Scholastica has made available here information about the submissions made via that platform in 2020. A few facts caught my eye:
"Only 35% of law reviews using Scholastica actively open/close submissions across the year – the other 65% remain open for submissions year-round, much like traditional peer-reviewed journals that have year-round rolling review."
Technically speaking, it may be that 65% of the law reviews remain "open" year-round on Scholastica, but this does not mean the journals are accepting/reading submissions. Anecdotally speaking (aka based onto the abyss into which I have sent several articles), my sense is that the 65% number does not mean that 65% of journals are open. Rather, a large number of journals just haven't clicked the button to indicate that they are full/not accepting/not reading. Perhaps from the journal's perspective, staying open means it may receive an off-season gem. More likely, it's a financial gain for Scholastica in the form of fees paid on articles submitted and never read.
"The majority of articles, around 80% in total, are sent to law reviews in the six weeks following February 1 and the six weeks following August 1."
Familiar news, but always interesting to see the underlying data in graphic form (from here):
And finally:
"Most decisions are made from February to the end of April and then August through the end of October – though there are still some decisions made outside those periods."
Here's Scholastica's graphic on when the journals make decisions:
This seems to follow conventional wisdom that the February cycle is more active than the August one, but that there still remains a fall cycle.
A few years ago, Brian Galle posted some reflections (over here, on Medium). His assessment? "[T]he fall sucks...only about a third of acceptances happen in the fall." The fall cycle does appear less robust than the February cycle.
All obvious to many experienced submitters, but helpful data for those newer to the process.
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