Why Are Law Journals' Operating Dates Secret?, or, How Bepress & Scholastica are Making Me Crazy

Yes, this will be a rant.   We have a whole thread here on prawfs--sometimes running to hundreds of comments--whose existence derives mainly from the fact that no one knows when the heck law journals are actually considering submissions.  Can someone explain to me why this information is not readily available, and well in advance, whether on the journals' web site, or (more conveniently) displayed on the submission aggregators' pages? 

Let me take a moment to explain for editors why this is so aggravating.  First, submissions are not free and often are not effortless (while the marginal effort entailed in adding another journal is small, it is not zero, especially in terms of good record-keeping).  I spend a lot of time preaching to authors that they shouldn't waste journals' resources needlessly; I suspect that project would go a lot better if journals took a similar attitude towards authors.    Also, authors frequently need to know which journals are reviewing in order to make meaningful decisions, such as when to submit, or when to agree to give up expedite oppportunities in exchange for a deadline extension. 

That's the practical; there's also the emotional.  It is hard to express how frustrating it is to have no idea whether a journal is even open for business when you are waiting to hear on an expedite.  A great source of my admiration for Columbia for many years was that they always, always, responded to expedite requests.  That professionalism has slipped a bit of late, which I take as a sign of the times.

Bepress and Scholastica are not helping.  I suppose bepress eliminated the "confirm receipt" button because journals didn't like it (and competition from the confirmationless scholastica forced the change).  Authors loved it.  Add a "confirm expedite receipt" button and we'd be swimming in milk.    At a minimum, pushing journals to regularly and accurately update the "Open for Business" sign would be super helpful to us author shlubs.  (And come on, journals, it can't take more than 2 minutes to do that.  It means a lot to us, and might even cut down on the overwhelming pile in your inbox.)  Better yet, how about a "there are n seats left on this plane" display, like the airlines use?