2008 Promising Practice Award Winners

first place

The University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform’s promising practice is that it uses an electronic citechecking process. This process relies heavily on the use of custom software, created by one of our members. The custom software extracts all law journal article footnotes into an Excel file. JLR Associate Editors (AEs) can then type in their revisions and comments into an Excel file then send the completed file to our 3L editors. The 3L editors can then combine all the AEs files into one file, and review the original citations, corrections, and comments all in one file.  The electronic citechecking process provides many benefits compared to our past practice (and every other journals current practice), which involved extensive paper, handwritten markups in colored pencils, and numerous other forms which were confusing and redundant. Some of the notable benefits include:

• Focus on substance – 3L editors can focus on substance of citechecking because they do not have to sort and reconcile AE assignments that are contained within thousands of papers.
• Reduce time – 3L editors no longer have to retype the corrections that AEs submitted on paper forms. They can also more easily review the changes suggested by AEs because they are color coded and highlighted.
• Working remotely – Citechecking editors on other journals are not required to work in the library where the printed AE assignments would otherwise be kept. Editors can also work on their own schedule, independent of library hours.
• Simplicity – Submitting citechecking corrections in Excel is more intuitive than submitting multiple paper forms for a single footnote.
• AE feedback – AEs can receive detailed feedback for each individual footnote they work on. Their errors are color coded and highlighted, and 3L editors can provide narrative commentary if necessary. This helps AEs better develop their bluebooking skills.
• Facilitates working with authors – The ability to recode cross-references automatically saves 3L editors many hours of work each time an author removes or otherwise loses the cross-references. In our first 5 articles to be published this year, we have used this feature in 2 articles, saving our editors many hours of work.
• Eliminates paper – The electronic citechecking process does not require paper at all. Under a paper-based approach, each journal issue involves thousands of sheets of paper devoted to citechecking. All of these sheets are saved and can be used for other purposes.

Any law journal, even those not at Michigan, could use our electronic citechecking process and custom software to greatly enhance their productivity in the same ways as JLR.

second place

Student Animal Legal Defense Fund’s promising practice consists of a leadership guide handbook that is available in print and online. Our leadership guide provides everything that the student leaders of SALDF would need to know to efficiently run our student organization. For example, the guide includes information on everything from how to complete LSSS funding paperwork and make SOAS requests to suggestions for events, records of past successful events and recommendations for improvement over the past year. The guide will also include a list of contact information for the previous year’s leaders, affinity organization and community resources; as well as the organization’s constitution.

This promising practice combines effective methods from other successful organizations that have been proven effective over time. Our leadership guide handbook ensures that year after year, SALDF leaders will have everything they need to succeed and efficiently run the organization without requiring past leaders to be there the next year to train them in person. Our promising practice ensures smooth leadership transitions, effective use of resources and adequate information and training, and could do so for like organizations for years to come.