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59 J. Legal Educ. 269 (2009-2010)
A Call for Blind Review: Student Edited Law Reviews and Bias

handle is hein.journals/jled59 and id is 273 raw text is: A Call for Blind Review: Student Edited Law Reviews and Bias Jonathan Gingerich A number of studies suggest that non-blind review of manuscripts submitted to professional journals (including law journals) disadvantages female authors relative to blind review. Studies also suggest that non-blind review encourages professional journals (and particularly law journals) to make decisions about manuscripts on the basis of letterhead prestige rather than article quality, which can make it difficult for younger scholars to publish their work even when it is quite good. There are some costs to adopting a blind review policy, including the administrative costs of ensuring that an article is appropriately blinded before it is reviewed. But these costs are likely outweighed by the benefits of adopting a blind review model, such as decreased reliance on letterhead prestige, better perceptions of the journal's review process by potential authors, and, theoretically, publication of higher quality articles. Therefore, I recommend that student-run law reviews adopt the following policy: We review submissions anonymously. We redact identifying information from submissions to ensure that no editor who participates in making any decision relating to whether a particular submission will be published knows the author's name, affiliation, academic credentials, prior publications, or pending publication offers. We request that authors submit manuscripts that are suitable for blind review. Methods of Article Selection by American Law Reviews Presently, law students run most law journals in the United States. A few journals are peer-reviewed faculty publications, and the number of such journals seems to be growing gradually, but they remain an exception rather Jonathan Gingerich is aJ.D. candidate, Harvard Law School. The author is the Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, which has instituted a blind review policy that is similar to the policy recommended here, and Executive Editor for Student Writing of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, which has declined to adopt such a policy. He is also the Managing Editor of the Jindal Global Law Review, which is a journal edited by American and Indian law professors. This essay is based on a memorandum the author prepared for use by the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender and the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. The views expressed in this article are the author's own. Journal of Legal Education, Volume 59, Number 2 (November 2oo9)