Hart Publishing is one of the leading English-language publishers of legal scholarship. Founded in Oxford in 1996 by Richard Hart and Jane Parker, it built a reputation for rigorous, well-edited law books and won the Independent Publishing Guild's Academic and Professional Publisher of the Year award in 2009. Bloomsbury Publishing plc acquired Hart in September 2013, and it now operates as Bloomsbury's dedicated law imprint while keeping its Oxford editorial base and its distinct identity.

One thing to get straight before you plan a submission: Hart today is a book-primary publisher. It publishes scholarly monographs, research handbooks, edited collections, student textbooks, and practitioner titles - but no journals. Its journal portfolio of around 21 law titles transferred to Routledge (Taylor & Francis) in 2015. This guide covers what Hart publishes, where its former journals live now, how book peer review works, open-access options, and how to submit a proposal.

Hart's list spans the entirety of legal scholarship, with well over 1,500 titles in print. Core strengths include:

• Public law and constitutional theory - including the long-running Hart Studies in Constitutional Law and Hart Studies in Comparative Public Law series.
• Private law - contract, tort, unjust enrichment, and the Hart Studies in Private Law series.
• European and international law - EU law monographs, comparative law, private international law.
• Jurisprudence and legal history - legal theory, philosophy of law, and historical studies.
• Criminal law, evidence, labour law, competition law, and IP - specialist monograph series in each.
• Student texts - the Hart Law Masters series and core-subject textbooks.

Many Hart monographs began life as doctoral theses: the imprint is a common first port of call for strong PhD-based books in law, and its commissioning editors actively work with early-career scholars.

Not anymore. Hart built a respected portfolio of roughly 21 law journals, but Bloomsbury transferred the whole set to Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group, with effect from 2015. If you are targeting one of these titles, submit via Taylor & Francis, not Hart or Bloomsbury.

Hart books can be published open access through Bloomsbury's open-access program:

• Gold OA for books and chapters - available under Bloomsbury Open Access, normally funded by a book-processing charge paid by a funder or institution; fees are quoted per project, so contact the commissioning editor or check Bloomsbury's current open-access pages for pricing.
• Collective OA models - Bloomsbury has been developing library-funded collective models (such as Bloomsbury Open Collections) that make selected frontlist books OA without a per-author fee; availability varies by year and subject.
• Conventional publication - the default route remains subscription/purchase print and eBook publication with no author fees. Hart titles are widely available to libraries through Bloomsbury Collections.

There is no APC-based journal program, LMIC APC-waiver scheme, or transformative agreement, because Hart no longer publishes journals.

Hart uses double-anonymized peer review for scholarly work. Proposals (and usually draft chapters or the full manuscript) are sent to specialist referees in the relevant field, and authors respond to the reports before a contract is confirmed by the editorial board. Textbook proposals are additionally reviewed by teachers of the relevant courses for market fit. Expect first decisions in weeks to a few months depending on referee availability.

1. Match your project to the list. Browse Hart's subject areas and series on the Bloomsbury website to find where your book fits.
2. Identify the commissioning editor. Hart lists editors by subject area; proposals go directly to the relevant editor.
3. Prepare a proposal. A typical Hart proposal includes a synopsis, chapter outline, sample material, word count, timetable, statement of the market, and (for thesis-based books) a note on how the thesis will be revised.
4. Format citations in OSCOLA. Hart house style follows OSCOLA, the standard UK legal citation system - SciSpace supports OSCOLA formatting.
5. Respond to peer review. Referee reports come back through the editor; a revised proposal then goes to the editorial board for contract approval.

As part of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, Hart follows Bloomsbury's academic publishing ethics policies covering plagiarism, authorship, and research integrity, informed by COPE guidance. Copyright is normally retained under a publishing agreement, with OA titles released under Creative Commons licences. Corrections and withdrawal of published work follow standard scholarly-book practice.