ABOUT
The Centre for Environmental Law, Advocacy and Research (CELAR) of National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam (NLUJAA), is pleased to invite scholastic submissions for Issue 44 onwards for Lex Terra (ISSN: 2455-0965), our quarterly online publication (“webzine”). Since its inception, Lex Terra has published 43 issues on various debatable facets of the environment and environment-related analytical items. Several academicians, practitioners, and students have contributed to the webzine. Through Lex Terra, we endeavour to facilitate better and greater ideas to create a community of environmentally conscious individuals from legal and non-legal fraternities. Detailed submission guidelines can be found below.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
General Guidelines
● Lex Terra exclusively accepts manuscripts that revolve around the themes of environmental law and policy research. Manuscripts that are not related to environmental law are summarily rejected.
● Possible sub-themes include but are not limited to Natural Resource Management Law;
Waste Management; Biodiversity Management; Energy Law; Forest Laws; Animal Rights; Agricultural Laws; Climate Change Law and Policy; Global Commons; Sustainable Development; Environment Impact Assessment; Ecological Restoration; Pollution Control; Coastal Regulation; Environmental Ethics; Ecofeminism; Environment, Business and Human Rights; Ecosystem Services; and Environmental Economics.
● While contributors are permitted to submit articles on the aforementioned themes across any jurisdiction, we especially encourage submissions exploring customary environmental standards and practices pertaining to North-East India. We, at Lex Terra, firmly believe that the North-East region of India, being rich in biodiversity and natural resources, requires particular attention from an enviro-legal standpoint.
● All manuscripts and author(s) details must be submitted only via this form:https://forms.gle/5VRgUfhjp35zQXGg8
- Short Articles: 2000 words,
- Enviro-legislative analysis: 1000 words,
- Enviro-legal news & perspectives: 1000 words, and
- Enviro-judgement analysis: 1000 – 1500 words.
● Please do not use any personal identification details in the manuscript, such as your name or institutional affiliations, to better facilitate the double-blind peer-review process.
● Co-authorship among individuals of the same or different institutions is allowed up to two authors.
● Please ensure that the manuscript submitted to Lex Terra must not be simultaneously under consideration at other academic publications.
● The webzine is committed to publishing pieces of the highest academic quality. Pursuant to this, we have a strict no-plagiarism policy and all manuscripts we receive are put through plagiarism detection software. Any manuscripts found to have a similarity index of more than 20% are summarily rejected. Other pieces depend upon context. Only the non-plagiarized manuscripts are sent to the peer reviewers.
Formatting Guidelines
Submissions should exclusively be made in .doc/ .docx format.
The authors must follow the Bluebook 20th Edition format for citations. Please adhere to the following text formatting guidelines:
● All text, including hyperlinks featured in the footnotes of the manuscript, must be in black colour. In addition, hyperlinks to an online citation must be removed. Only the text of the link should be retained.
● Main title: Times New Roman, Size 14, small capitals, center aligned, in bold.
● Headings within the main body: Times New Roman, Size 12, upper case, left aligned, in bold.
● Subheadings within the main body: Times New Roman, Size 12, title case, left aligned, in italics.
● We encourage lengthy articles to be divided into headings and subheadings for better structure. However, authors are advised to use only two heading levels. Please number, format, and indent headings and subheadings as:
I. Heading of Chapter I
1.1 First Sub-Heading of Chapter I
1.2 Second Sub-Heading of Chapter I
II. Heading of Chapter II
2.1 First Sub-Heading of Chapter II
The main body of the text: Times New Roman, Size 12, 1.5 line spacing, justified. Footnotes: Times New Roman font size 10, single line spacing, justified.
● Abbreviation of a word should only be done at the first instance and should not be repeated later. Please refrain from using terms such as “hereinafter” within the parentheses and do not use periods in these short forms. For example:
“The National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 (‘NGT Act’) is an Act of the Parliament of India which… The NGT Act was enacted to create a special tribunal to handle environmental cases.”
● Writers should not use double quotations unreasonably. Only content used verbatim should be put in quotation marks.
● Speaking footnotes are strictly prohibited.
REVIEW PROCESS AND TIMELINE
● All the manuscripts will go through a double-blind peer-review process.
● The deadline for submissions to be considered for Issue 44 is February 28th, 2024.
● Due to an overwhelming number of manuscripts that we have received so far, Issue 44 onwards of Lex Terra is scheduled to be published tentatively at the end of April 2024.
● Please note that the peer review process for Issue 43 onwards will commence only post the deadline. Hence, authors can expect to receive the final decision with regard to the acceptance or rejection of the submitted manuscript in the last week of April 2024.
● The manuscript will be judged on the following parameters:
○ Use of Language
○ Style and Structure
○ Referencing and Research
○ Relevance and Contribution to Existing Literature
● Since the Editorial Board is currently preoccupied with the upcoming issues of Lex Terra and additional university commitments, no requests to expedite the review process shall be entertained.
● It is to be noted that in the event we receive an adequate number of submissions for Issue 43, subsequent submissions will be considered for the forthcoming issues of Lex Terra in 2023.
● The preliminary screening process that involves running articles through the plagiarism test may take up to 21 days, and the Editorial Board shall endeavour to respond to the authors at the earliest.
● The Editorial Board shall communicate their decision of acceptance or rejection to the author directly within the stipulated time frame.
● Contributors are requested to address follow-up emails to the Editorial Board only after 21 days.
● The authors, while submitting, agree to make any edits, changes, or modifications that the Editorial Board deems necessary for the manuscript’s ultimate publication.
● If the author’s manuscript is considered for publication, they shall be wholly liable to make any required revisions to their manuscript (whether procedural or substantial) in good faith and are expected to cooperate with the Editorial Board at all times.
EDITORIAL POLICY
● The Editorial Board reserves the right to modify these guidelines at any point in time, without prior notice to the author(s).
● The decision of the Editorial Board in any dispute shall be final and binding.
OPEN ACCESS STATEMENT
Lex Terra is committed to free and open access to all academic research. No publication fees will be charged to authors at any stage of the review. In addition, no subscription costs will be charged to readers. Accepted manuscripts shall be published online and can be freely accessed through the official website of National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam.
CONTACT
For any further queries, write to us at [email protected].