I just attended a reception that the Harvard Environmental Law Review held for the authors publishing in this year’s volume. I thought it was a very successful event and more journals should consider doing something similar.
The reception started with the authors (4 professors, 2 students publishing notes) giving a very brief summary of their papers. We then answered questions from the students on a range of topics in a panel format. We talked about things like the editing process with the journal, how we chose our topics, and advice for writing student notes. After the Q&A, we got a chance to have a drink with the students who worked on our articles. The students even arranged for me to give a longer presentation over lunch the next day that allowed for more substantive discussion of the article.
I really enjoyed getting to meet the students who worked on the article and talk in person about the process and the paper. The idea seems especially well-suited for specialty journals, since the papers were all in the same field, but I think this type of event would work for any student-edited journal.
By the way, the students mentioned that they are always looking for shorter submissions for their online component. If you have something in mind, they are a great group to work with.
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