Thank you for agreeing to contribute to a NYSBA section publication. Authors are responsible for the content of their articles, including the accuracy and format of citations and website addresses, subject to review by the editor of the publication and the section publication editors at NYSBA. Please familiarize yourself with the guidelines below and contact the editor if you have any questions.
Article Content Guidelines
We recommend you review several issues of the publication before submitting work. The editor is ultimately responsible for reviewing and selecting content; however, senior staff at NYSBA may on occasion require that an article be edited or withdrawn if it doesn’t meet the association’s standards. Please keep in mind:
- Articles should not be overly self-promotional or one-sided; avoid any articles that seem to be personal gripes about a particular person, office, or organization. This includes articles that take the side of the plaintiff or the defense or look at an issue from only one perspective.
- Articles cannot promote any one company, brand, product or organization.
- We also generally recommend against book reviews as these tend to be overly promotional. Book reviews should be written by a lawyer who has no relationship with the author and should include the book’s attributes and shortcomings.
Consideration for the NYSBA Journal and the News Center
All articles submitted for a section publication are also potentially considered for publication in the News Center of the nysba.org website and/or the NYSBA Journal. If your topic is especially timely, please ask the editor to forward it to the editors at NYSBA. You can also submit it directly to [email protected]; please note which section publication it is being slated for.
Please note: For the Journal/ News Center, we can only consider articles under 4,000 words on timely topics.
Section Publication Article Submission and Formatting
- All articles should be in Microsoft Word (or as rich text format, if not using Word). Graphics, photos, charts and tables can be submitted as high-resolution PDFs, JPGs or TIFFs. Please include a 2-3 sentence biography at the end of the article of less than 150 words. You are also welcome to submit a headshot (check the publication or with the editor to see if headshots are used in your publication). Please DO NOT send articles as PDFs.
- If your article has been printed elsewhere, please obtain the appropriate reprint permission and required credit information and forward both to the section publication editor. Please also secure copyright permission for any photos or other graphics as appropriate.
- Please take note of the following style guidelines. Additional guidelines can be found here.
- All quotations of more than 49 words should be block quote format. Quotations of fewer than 50 words should be run into the paragraph.
- Please refrain from using all caps in headlines and subheadings. If using a numbering sequence, please use the following: I. A. 1. a. (1) (a) (i) (aa). Also, please include introductions and conclusions in the numbering.
- Use italics for emphasis. Do not use underline or bold (even for case names).
- Use em instead of en dashes or two hyphens, with no spaces on either side.
- Use periods in N.Y. and U.S.
- NYSBA generally prefers AP style for text.
Citations/Endnotes/Website Addresses
IMPORTANT: PLEASE format endnotes using the Word Endnote formatting feature. Because of the way our design program works, all endnotes must be formatted this way. If there are a number of notes and they have not been formatted, the article will be returned.
Please use standard Bluebook format. Avoid small caps or all caps. (For more information on exceptions to Bluebook, see our Style Guidelines.)
Proofreading
The proofreading of articles is primarily the responsibility of the editor. Our proofreaders are not attorneys. They have been instructed to proofread galleys with a light hand, focusing on correcting blatant typographical and grammatical errors, and ensuring stylistic consistency within each article and to conform with our Style Guidelines. Any suggestions for substantive changes arising from the proofreading will be submitted to the editor for approval.
Although it may be difficult in all instances, it is the editor’s responsibility to ensure consistency among articles, particularly in “theme issues” where there are repeated terms or phrases. NYSBA proofreaders may make changes in order to ensure this consistency.
Generally, only editors review galleys and will contact you with questions. Authors do not usually have the chance to review proofs, so please make sure your submission is as error-free as possible. If some time has passed, and you need to submit an update, please contact the publication editor.
Accommodations for People with Disabilities
NYSBA welcomes participation by individuals with disabilities. NYSBA is committed to complying with all applicable laws that prohibit discrimination against individuals on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of its goods, services, programs, activities, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations. To request auxiliary aids or services or if you have any questions regarding accessibility, please contact the Bar Center at (518) 463-3200. Section publication authors may forward any concerns to the publication editor.
We ask that all editors and authors respect and follow these style guidelines as much as possible for the sake of ease and consistency across all publications. Please note that we prefer to use and follow the most recent Associate Press (AP) style guidelines, with some exceptions as noted below. (AP does not have any kind of citation style, so that is dealt with in more detail below.)
All authors are required to sign a completed Copyright Agreement form when publishing in a NYSBA section publication. Please see the Author Guidelines for further information. The section publication editor will supply you with a copyright agreement form with the “Section Publication Title, Issue & Number” information included. If the editor has not done so, please download the form below.
Submit all completed copyright agreements to the section publication editor.
Please note: Our copyright agreement has recently been updated and includes changes to our reprinting and republication policies. These new policies can be found on the new form (available on the Copyright Agreement tab) and are as follows:
Use by Author: Following first publication of the Work by NYSBA you will have the right to a perpetual, royalty free, worldwide license to use the work for your own personal use and to promote your employer, law firm, or law practice. This use includes permission to make and distribute print or digital copies of the work to friends, colleagues, clients, or on your employer or law firm website or social media promoting your law practice without further notice to or approval from NYSBA. Any such copy must contain the following notice “Reprinted with permission from the New York State Bar Association © 2023 [or year of publication].” Contact [email protected] if you need assistance in creating a PDF of your article with the above notice included.
Republication: If you seek to have the Work republished in another publication you may do so upon prior written notice and approval from NYSBA. Such approval shall not be unreasonably withheld when republication is more than 90 days after the original publication date. Request for approval of republication earlier than 90 days may be requested at any time. It is recommended that any request for approval be submitted at least 5 business days prior to any republication submission date. All notices and requests for approval shall be sent to:
New York State Bar Association
Republications
One Elk Street
Albany, NY 12207
[email protected]
Complimentary copies: Upon publication, each author will receive two complimentary copies of the section publication in which his or her article appears. Please provide a complete mailing address along with contact information with your submission. Additional copies may be requested but must be ordered in advance of printing. Please relay this request to the editor(s) when your article is accepted.
For further information on NYSBA policies, you may also contact the Section Publication Coordinators, Sara Anderson ([email protected]) and Alyssa Colton ([email protected]).
Authors may apply to the CLE Board for publication credit by downloading the application from the Unified Court System’s web site: