How a group of law students built Bangladesh’s first DOAJ-indexed student publication

Law students in Bangladesh have long struggled with a sense of frustration for the absence of a reliable, student-centred space to publish their academic work. 

In a landscape where journals are often inaccessible, slow, or institutionally bound, a group of students and one teacher decided to rewrite the story. That is how the Law and Society Students' Journal (LSSJ) was born. Now it is considered the country's first DOAJ-indexed and ISSN-certified (in both print and online) students' journal, complete with its own website and live tracking system.

Published both online and in print, the journal has already released three volumes, accepting scholarly articles from across the country.

Md Yamin Rahman, assistant professor of law at Khulna University and the advisor of the journal, recalls how the idea first took root.

"It all began when the idea first came to me after I joined the university as a teacher. Within a year or so of teaching, I realised that publishing in research journals is a complex, experience-driven, highly methodological, and rather expensive process," he said.

For him, the issue was not merely about access, it was about equity. 

"In Bangladesh, particularly in the field of law, the state of academic journals is quite poor — both in terms of management and quality. They lag behind, and if you're working at what I'd call a 'peripheral university' — meaning one outside the central ones like Dhaka — it becomes even more challenging."

From that "peripheral position," he wanted to change the narrative. He began to wonder what might happen if students were introduced to serious research from their undergraduate years.

Building from scratch

Md Yamin began by studying how academic journals functioned from the inside. "As academics, we know how to publish in journals, but how the internal management of a journal works is a different matter," he noted.

He mentioned that he found inspiration from abroad. "When I looked into it, I found that major universities do have dedicated student journals — law reviews and blogs where students publish serious academic work. 

"They were doing substantial research, publishing even as students, often as solo authors. I wanted to see whether students here could have a platform like that," he added.

The main challenge was technical. Professional journal management systems are expensive, often costing thousands of dollars in subscription fees. But Yamin found a way out. 

"I looked for alternatives and found one: a very effective open-source platform called Open Journal Systems (OJS). It is brilliant, it allows full journal management and is completely free," he said.

So he bought a small domain, installed OJS, and built what he called "a rough sketch of a journal". But he could not run it alone. "I needed people — an editorial team," he said.

That is when he approached one of his students, Tawsif Anik, who became the journal's first editor-in-chief. "Then I brought in Shilajit as co-editor. So, with Tawsif, Shilajit, and a few others, our journey began," he recalled.

A student-led initiative

The first editorial board had only five members, while the advisory board had four. Today, both have expanded. The process was simple but deeply democratic: students would handle the journal's day-to-day operations, while teachers served as advisors and reviewers.

From the very beginning, they wanted to ensure quality. "I wanted it to be a proper academic journal, not one where you publish a friend's or colleague's paper just because they requested it. No favouritism, every paper would go through proper peer review," Yamin said.

That review process is blind and rigorous and has become a hallmark of LSSJ. Each paper is reviewed by two anonymous reviewers, one often being a student and the other a teacher. 

"If a paper showed potential, we would not reject it outright. We would send it back repeatedly for revision — guiding the author step by step until it reached a good standard," he said.

"When I looked into it, I found that major universities do have dedicated student journals — law reviews and blogs where students publish serious academic work. They were doing substantial research, publishing even as students, often as solo authors. I wanted to see whether students here could have a platform like that."

Md Yamin Rahman, assistant professor of Law, Khulna University and advisor, Law and Society Students' Journal

When the first 'Call for Papers' went out, the response was overwhelming. "We received over 40 submissions, far more than I had expected. Of course, not all were of high quality, but we saw tremendous enthusiasm among students," he added.

That enthusiasm translated into six selected papers for the first issue, enough to get the journal off the ground. Soon after publication, the team applied for an ISSN and indexing with the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

"It took around six or seven months for DOAJ to review everything before approving us. But once we got in, we knew we had built something credible," Md Yamin recalled.

Today, LSSJ stands as an open-access annual journal, its contents freely available to anyone, anywhere. Readers can read, download, distribute, and cite the works without restriction, in line with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI).

The journal accepts research articles that sit at the intersection of law and society. Authors are encouraged to show how "law impacts the broader society" and how "social phenomena give the shape and the forms that laws take in present-day societies."

There are no publication fees, no article processing charges, and no hidden costs. Submissions are formatted according to the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA), and plagiarism is strictly monitored, with a detection threshold capped at 15%.

Currently, the journal carries both print (ISSN 2959-6289) and online (ISSN 2959-6297) versions. The website for the journal is https://lssjbd.org/index.php/lssj. It is indexed in Google Scholar and DOAJ, and has already accumulated more than 20 citations, an impressive achievement for a student-led initiative.

Creating a culture of research

Shilajit Kumar Roy, the current editor-in-chief, now leads the team of students managing the third volume. For him, the journey is as much about persistence as it is about purpose.

"Our students' journal is the first DOAJ-indexed and ISSN-certified students' journal in Bangladesh. So far, we have published three volumes, both in print and online. We want to reach more students across the country," he said.

The challenges, however, remain similar. "Most law or social science journals in Bangladesh are not timely. If you submit a paper today, you do not know when it will be reviewed. It could take six months, a year, or even two," Shilajit explained.

He also noted how most existing journals are university-controlled. "Students do not really have a platform of their own. Even if they submit to those journals, their papers are not treated seriously, unless they are co-authored with a faculty member," he said.

That is why LSSJ was built differently. "We wanted to create a dedicated platform for students, a place where they can submit their own papers, get feedback within two or three months, and track the process live," he said.

The team's workflow reflects this philosophy: two months for blind peer review, 14 days for revision, and a fixed annual publication schedule.

The journal's review body includes both students and young faculty members from universities such as Dhaka University, Rajshahi University, North South University, Independent University, and Bangladesh University of Professionals, etc. 

"It is a very diverse group of qualified people," Shilajit said.

The journal has remained financially independent since its inception. "Yes, the funding so far has come entirely out of our own pockets, especially from our advisor. But we are looking for sponsors," Shilajit said.

"Now we can confidently say that the quality of writing has significantly improved. Over the past two years, we have begun receiving citations. That means the work is creating impact, and students now better understand what topics to write on and how to conduct research effectively," he said.

As the team prepares to print their third issue, their goal remains clear: to expand reach, engage more students, and keep pushing the boundaries of what a student journal in Bangladesh can achieve.