Resources

Submission guidelines

Deakin Briefs is a forum aiming to supply students, academics, practitioners and the wider Australian legal community with research and analysis on a range of contemporary legal topics in an accessible format. Submissions should be journalistic contributions in nature that impact the legal profession, clarify legal issues, and provide new insights into relevant areas of law.

General guidelines

  1. Contributor and Biography: For first-time authors contributing to Deakin Briefs or authors who wish to update their profile, we encourage you to submit your article with your biographic information. Your biographic information should include (at a minimum) your professional headshot, professional job title, and biography that is no longer than 100 words. Additional links to social media (i.e., LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) or a website you wish to promote yourself on may be included for publication alongside your article.
  2. Language: Submissions must be in English. Abbreviations and jargon should be avoided where possible as articles are to be understood by laypersons.
  3. Fonts, Spacing and Formatting: Any font may be used. Please keep spacing between paragraphs to a single indentation. Headings within articles should be no more than two levels.
  4. Length and Headings: Deakin Briefs are seeking short informative pieces that are no longer than eight hundred (800) words long. While this is a general guideline and we recognise that some topics require longer treatment, authors are encouraged to keep their work concise to encourage greater readership. Exceptionally long articles will only be published at the discretion of the editorial team.
  5. Footnotes and Citations: Footnotes should not be included in your article. If you wish to cite a source, authors should only do so where strictly necessary and embed relevant sources within the text. This can be achieved using hyperlinks.
  6. Wording: Submissions should not contain content or language that could be considered offensive, harmful, prejudicial, defamatory, or derogatory.

Additional guidelines

We welcome submissions from legal academics, professionals, regulators, and institutions from a wide range of backgrounds. Please be advised Deakin Briefs does not generally accept submissions from students who are yet to complete their law degree (LLB, LLB(Hons) or JD).

Submissions should not contain advertising; marketing materials or attempt to further any alternative agendas. Articles and memorandums referring to cases and other legal developments prepared by law firms and other service providers may generally be accepted. Any conflict of interest should be disclosed.

Please note that comments under articles have been disabled. We apologise for any disappointment this may cause. For authors who wish to respond to an article with their legal commentary, these articles may be accepted. Articles that attempt to debunk other articles published on Deakin Briefs will not be accepted.

How to submit

To submit an article for publication on Deakin Briefs, please email the editorial team at deakinbriefs@deakin.edu.au.

Please allow a few days for the editing team to review your article before publication. Each article is reviewed by our editorial team and sources will undergo a rigorous fact-checking process and be peer-reviewed. Articles may be subject to revision or changes and may only be published at the discretion of the editorial team. In the event your article is not published, our editorial team will contact you to provide feedback and assistance.

Please note that Deakin Briefs only accepts original articles of the author that have not been published elsewhere. Where authors or others wish to cross-post articles, acknowledgement of the original publication on Deakin Briefs must be provided.