The aim of the Journal of Paralegal Access to Justice (JPAJ) is to foster scholarly exchanges on issues related to the paralegal practice and the role of paralegals in advancing access to justice. The JPAJ encourages dialogue on new developments that enhance affordable legal representation, provides a forum for examining government and regulatory initiatives that impact the civil justice system, and explores lesser-known areas of practice available for licensed paralegals in providing legal representation.
The editors of the JPAJ invite article-length manuscripts, comments, book reviews, and personal stories of interest that are appropriate to the aims of the JPAJ.
Out of respect for our internal reviewers, it is expected that manuscripts submitted to the JPAJ have not been, and will not be, submitted elsewhere until a decision has been made by the JPAJ editors about publication. The JPAJ cannot pay authors for their contributions. Contributors will receive a free copy of the issue in which their article appears as well as ten offprints of their article.
Editorial Procedure
Manuscripts sent to the JPAJ are first read by members of the editorial board to assess the quality of the scholarship in the article and its appropriateness to the mission and purposes of the JPAJ. Manuscripts that are considered appropriate for publication by the JPAJ editorial board are then submitted anonymously to at least two external reviewers, whose reports will be sent to the author together with the editorial decision (made by at least two members of the editorial board) to publish as is, with minor or major changes, or not to publish.
Manuscripts can be sent to the JPAJ at any time during the year, but the ultimate deadline for submission is the end of the month of March in the year of publication (e.g., March 2024 for publication in the 2024 volume). We will do our best to give authors a timely response about publication, and we welcome their communication with us at any point after eight to ten weeks with respect to the status of their submission.
Preparation of Manuscript
To facilitate the review and publication process, manuscripts submitted to the JPAJ must conform to the requirements set out below:
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Authors should submit an electronic version (in Microsoft Word) of their manuscript as an email attachment.
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A separate cover page, bearing the title of the manuscript and the author’s contact information, should be included. It should not appear in the body of the text or in the notes.
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Although there is no official word limit on each piece, we encourage authors to submit articles that are under 10,000 words (35 pages, double spaced, including notes and appendixes). Notes and personal stories should normally not exceed 15 pages, and book reviews should normally be under 10 pages.
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Manuscripts must be accompanied by a short abstract (approximately 200 words), as well as a short biography of the author.
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For citation purposes, the JPAJ has adopted the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 9th Edition, published by Carswell, a Thomson Reuters business.
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Once the manuscript is accepted, the author should send the JPAJ the final version of the article in electronic form (Microsoft Word).
Graphs and Charts
If there are graphs and/or charts as part of the document, they will need to be typeset separately. Indicate where they are to be located in the text and place them in a separate file.
Address
Please send your electronic submission (paper, abstract, and biographical note) to both of the following email addresses: bernard.aron@humber.ca and jasteena.dhillon@humber.ca.