Editorial Guidelines & Standards

Guidelines for Submitting Editorial Materials

Credibility is the core value of any serious publication. It is often hard to establish and difficult to maintain. It has to do with truthfulness, accuracy, and balance. Litigation Support Today can only be successful if readers trust the editorial content. Such trust, once earned, must not be broken, either by reality or perception. Credibility suffers when there is no clarity as to what is editorial and what is advertising. It is thus healthy that the two areas be clearly defined and never subject to confusion.

Editorial content is defined by its motivation. The reasons for including something in the editorial pages of a publication range from newsworthiness to important or useful information, to interesting stories. Advocacy copy, however, belongs in the paid advertising pages.

There are rules established by prestigious journalism institutions that help make the distinction between editorial and advertising more clear. Most advertisers, agencies and public relations professionals are aware of such guidelines, which they appreciate and follow in their association with the press. Litigation Support Today abides by these standards. Advertising sales people are prohibited from making promises regarding editorial content. However, when the activities of advertisers become genuine news, they of course could be covered in the editorial pages, depending on the degree of importance such news might carry with readers. In those cases, the editorial board exercises its judgment for each scenario.

Content:
Litigation Support Today publishes feature articles that emphasize the importance of the litigation support function in contemporary law practice. These in-depth reports cover the complex scenarios that go on before, during and after trial. Litigation Support Today also provides the litigation support professional with cutting edge ideas, techniques, success stories, best practices, event coverage, career advancement, and updates on the many useful new products and services streaming to market.  Litigation Support Today delivers all the pertinent information that the litigation support professional must have to meet the pressing demands of modern law practice.

Style:
The writing style and graphic design of Litigation Support Today is contemporary, colorful, upbeat, easy and enjoyable to read. Articles submitted must be clear, concise and of direct interest to the litigation support reader. Copy should be written in third person, double-spaced and submitted in Word.doc or Rich Text format. Long copy blocks should be broken up with short, punchy sub-heads. Length of most feature articles is about 1,000 - 1,500 words. Specialized topics 500 - 1,000 words. Columns 200 - 300 words. Vendor Briefs 100 words.

Subject Matter:
Among the topics of interest are: Electronic Document Discovery (EDD), Electronic Files Processing (EFP), Document Acquisition, Document Processing, Document and Fact Management, Data Processing, Attorney Support, Trial Support, Electronic Courtroom Presentation, Records Archiving. Regular columns include: Best Practices, Career Focus, Tech Talk, Extreme Discovery, Industry News… and other items that focus on what’s new, useful, and practical.

Freelancers:
Queries and story ideas should be submitted to the Editor for evaluation along with writing qualifications and samples or links to previous work.

Press Releases and corporate contributors:
Litigation Support Today welcomes for review pertinent news or feature releases suitable for publication in the “Industry News” Section. Such items may cover product introductions or upgrades, company mergers or acquisitions, personnel changes or other important announcements. However, LST is published quarterly and such releases may only be newsworthy if submitted shortly before closing dates. All PR release should be short, to the point, and written in an unbiased tone.

Other editorial submissions:
LST does not publish profile articles about a specific company or personality.  LST will consider story ideas submitted that are truly impartial and generic in nature, focused solely on a topic of vital and common interest to the litigation support professional. Qualified executives who wish to write should first query the editor about suitability of their subject. Any submissions will be evaluated by the editorial board and, if accepted, such material is considered as an editorial contribution not for pay, and LST would retain all rights if published. A suitable byline and/or company credit notice may be given upon publication.

Special Advertising Sections

The following Rules have been excerpted from the Official Guidelines for Editors and Publishers by the American Society of Magazine Editors. These rules apply to Litigation Support Today.

• A special advertising section or supplement is a set of advertising pages on a common theme written in editorial-like text. Each text page of special advertising sections must be clearly identified as advertising.
• The words “Advertising,” or “Advertisement” should appear horizontally at or near the center of the top of every page in type at least equal in size and weight to the publication’s normal editorial body typeface. The word “Advertorial” should not be used to identify these pages.
• The layout, design and typeface of advertising pages should be distinctly different from the publication’s normal layout, design and typeface. The design and typeface are subject to review and approval by the editorial department.

Deadlines:
All editorial materials should be submitted two weeks prior to regular closing dates for advertising space reservations. Story ideas and queries should be submitted at least 60 days prior.

Where to send:
All queries, manuscripts, outlines, Vendor Briefs or other editorial sumbissions should be sent to: