed found in each section.
    3. Or, if you prefer to get your updates by e-mail, you can click here to request a message every time we have new article, or click on the email link found in every subject section for a more tailored, and less frequent, reminder.
    4. You can follow Jotwell on Twitter at @IreadJotwell
    5. You can follow links from Jotwell’s Facebook page.

See the Subscribe to Jotwell page for more information.

How do I get my article/book reviewed by Jotwell?

Individual reviewers choose what to review. Neither the editor in chief nor the section editors assign works to review. Thus, all you need to do is to write something that is interesting, compelling, and/or groundbreaking enough to capture the attention of one of our reviewers.

Who decides what Jotwell reviews?

Each contributing editor decides independently what he or she likes lots and wants to jot about.

We did a study in 2015 to see what we’re actually reviewing. You can read the full account of What We Like. On the whole we were happy about the conclusions, although we did identify grounds for improvement:

Jotwell reviews consider authors from throughout the legal academy, both those that are established full professors at top-tier law schools, as well as non-tenured professors at lower-ranked schools and also a small number of students and practitioners. Jotwell additionally brings attention to international scholars and other non-law professors whose work is relevant to legal academics. Finally, we note that in the 2014-2015 year two out of the 194 authors reviewed were reviewed more than once by Jotwell editors.

Happily, the results presented above seem broadly consistent with the achievement of Jotwell’s twin missions: noting major new contributions in the field and highlighting writing by academics from throughout legal academia. Some work remains to be done to encourage reviewers to think about whether Jotwell’s reviews are proportionally reflective of the racial diversity of legal academia. We hope nevertheless that Jotwell is proving itself as a source for celebrating the best new legal scholarship, wherever it comes from. We thank our editors and contributors for their diligence and insight in helping us identify this scholarship and we thank our readers for helping make Jotwell a success.

Why don’t you have a section on my favorite topic in law?

We’d like to. If you would like to work with us to develop a new section, please send us your ideas. We are particularly interested in expanding the Lex section with annual, semi-annual, or quarterly contributions in more specialist subjects, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch even if your interest area might not merit a section of its own due to the relative infrequency of relevant publications.

What do I have to do to be able to comment?

No registration is required in order to read Jotwell. In order to comment, you simply need to provide a name and email address (note: we won’t solicit you, contact you or share your information with third parties and your email will not be publicly visible). It is possible that we may moderate comments or require users to register before they comment in the future (if, for example, we run into problems with spam). Please note that we ask for your real name and email address. See the Acceptable Use Policy for more details.

How do I become a Jotwell editor?

In order to become a Contributing Editor, please contact one of the Section Editors of the section you would like to join.

If you would like to become a Section Editor of a new section, please see “Why don’t you have a section on my favorite topic in law?” above.

I don’t want to be an editor, but I would like to contribute a review essay.

No problem. See the Call For Papers for more information.

This is a great project, where do I send the million dollars?

Contact Us.

This is a great project, but I don’t have a million dollars.

Actually, you could probably fully endow Jotwell for half a million.  We will also gladly accept any smaller contribution.

This is a great project, but I don’t have any money to spare.

Please consider putting up or distributing a Jotwell Flyer in your law school, law firm, or University.

Who is the Editor?

Jotwell’s Editor-in-Chief is Michael Froomkin, a professor at the University of Miami School of Law. But much of the most important work is done by the Section Editors, who are distinguished scholars and practitioners, and by the Student Editors, who are students at the University of Miami. The Section Editors and the Student Editors are listed on the main Jotwell page. A full list of each Section’s Contributing Editors appears in every Section. There is also a list of former student editors.

Last updated: October 14, 2022.
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