Instructions for Authors from the Board of Editors
Natural Resources & Environment (NR&E) is the quarterly magazine published by the Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources of the American Bar Association. It is distributed to all members (approximately 10,500) of that Section as a membership benefit and to approximately 300 law libraries across the country. Content is also available electronically on Lexis and Westlaw, and to Section members on the Section Web site. The format and content were chosen to appeal to the Section’s diverse membership, comprising lawyers practicing in all areas of natural resources, energy, and environmental law, such as hazardous waste, oil and gas, hard minerals, land use, forestry, agriculture, marine resources, wildlife and water. The thrust of the editorial content is on the practical problems encountered by practitioners and how those problems can be resolved; however, policy articles are also published. In describing and suggesting solutions to natural resources problems, you are encouraged to rely as much on personal and practical experience as on the pronouncements of appellate courts and regulatory agencies.
Type, Form and Style of Article
Upon agreeing to contribute an article to NR&E, you will be working with one editor to develop the precise topic. Generally, the editor will work with you to make the piece as focused and comprehensive as space limitations allow. To accomplish this, several revisions may be necessary. Remember that articles should emphasize the practical rather than the theoretical or the esoteric. It is also important that the article provide a thorough analysis of the topic. For example, it would not be helpful to the readers, or provide an accurate review of a subject, to ignore readily available studies, cases, or agency decisions that are in conflict with the point of view of the author.
Do not use unnecessary quotations, citations, and other embellishments. NR&E is a magazine not a law journal. Footnotes are prohibited. Citations to authority may be made in the body of text but should be minimized. String cites are not allowed. Internet citations should be limited to those documents that are only available on the Web and to the shortest citation possible that still links to the material. To support a theme, the two most prominent citations should suffice without further listing. Obviously, however, you must cite the source of all quotations. Citations should conform to the latest edition of The Uniform System of Citation, published by the Harvard Law Review Association.
We will not accept the outline form so widely favored by lawyers and judges. Because NR&E is a magazine, we are seeking an informal journalistic style that is best implemented without subheadings. Also, our design will only accommodate two to four total headings per article, none of which should occur on the first three typed manuscript pages. Therefore, please limit your subheadings to the most important article subdivisions and provide transitional sentences or paragraphs elsewhere. The editors will delete all subheadings and reserve the right to change headings as dictated by editorial and aesthetic standards. Do not use “bullets” in the text.
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically and be double-spaced. An electronic copy of the manuscript should also be submitted with each revision. For detailed instructions, see the below guidelines on manuscript preparation.
Deadlines
You will be given a first-draft deadline by your article editor. You must meet this first deadline or contact your article editor to work out alternative arrangements. Articles that are submitted late, regardless of quality or content, may not be published due to editing constraints.
Charts and Graphs
NR&E does not generally publish charts or graphs or other graphics. If, however, the information that you are providing is highly technical and would be more easily understood in a graphic, you may submit such a graphic for review by your editor. The preferred format for charts and graphs is one created as a vector-based image, such as an Illustrator EPS file. (This does not mean an image imported into Illustrator and then simply saved as an EPS.) Otherwise, please provide a high-resolution image file at 300 dpi, such as a TIFF or JPEG file. For relatively simple illustrations (e.g., bar, pie, or line graphs) please provide the graph data. All other illustrations should be high-resolution 300 dpi image files such as TIFFs, JPEGs, or EPSs. No Word documents. No PowerPoint files. No GIFs. Nothing copied from a Web site, which will be low resolution. If Web sites provide free images for download specifically for print reproduction, please provide the URL. Please note that proper permission is required for reproduction of any images obtained from third parties, such as from a Web site, and it is the author’s responsibility to secure permission from the owner of the image. These guidelines will help ensure the most professional-looking, and least problematic, image reproduction. For questions not answered above, please contact Kelly Book at 312/988-6062 or via e-mail at bookk@staff.abanet.org.
Length of Article
The precise length of an article will be worked out with the editor assigned to your article. The following guides establish the minimum, average, and maximum lengths for most articles.
Minimum length 2,500 words about ten double-spaced pages
Average (optimum) length 3,750 words about fifteen double-spaced pages
Maximum length 5,000 words about twenty double-spaced pages
Note that these estimates are based upon twenty-five lines of double-spaced type with standard one-inch margins at left and right. In general, about three pages of typed manuscript equal about one page of typeset magazine copy.
Writing and Editing
The editors of NR&E reserve the right to edit submitted manuscripts as necessary, including for clarity, conciseness, style, and length. You however, are solely responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the contents. NR&E accepts reader comments, and it is our experience that readers closely scrutinize content and will access your citations. You are therefore encouraged to keep copies of reference, including Web materials, which may be harder to access in a Web-based format.
Please indicate the portions or paragraphs of your article that may be dropped if deletions for space become necessary. Also indicate 3–5 short sentences throughout the article (approximately one per 4 typed pages) that may be used as “call-outs.” These are the sentences that appear in boxes every other printed page and are used to draw the readers’ attention to key points.
Since deadline pressures make it impossible to submit galley proofs for your review, major editorial revisions affecting the substance of an article will be cleared with you before the manuscript is submitted for production. Prior to publication, if major changes in legislation, regulation, or judicial interpretation occur, you will be allowed to update the article if time permits and are encouraged to contact your editor for this purpose. Publication schedules are determined by the Managing Editor.
