ExpressO Guide for Authors

To create an account, click here to access the ExpressO My Account page. You can also navigate to this page from the bepress website. Click the My Account link at the top, then select ExpressO.

On the My Account page, click the Sign Up button. Enter your institutional email address, name, and password (required), and feel free to include any additional information like your suffix and institutional affiliation. Note that simply listing your school on your account profile does not automatically tie you an institutional account, as our institutional clients authenticate users either by domain or authorized email list, not by profile affiliation.

Or, if you already have an account, simply login. Passwords are case sensitive, so make sure you enter this information carefully. If you don’t recall your password, click on the Forget your password link, enter your account address and click the Reset Password button to initiate a reset password email.

Note: If you have been added to your institution’s authorized user list, login by entering your authorized email, but leave the password field blank and click Login. The system will prompt you to create a password.

Once your account is created and you’re logged in, you can update your information, including email address and password anytime by clicking on the Edit Profile link on the My Account page.

Now you’re ready to submit!

For step 1 of the ExpressO submission process, choose your law reviews using our law review selection list.

We offer different ways to help you select the best law reviews for your article. Browse through our alphabetized list (about 100 per page), search for a specific law review, and/or see our ExpressO Top 100. Our popular Refine feature to find law reviews by subject category.

We recommend choosing law reviews whose focus best matches the topics covered in your article. For example, if you’ve written a piece about bankruptcy laws, start by refining the list to law reviews that specialize in this particular area. Of course, other related categories may apply, so be sure to include those as well.

You can also select our most popular law reviews with the ExpressO Top 100. Our ExpressO Top 100 rankings are intended to complement, not replace, other ranking mechanisms such as the number of citations and law school ranking.

Simply check mark the box next to the law review to select for your submission, or, if you’ve refined by category and you wish to submit to all available reviews, click the box next to Title to select all for that page.

Some law reviews opted to include short annotations next to their law review titles, which can include specific submission requirements and/or preferences. For example, “uploaded article must be in MS Word format”. Also, a few law reviews may be grayed out; this means the law review is not currently accepting submissions.

When you’ve completed your law review selection, click the Continue button to move onto Step 2 of the ExpressO submission process, the Article Information page. Remember, you can also go back and revise your selection list at any point during the 3-step submission process.

On Step 2, in the Author(s) section, note your account profile information is automatically prefilled. If you need modify, click the person with a pencil icon  and update as necessary. If you decide to use a different email address, the system will automatically create an account for it and will place your submission under this account. Essentially, your submission will only be available to manage under the account address listed in this section.

To add co-authors, click on the plus + sign to add another author line. If you’re submitting on behalf of someone else, click on the plus +, add the author’s information, then make sure to remove yourself from this section by clicking on the person with the red x icon  next to your name. This will ensure you’re not listed as the author for the paper.

Next, enter the Article Title. Under the Current Index to Legal Periodicals Subject Areas, select all relevant subject areas as it relates to your article. To select more than one, press and hold the Control button on your keyboard or Apple key and click to select.

While optional, we recommend including any related Keywords and Abstract. Keywords can include single works or even phrases, and allow you refine your paper’s focus even further. Be sure to separate by commas. For the Abstract, simply copy and paste the text into the field. Even if your abstract is included at the beginning of your article, add it here. Through their ExpressO accounts, law review editors can and do search through submissions by these fields. Including this information allows them to assign to fellow editors by topic, and helps them find specific content they’re interested in publishing.

Lastly, under Upload Documents upload your article, cover letter, and CV. Simply click Browse to upload from your computer.

We accept MS Word, WordPerfect, or PDF. Remember, if provided by editors, formatting preferences are noted as a short annotation next to the review’s title on the law review selection list. In general, most law reviews share similar article format requirements including spacing and article length (for example, double-spaced and 30,000 words limit). If you do have any questions or concerns about article format, we recommend checking the law review’s website for specific requirements.

Based your selected subject categories, you can opt to receive weekly email notifications of new work in these fields from the Digital Commons Network. If you don’t wish to receive these notifications, simply deselect. You can always opt out later by accessing your account.

Click Continue to move onto the final step in the process, Step 3, the Review & Payment page.

On Step 3, the Review page, carefully review your submission metadata and law review selection.

This is your final opportunity to review and make any necessary changes; once you click Finish you cannot go back and modify.

Once you’ve reviewed your submission metadata and selection list and are ready to submit, check mark the box next to “I agree to the ExpressO Terms of Service and the general bepress Terms of Service” and click the Finish button.

It will take a few minutes or less to process as an electronic receipt is generated and sent to you via email. You’ll then prompted with a Confirmation screen that includes a link to your My Account page.

Your article is sent immediately to your selected law reviews.

Editors receive an email notification and a copy of is posted to their own ExpressO accounts. Once delivered, a copy of the submission is then posted to your account along with the full list of deliveries (law reviews) and submission dates. Editors receive both an email notification and a copy is posted to their own ExpressO accounts.

Congratulations! You’ve just made your submission!

On your My Account page, click on the Manage My Submissions link. On your Manage My Submissions page, all of your submissions are listed by title, in chronological order with the most recent at the top. The number of deliveries for each submission as well as submission date is provided.

