Submissions

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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 a Microsoft Word or PDF 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.

Author Guidelines

General 

Articles should be submitted via OJS or email at (upitthealthlawjournal@pitt.edu). We currently do not accept article submissions via Scholastica. Articles submitted via email should conform to the submission preparation checklist and include the author’s name, institutional affiliation, article title, and abstract. 

The Journal does not require authors to submit a resume, curriculum vitae, or title page with their submission. We do not employ a blind review process; please do not remove any identifying information about your name, affiliation, or acknowledgements. The Journal accepts and encourages co-authored publications.

Articles are reviewed on a rolling basis, but are published at different periods of the year depending on the publication type. The Journal will notify authors of publication decisions by email. Please notify the Journal as soon as possible if you decide to rescind the submission or commit the article to another journal. Upon acceptance, authors may post and circulate a draft version of their accepted article on SSRN while awaiting publication.

The Journal encourages submissions from scholars and practitioners working across disciplines, including health law, health policy, public health, bioethics, medicine, and related fields. The scope of each submission is left to the discretion of each author. The Journal requires only that each submission include some connection to law or policy, particularly the long-form publications. Authors submitting interdisciplinary or empirical works should ensure that the content of their submission, including methods and terminology, is clearly explained for a non-technical audience. 

Questions about submission requirements can be directed to upitthealthlawjournal@pitt.edu.

 

Long-form Publication

The Journal publishes one long-form issue each spring. Authors should submit materials by August 31, 2026, to be considered for publication. Articles submitted after this date will be considered for next year’s volume. Authors should expect a review time of approximately two weeks.

Long-form publications should consist of approximately 15,000 to 35,000 words, including footnotes, though Journal may consider shorter or longer submissions. There are no table or figure limits, but please format the tables and figures within the body of the manuscript. 

Citations should conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (22nd ed. 2025). Please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, for prose and style conventions. Authors should defer to the Bluebook if a conflict arises.

 

Student Notes

The Journal publishes two to three student notes in its annual long-form issue. Submissions are welcome from students at any institution and across disciplines. Student authors do not need to be law students or affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh to submit to the Journal. Papers previously submitted for course credit will be accepted as long as they have not been published elsewhere.

Authors should submit materials by August 31, 2026, to be considered for publication. Articles submitted after this date will be considered for next year’s volume. Authors should expect a review time of approximately two weeks.

Similarly, student note publications should consist of 15,000 to 35,000 words, including footnotes, though the Journal may consider shorter or longer submissions where appropriate. There are no table or figure limits, but please format the tables and figures within the body of the manuscript. 

Citations should conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (22nd ed. 2025). Please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, for prose and style conventions. Authors should defer to the Bluebook if a conflict arises.

 

Short-form Publication

The Journal publishes four short-form issues throughout the academic year. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Authors seeking an expedited review of particularly timely legal developments should email upitthealthlawjournal@pitt.edu with the nature of this request upon submission.

Short-form publications should fall within the 1,000 to 3,000-word range, including endnotes. The Journal may consider shorter or longer submissions where appropriate. Please limit tables and figures to three (3) total, formatted within the body of the manuscript.

Our standard citation format for the short-form is to include hyperlinks at the end of the piece for general citations, and embedded in-text hyperlinks for quotes and direct citations. Because of this citation format, we accept a variety of formats for submissions. Citations should be denoted in brackets (e.g. This is a test.[1]) next to the corresponding proposition. Additionally, Bluebook citations will be accepted at the author’s preference.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.