The editors of NR&E also reserve the right to refuse to publish any article. Your submission of an article does not constitute official acceptance for publication. The issue editor is responsible for final acceptance after the entire issue has been assembled, and the Executive Editor reserves the right to reject an article up to final publication. Unfortunately, all articles submitted, including those solicited by editors, cannot always be published. While we feel particularly responsible for articles we have solicited, we cannot guarantee in advance that an article will be published. As a practical matter, however, history has shown that we ultimately publish more than 90 percent of our solicited articles.
An article may not be accepted for publication for a number of reasons. An article may overlap the contents of other articles or cover ground reserved for a future issue. Or the style may just not work within our established format. Or the content of the article may be determined to provide an unhelpful or incomplete view of a subject. An article that is submitted beyond our publication deadline that needs additional editing may also be rejected due to deadline constraints. Wherever possible, we will work with authors to rectify such problems, but sometimes deadlines may mean that an article cannot be modified in time for publication and therefore you are encouraged to keep in early contact with your editor to make sure that your article is on track for publication.
You are encouraged to use an informal, readable style of writing that is concrete and concise rather than abstract or legalistic. You should express ideas with clarity and describe actions with strength. For example, offer your opinion by stating “I think,” rather than “it is believed that . . .” When writing for NR&E, keep in mind these simple principles developed in George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech that you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word if a short one will do.
3. If a word can be deleted, delete it.
4. Never use the passive voice if you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, legalese, a scientific or jargon word if you can use a simple English equivalent instead.
6. Break these rules when necessary.
Orwell’s essay on using the English language can be found in A Collection of Essays by George Orwell, a Doubleday Anchor paperback. Another invaluable tool about the craftsmanship of writing is Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style (Macmillan). The following passage taken from that work exemplifies the kind of writing that we expect:
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. That requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subject only in outline, but that every word tell.
Copyright
When submitting an article to NR&E, you grant the American Bar Association (ABA) an irrevocable option to acquire certain property rights in your article. Specifically, you grant the ABA the right of first publication and the right to a nonexclusive copyright of the work in accordance with the standard ABA copyright agreement. Signed copyright forms for each author and co-author in an issue must be in the ABA files prior to publication of the issue. The ABA will not publish an article without a signed agreement.
Reprints
Because of the costs and production problems involved, you will not be provided with reprints of your article. However, you will be given five copies of NR&E in which your article appears, and every effort will be made to meet reasonable requests for additional copies. If additional copies are needed, consult the Managing Editor, who can arrange for bulk-rate pricing. You may also obtain a PDF copy of the article from the Managing Editor.
If you have further questions, please communicate with Lori Lyons, Managing Editor (312) 988-6063.
Natural Resources & Environment
Summary of Key Manuscript Preparation Requirements
- Place the article title, names(s) of author(s), and biographical information at the top of the first page. Put names of co-authors in the order that they are to appear in the magazine article. Remember the article title should be short and descriptive and should be no more than 10 words long.
- Biographies must be short. Include only the name of your employer or firm, position held, and email address. If past government experience is relevant to the subject of your article, you may mention your prior affiliation. If you have a role in the subject of the article, please indicate that role (e.g., counsel for a party). If you are a professor, include your title, and school. NOTE ON DISCLAIMERS: Government authors only may include an employer disclaimer. We have already included a general disclaimer for all articles on the table of contents page (the views are of the authors and not those of the ABA; the Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources; or the employers of the authors), so nongovernment authors will not need to include a separate disclaimer.
- Submit manuscript via e-mail with the word processing program identified.
- Note that you are solely responsible for the content and accuracy of your article. NR&E accepts comments from readers and we find that readers access your citations and review your content carefully. If you have missed key points on either side of the discussion, for example, it is likely that a reader will note that omission. It is also likely that readers will notice incomplete or inaccurate citations. It would be prudent to keep copies of documents cited in your article for responding to reader comments, including Web text as Web content can change or disappear.
- Double-space your manuscript. Unless you have received special instructions, the length of your manuscript should be about 15 pages (minimum 10 and maximum 20).
- Remember that footnotes are prohibited. Keep citations to a minimum and incorporate them into the text. String cites are not allowed. Obviously, you must cite all quotations. Limit Internet citations to those documents that only appear online and keep the citations as short as possible.
- Minimize headings. NR&E format allows for two to four headings per article. No headings should be used on the first three pages. Use headings to divide only the most significant article subdivisions. Do not use headings like “Introduction” or “Conclusion.” Do not use subheadings.
- Do not use an outline style. NR&E prefers journalistic, less formal writing with transitional sentences in place of roman numerals, letters, and numbers.
- Before submitting your article, identify 3–5 short sentences throughout the article (approximately one per 4 typed pages) that may be used as “call-outs.” These are the sentences that appear in boxes every other printed page and are used to draw the readers’ attention to key points.
- Charts and graphs are discouraged. If you feel this type of graphic is absolutely necessary, you must provide the original data so the graphic can be recreated. Or, if providing a preformatted chart or graph, the file must conform to the specifications outlined on page 2.
- Remember to return your signed copyright agreement to the managing editor prior to publication. The article will not be published without a signed copyright agreement prior to publication.