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Submission Guidelines

The OBLB is a forum for the exchange of ideas and the reporting of new developments in all aspects of business law, broadly defined.

The OBLB welcomes submissions of the following types:

  • Research pieces, which report on the results of new research in business law (up to 800 words);
  • Opinion pieces, which advance a personal viewpoint on a current issue or debate in business law (700-1100 words);
  • Current awareness pieces, which report on recent notable developments in business law (up to 500 words).

Word limits are indicative only. Authors are invited to stay within them to enhance the effectiveness of their posts.

General guidelines for all contributors

  • We can only consider submissions in English.
  • Authors should not use footnotes in current awareness pieces and only use them where strictly necessary in research and opinion pieces: instead, they should link relevant sources in the text.
  • Authors may submit pieces that have already been featured on other blogs, but they should disclose the fact of prior posting on submission. Unless the author on submission requests that the editors consider including specific cross-references, the OBLB will not reference postings of a piece on other blogs.
  • Submissions should be the original work of the contributor.
  • Submissions should not contain advertising or marketing material. Posts summarising (and possibly linking to) alert memos and similar current awareness pieces prepared by law firms and other service providers for their clients are not considered advertising/marketing material.
  • Any conflict of interests should be disclosed.
  • Submissions should not contain content that could be considered offensive, abusive, derogatory or potentially defamatory.
  • Authors are encouraged to summarise the substance of their post in a short initial paragraph.
  • Authors are discouraged from using abbreviations unless they are of common use among laypersons.
  • The editors of the OBLB have absolute discretion in determining whether to accept a submission for publication on the OBLB.
  • Posts accepted for publication on the OBLB shall not be cross-posted to other platforms within two days of publication on the OBLB (cross-posting after this period of time is permissible so long as previous publication on the OBLB is acknowledged).

Additional guidelines for institutional contributors

  • The editors welcome the submission of current awareness posts from law firms, regulators and other institutions.

Additional guidelines for undergraduate students

  • The editors advise that submissions by undergraduate students are not generally accepted for publication on the OBLB.

Contributor’s agreement

In making a submission to the OBLB, the contributor:

  • warrants that the piece is their original work, and that there is no impediment to its publication on the OBLB;
  • consents to the publication of the submitted piece on the OBLB website and in other OBLB publications, provided that they are fully acknowledged as author;
  • agrees that the OBLB can use and store personal data provided by the author for the purposes of the OBLB before and after the publication of the author’s post; this includes that the OBLB can publish the author’s name, position, and affiliation next to the blog post and also when cross-posting the OBLB publication via our Newsletter, RSS, LinkedIn or similar media; and
  • consents to purely editorial changes and accepts that the editors have discretion in the choice of the blog post title.

How to contribute

  • Submissions should be sent by email (in a word attachment and preferably using our submission template) to oblb@law.ox.ac.uk;

  • contributors should include their full name and affiliation, a link to their online profile page, if available, and a suggested title for their blog post, in their covering email. They are also encouraged to suggest the relevant keywords for their post.