Click on the article title to access the submission details.

A list of all deliveries is provided, as well as Delivered Date. To view submission details, including abstract and uploaded files, click on the plus + sign to expand section. From here you can go back to your list of submissions by clicking on the All Submissions link on the left side bar. Or, you can start a brand-new submission by clicking on the Submit New link.

Make More Deliveries

If you wish to submit this same submission to additional law reviews, click on the Make More Deliveries button.

With this option, you can select additional law reviews and skip re-entering article information and re-uploading your documents. Simply select, review, and submit. When you use this feature, these new deliveries will appear under the same submission, on the deliveries list.

If you decide to use the offer you received to make an expedite request, check mark other law reviews where you’d like the request to be sent, and under the Contact Editors drop-down, make sure Expedite is selected, and click the Continue button.

At the top of expedite form page, you’ll see the list of law reviews you’ve selected for expedite, along with their Preferred # of Simultaneous Expedite Requests.

The numbers you see refer to that particular law review’s preference for the number of simultaneous requests. If it’s blank, they haven’t set one yet. This is just one criteria visible to authors that editors can set as part of their Expedite Preferences (see the section titled “Editor Expedite Preferences“).

Next, fill out the My Current Offers section. If the review made their offer through ExpressO, it is automatically listed. If not, you can select from our list (which is limited to only those law reviews that use the ExpressO service), or simply type in the law review.

On the Contact Law Review section, be sure to enter response requested by date and time. This is the deadline you’re setting for these reviews to get back to you regarding your request. Note that all times are pacific. Be sure to enter the time in 12-hour format. For example, if you’re setting the deadline at 5:30 p.m. enter, as 05:30, and enter the colon as well.

The subject and message body are already prefilled, but you can modify as necessary. Note that the text in all caps are system macros, and automatically prefill when the message is sent. For example, ‘LAW_REVIEW_TITLE’ would change to ‘Alaska Law Review’ if the message was sent to the Alaska Law Review. There’s no need to fill out this formation. If you do modify the body text, we recommend keeping the system macros as is.

Finally, click on the blue Send button. The expedite requests will process and be reflected on deliveries list on your Submission Details page.

If the offer you received was not made through ExpressO, you will receive the following prompt titled Offer Not Certified.

It states that “one or more of the law reviews you selected prefers expedite requests for offers that have been certified through ExpressO. This offer has not been certified. Do you want us to try and certify this offer?” If you click yes, and the law review uses the ExpressO service, the system will editors an email asking them to make the offer through their account.

ExpressO Certification

Certification simply means that ExpressO is able to confirm an offer that is made through our system. If the offer is made outside of ExpressO, it is not certified, though that doesn’t mean it’s not valid. When editors use the Register Decision feature to send you an offer which generates certification, it not only makes it easier for you to accept (as a green Accept button appears in the author’s account), but it allows editors to easily track their offers through their accounts.

Whether you select yes or not to the prompt, your expedite requests are delivered, certified or not. There is no “hold” or delay mechanism in our system that prevents your request being sent whether you select Yes or No to the prompt.

Editor Expedite Preferences

As mentioned earlier, the number of simultaneous requests is just one of two criteria editors can set as part of their Expedite Preferences. The first is simultaneous requests, which is included on the Expedite Request form. The goal is to encourage authors to be much more selective about how many law reviews they ask to give priority to their article at any one time.

The second criteria is Prioritize Law Review Peers. This is not visible to authors, and allows editors to generate a list of “peer” law reviews. Editors can determine who their peers are; they may be similarly ranked or share the same subject area. For example, they may want to know if the offer you received came from a more highly ranked review as compared to theirs, and may help them to decide whether or not to make an offer.

What does this mean to you? If your expedite request meets both criteria, then it’s marked as a Priority Expedite and placed on the law review’s Priority Expedite queue. This queue serves as starting point for editors when deciding which expedites to review and consider.

If you decide to accept an offer of publication, reflect this on your account by simply click on the green Accept button. You’ll be prompted to confirm the offer and subsequent withdrawal (from the other law reviews).

The prompt states: “Congratulations! Accepting this submission will automatically withdraw your submission from other law reviews. Withdrawals may take a few minutes to show up in your submission status.” Click the green Accept this offer button to proceed.

Alternatively, if you the offer was made outside of ExpressO, meaning that it’s not reflected on your account and you’ve accepted (or not), be sure to withdraw from all other law reviews. On the Submission Details page, check mark these reviews and select Withdraw from the drop-down list, and click Continue.

As with the expedite request form, system macros are used and a standard message is applied. Click on the blue Send button to withdraw.

All of your withdrawals are removed from your deliveries list and moved to your Inactive queue. Click on the link on the left side bar to access. Likewise, when a law review rejects your submission via ExpressO, it will be reflected here as well.

If you wish to share additional information about your submission, or request a status update, use the Email feature to contact editors directly.

Type in your message into the blank form and click the blue Send button. We recommend including your submission information in your message, including article title and date of submission. Note there’s no attachment feature.