Advice to Law Journals: Part 8

8    think seriously about articles on“hot” topics–-they are both good and deserve caution.

There is a lot to be said for articles on "hot topics"--they'll get attention; people are interested in reading them.  Then again, it's also often difficult to say something new about such topics.  It's hard to have something new to say in a thickly populated field.  And fads are notoriously unstable--what's "on fire" today may go out of fashion. 

Then again, where are some areas--empirical legal studies is one of them--where there's a lot of great work to be done and that are sure to stay hot for a long time.  We're finally turning to data to help solve some questions.

So look closely at "hot" topics--they may be great or perhaps not.

Endnote: The image of the sun is from our friends at NASA.

Alfred L. Brophy
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