Buffalo Legal Studies Research Paper Series

Sponsored by University at Buffalo School of Law and The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, the Buffalo Legal Studies Research Paper Seriescontains abstracts and papers from School of Law and the Baldy Center affiliated scholars focused on law, legal institutions, and related questions of social policy.

Information on Publishing Papers

The University at Buffalo School of Law and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy invite UB faculty and visitors to submit their current law-related working papers, articles, and chapters for inclusion in the Legal Research Paper Series.

The series is produced by the Social Science Research Network’s Legal Scholarship Network. SSRN is an electronic distribution service which allows scholars to circulate their research worldwide more quickly than they typically can through conventional journals or books. Posted papers are easily accessible without charge to anyone with access to the Internet.

The Buffalo Legal Studies series is open to all UB members of faculty writing in the broad area of legal studies, and also to scholars from other institutions who present papers here. Papers submitted for the series should be in good shape, with well-developed arguments and citations.

The Baldy Center and the School of Law cover the costs of posting to the series. We insert an identifying cover sheet to each paper during the process of uploading the submission to SSRN. SSRN then posts groups of 4 to 6 papers as an "issue" of the electronic abstracting journal which is mailed to over 5,500 subscribers. The abstracts can be announced in up to 12 additional SSRN subject matter journals. Articles from years past can still be posted to the series, without including them in a current "issue" for circulation.

John Beatty (jrbeatty@buffalo.edu), faculty scholarship outreach librarian at the Charles B. Sears Law Library, administers the series.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I submit my article for the Legal Studies Research Paper Series on SSRN?

A: Email your article to ub-legalstudiespapers@buffalo.edu.

Q: Is there any special format I should use?

A: All papers should be submitted in MS Word, WordPerfect, or PDF format.

Q: What else should I include with my article?

A: Include the paper title, the names of author(s), the affiliation and contact information for the author(s), an abstract, and a set of keywords. Your abstract should include useful "searchable" words.

Q: I already have a paper posted to SSRN. Can it be added to this series?

A: Yes, please forward details about any papers you have already posted that fall into the Legal Studies category to ub-legalstudiespapers@buffalo.edu. We will arrange for them to be classified for our series.

Q: Why should I use SSRN for posting my work?

A: Because over 210,000 scholars have their work posted on SSRN and over 860,000 papers are downloaded from SSRN each month. It is a way to get visibility for your research and, if you are part of a series, it gives great visibility to our institution too.

Q: How do I know when my article is posted? How can other people access it?

A: Authors can access their own papers via SSRN's User Headquarters. By registering and signing in, authors can look at the list of all of the papers in their name within the SSRN system. You will be able to see if your paper is in approved (showing public), or received (not posted publicly yet) status. Other people will be able to access your paper several ways. First, they can search by the author’s name or keyword on SSRN’s search page. Or, they can pull up all of the papers from the Buffalo Legal Studies Research Paper Series via the Research Paper Series page or by using the Browse function.

Q: I’m not a member of School of Law faculty, so why should I post to a series in the SSRN Legal Scholarship Network?

A: The SSRN Legal Scholarship Network is for all scholars in interested in studies of law or legal institutions, including research from different disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives. It is open to all full time UB faculty and to invited speakers from other Institutions.

Q: What happens when my posted unpublished paper gets published?

A: As long as the publisher allows a pre-print version of the paper to remain posted on a site such as SSRN, the working version will remain posted. SSRN will post the published version in addition.

Q: Can I post an already published article or chapter?

A: Yes, as long as you have permission from the publisher to do so. The author is responsible for obtaining copyright permission from the publisher. Because of copyright issues, one popular route is to post the pre-publication version and then direct readers to the final version via bibliographic information for the final published citation.

Q: What are the costs involved for me to post and for me to read other postings?

A: The Baldy Center and School of Law are covering the costs of posting to the Research Paper Series but it is free for you to read the postings on SSRN. The law school (including the Baldy Center) has a site license with SSRN so all UB members of faculty can also subscribe to additional SSRN electronic abstracting journals if they wish.