Call for Submissions | MNLUM Law, Humanities, and Social Sciences Blog

About MNLU Mumbai – Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai, established under the Maharashtra National Law University Act 2014 on 20th March 2014, is one of the premier National Law Universities in India.

About the blog – Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai is proud to introduce the MNLU Law, Humanities, and Social Sciences Blog. We noted that available research on the intersection of law with humanities and social sciences remains focused on and originates from the Global North. Perspectives from the Global South remain marginal to such discussions.

Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai’s Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Blog seeks to redress this imbalance in its own small way, by providing a platform for expression and exchange of ideas, and insights that craft and critique interdisciplinarity from a Global South perspective. This student-run blog shall strive to mentor interested contributors and readers, provide insights on research and writing skills, thematically collate resources, and organize monthly reading groups and panel discussions.

The blog was formally launched on Ambedkar Jayanti and contains posts on Ambedkar’s thoughts on fraternity and a collection of resources on Ambedkar’s life and works.

We now call for blog submissions from authors on the interdisciplinary interaction of law with social sciences.

Submission of Ideas – Uniquely, we not only accept full-fledged articles for the blog but also preliminary ideas. If an author wishes to email a prospective idea to us, the editorial team shall assess its potential and guide the author to further develop it.

The Editorial Board of the MNLU Law, Humanities, and Social Sciences Blog invites submissions in keeping with the following guidelines:

Mode of Submission 

1. All submissions shall be made by filling out the Google Form which can be accessed here. No other mode of submission shall be considered.

General Guidelines 

1. Submissions shall be accepted on a rolling basis from students, legal professionals, teachers, researchers, policy-makers, senior academicians, and any member of the legal and humanities fraternity.
2. Co-authorship of up to 2 authors is allowed.
3. The submission should be original, exclusive, and unpublished, and should not be under review by any similar platform. Non-adherence to this rule shall result in a rejection of the submission, irrespective of its quality.
4. Cross publication will be allowed subject to prior permission from the original platform of publication.
5. Any content that is related to the intersection of law with humanities and social sciences, or raises awareness about the same, whether in theory or in practice, is eligible for submission to the Blog.
6. Submissions may be in the form of articles, short notes, book reviews, responses to an existing post on the Blog, or in any other form or manner that the Editorial Board deems appropriate.
7. The Board retains absolute discretion in relation to both acceptance and rejection of a submission.
8. Upon acceptance of the submission by the Board, the copyright over the manuscript is vested with the Blog.
9. The submission should reflect the original and unpublished work of the author(s). The Blog however permits a maximum similarity index of 15% and in no case shall a submission shall exceed this limit.
10. Further information, requests, or queries regarding submissions may be obtained by sending an e-mail to lhssblog@mnlumumbai.edu.in .

Content and Formatting Guidelines 

1. The word limit for every submission must ideally be limited to 1500-2000 words, except in cases where the Editorial Board deems otherwise. Longer pieces may be published in instalments in consultation with the contributors.
2. The title of the post must be formatted to Times New Roman, Size 14, 1.5 Line Spacing, in All Caps and in Bold.
3. The main body of the submission must be formatted to Times New Roman, Size 12, and with 1.5 Line Spacing and single line space between paragraphs.
4. All references must be in the form of hyperlinks in the body of the submissions. In case a hyperlink is not available for a reference, Endnotes in Times New Roman, Size 10 with 1 Line Spacing may be used, and such Endnotes must follow the Uniform Bluebook 20^th Edition Citation Style.
5. The submission must be turned in as a Word document (.doc/.docx). The name of the document must be the same as the title of the submission.
6. The submission document should not contain the name or institutional affiliation of the author, or any information that may disclose the identity of the author and hamper the review process.

Timeline for review

1. The Editorial Board shall respond to the authors with an acceptance/rejection/acceptance subject to modification within 15 days from the date of receipt of submission.

Submission of ideas 

1. The LHSS blog shall accept submissions in the form of tentative ideas/writing topics as well.
2. Author(s) may email a brief outline of their ideas to lhssblog@mnlumumbai.edu.in. The subject line of the email should be: “Submission of Abstract for LHSS Blog Post”. A few indicative readings and sources that inspired the idea may also be attached. Please note that the outline of the idea needs to be formatted as a formal abstract.
3. If the editors are of the opinion that the idea has publication potential, we shall get back to you regarding the prospect of developing it further along with indicative suggestions and pointers.
4. Following this, the author(s) must submit a full-fledged article conforming to the Guidelines specified above.
5. The editors shall then subject the article to the review process of a full article and shall revert back to the authors within the aforementioned 15 days timeline along with further comments/changes if any.

For more details, refer here