The Volokh Conspiracy - Pet Peeves about Law Review Editing:

Legal academics have lots of complaints about the nature and quality of law review editing. At Concurring Opinions, Daniel Solove shares his two biggest pet peeves — unnecessary parentheticals and excessive footnoting — and suggests that "many law review editors have no idea just how widely professors view some of their editing practices as silly and bothersome."

If law review editors were to jettison the two pet peeves I mention above, it would eliminate the bulk of my gripes. My sense is that these two pet peeves are among the most loathed editing practices by law reviews. So all you law review editors out there — especially those at the journals who write the Bluebook — please put a swift end to the parenthetical and the needless citation. Law professors around the country will rejoice. And you'll be happier too, as it will make your lives easier as well. It's a win-win situation for everyone!

Like Solove, I've had both positive and negative editing experiences with student-edited law reviews. In the best cases, student editors provide useful feedback that improve an article's clarity and persuasiveness, and help ensure it is properly cited. In the worst cases, student editors forget that the author knows more about the subject than they do, introduce errors into the text, and apply Bluebooking rules in an absurdly rigid fashion. In my experience, some law review editors are so obsessed with following the "rules" that they abandon common sense. In most cases, I have had little problem explaining why I would not accept certain proposed edits or additions, but sometimes I get a surprising amount of resistance. My advice to editors (as a former Articles Editor myself) would be this: Apply the rules with common sense, and remember they are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.

UPDATE: As the comments indicate, some law review editors have pet peeves about academic authors. Based on my experience as an Articles Editor, and from advising our law review now and then on specific articles, some of these pet peeves are certainly justified. I also recommend these pointers from a current law review editor in the comments.

	[Jonathan Adler, March 13, 2007 at 9:42am] Trackbacks Pet Peeves about Law Review Editing: Legal academics have lots of complaints about the nature and quality of law review editing. At Concurring Opinions, Daniel Solove shares his two biggest pet peeves — unnecessary parentheticals and excessive footnoting — and suggests that "many law review editors have no idea just how widely professors view some of their editing practices as silly and bothersome." If law review editors were to jettison the two pet peeves I mention above, it would eliminate the bulk of my gripes. My sense is that these two pet peeves are among the most loathed editing practices by law reviews. So all you law review editors out there — especially those at the journals who write the Bluebook — please put a swift end to the parenthetical and the needless citation. Law professors around the country will rejoice. And you'll be happier too, as it will make your lives easier as well. It's a win-win situation for everyone! Like Solove, I've had both positive and negative editing experiences with student-edited law reviews. In the best cases, student editors provide useful feedback that improve an article's clarity and persuasiveness, and help ensure it is properly cited. In the worst cases, student editors forget that the author knows more about the subject than they do, introduce errors into the text, and apply Bluebooking rules in an absurdly rigid fashion. In my experience, some law review editors are so obsessed with following the "rules" that they abandon common sense. In most cases, I have had little problem explaining why I would not accept certain proposed edits or additions, but sometimes I get a surprising amount of resistance. My advice to editors (as a former Articles Editor myself) would be this: Apply the rules with common sense, and remember they are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. UPDATE: As the comments indicate, some law review editors have pet peeves about academic authors. Based on my experience as an Articles Editor, and from advising our law review now and then on specific articles, some of these pet peeves are certainly justified. I also recommend these pointers from a current law review editor in the comments.