Australian Journal of Family Law

The Australian Journal of Family Law is a leading forum for the discussion of important issues in family law, which includes a broad range of matters beyond the 'core' areas of family law of marriage, divorce, parenting and property disputes, family dispute resolution and family violence.

The term 'family' will be broadly interpreted to include formal and informal relationships outside marriage.

The Australian Journal of Family Law publishes independently refereed articles, reports, recent legislation, recent cases and book reviews of relevance to the practice and development of family law in Australia; it also examines key international developments.

The intended audience includes not only persons whose work and practice revolves around the Family Courts of Australia and Western Australia, but also persons working in areas regulated by state law. This includes adoption, child welfare, artificial conception and the rights of family members upon death. The emphasis of the Australian Journal of Family Law is on the practice and development of the law; however, a broad interdisciplinary approach is encouraged. Contributions are invited from members of the judiciary, legal practitioners, academics, psychologists and behavioural scientists.

The Australian Journal of Family Law publishes three issues annually. Three issues make up one volume.

The Australian Journal of Family Law is available in both print and digital formats.

ISSN: 0817–623X

Submission Requirements

Submissions to the Australian Journal of Family Law are accepted on a rolling basis. They must be a Microsoft Word document. PDF files or links to external sites are not accepted.

Submissions must be in their final form, not a draft. We recommend that submissions follow the LexisNexis Journal Style Guidelines as closely as possible.

Please email submissions to Catherine.Zemann@lexisnexis.com.au.

Style Guidelines

The Australian Journal of Family Law follows the LexisNexis Journal Style Guidelines (LN Style).

All accepted papers will be edited according to LN Style. We encourage authors to align their submissions with the LN Style as closely as possible. While adherence to the LN Style is not a factor in the selection process, accepted papers must comply with these guidelines before publication.

Authors are given the opportunity to review edited proofs before their paper is published.

No fees are charged for manuscript processing.

Word Limits

The Australian Journal of Family Law does not impose strict word limits and welcomes submissions of varying lengths; standard length for an article would be in the range of 8-10,000 words.

An abstract of 100-150 words must be included.

Submissions should contain footnotes not endnotes.

Graphics

Limit the use of graphics, tables, graphs, images and diagrams to essential instances. All graphics will be adjusted to meet LexisNexis printing standards and may not appear exactly as originally submitted.

Licence and Warranty

By submitting you warrant that the Work will be an original work, has not been published before, including in any online publications, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere, and that the Work is not defamatory and will not infringe the intellectual property or moral rights of any other person.

By submitting the Work, you warrant that you are the owner of the copyright in the Work and you hereby grant LexisNexis an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to publish and reproduce the Work or any part of it.

All authors will be required to sign a Contributor Agreement agreeing to the above Terms and Conditions in order for their submission to be considered for publication.

Peer Review and Publication Ethics

The Australian Journal of Family Law employs a blind peer review model. This ensures the identity of both the author and the reviewers remain anonymous, promoting impartiality and objectivity in the review process. Not every submission progresses to peer review and may be declined upon consultation with the Editors and Editorial and/or Advisory Board; authors will not receive detailed feedback if their submission does not progress to peer review.

LexisNexis is committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical behaviour in the act of publishing. LexisNexis journals adhere to guidelines (Statement of Ethics), based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines.

Open Access

There is a 24-month embargo period on all published work from the date LexisNexis first publishes the work. After this period authors can share their published journal article via their Social Science Research Network (SSRN), their non-commercial personal website or blog, their university’s website or on other non-commercial open access repositories.

Authors may reproduce abstracts of the approved version or published version, provided that an acknowledgement that work is published by LexisNexis and the full legal citation is included in the acknowledgement.


For a comprehensive overview refer to LexisNexis’ Content Sharing Policy.

Past Issues

View the Table of Contents of past journal issues here.

Latest Issue Alerts

Sign up here to receive email notification whenever the latest Journal issue is published online. Through this free service you will receive the table of contents of the latest issue in PDF format, hyperlinked with direct access to the document in Lexis Advance.

Editors

Claire Fenton-Glynn, Professor, Monash University
Michelle Fernando, Associate Professor, The University of South Australia

Editorial Board

Lisa Young
Felicity Bell
Paul Doolan
Belinda Fehlberg
Rae Kaspiew
Ian Kennedy
Richard Chisholm
Bruce Smyth
Rachel Carson
Alexandra Harland
Jess Mant
Georgina Dimopoulos

Advisory Board

Tom Altobelli, FCFCOA
Martin Bartfeld, Barrister
Lawrence Moloney, Adjunct Professor of Public Health, La Trobe University
Adiva Sifris, Adjunct Associate Professor of Law, Monash University

Journal Submissions

All submissions must be submitted by e-mail to the relevant Journals Lead, as set out below.

Submissions should be in a 'ready to publish' state, not in draft form. Accepted manuscripts will undergo review, with authors receiving proofs for approval before publication.

No fees are charged for manuscript processing.

Contact Catherine.Zemann@lexisnexis.com.au for:
  • Australian Bar Review
  • Journal of Contract Law
  • Journal of Equity
  • Competition & Consumer Law Journal
  • Australian Journal of Family Law
  • Australian Journal of Labour Law
 Contact Virania.Munaf@lexisnexis.com.au for:
  • Australian Journal of Corporate Law
  • Australian Property Law Journal
  • Insurance Law Journal
  • Torts Law Journal
  • Media & Arts Law Review