Sunday, May 2, 2010

Ranking Law Reviews in Terms of General Social Science Impact

Mikhail Koulikov recently wrote an article examining the academic impact of legal scholarship in disciplines other than law. Specifically, he explores the level of coverage that selected law reviews received in eight general academic databases. His methodology is explained:
Because nonlegal academics do not generally use legal databases, I developed a study to see whether nonlegal scholars have access to legal journal articles, and thus legal scholarship, through databases they might commonly use. Any in-depth analysis of the coverage of law reviews by major nonlegal academic databases necessarily must be limited to a sample of law reviews, and a selected number of databases. I decided to use the three major general databases that Blessinger and Olle evaluated as a starting point. Expanding on their work, and taking the generally accepted view that law is a social science, my study also examined coverage of law reviews in several other databases that are key to study of the social sciences: JSTOR, PAIS International, Periodicals Archive Online, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, and the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences. All of these are commonly available databases that should be familiar to most academic researchers, and all five claim to include coverage of law as a discipline.
He limited the scope of his study to the top 20 law reviews in terms of impact factor (per the Journal Citation Reports) and included--for good measure--the general law reviews of the top twenty schools according the U.S. News and World Report Rankings. The following are the first ten law reviews in his ranking in terms of general academic scholarship impact (with impact factor as the number in brackets):
(1) Harvard Law Review
(2) Columbia Law Review
(3) UCLA Law Review
(4) Texas Law Review
(5) Yale Law Journal
(6) University of Pennsylvania Law Review
(7) California Law Review
(8) Cornell Law Review
(9) Stanford Law Review
(10) Virginia Law Review
This study provides a good illustration of how legal scholarship is used to inform development of other social sciences. I recommend reading Mr. Koulikov's full article.

9 comments:

  1. Hello,

    Just to clarify, ranking law reviews by non-legal scholarship impact was decidedly *not* the focus of my study; the ranking I use to select my sample is essentially pulled off JCR, without further analysis. This may in of itself be interesting (as I note, JCR does factor citations from outside the legal field), but again, such a ranking may be 'inspired' or suggested by my paper, but it is not actually the result of my study.

    - Mikhail Koulikov

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mikhail:

    Thanks for your message. I apologize to the extent that I implied that your study "ranked" law reviews by non-legal scholarship impact. I just thought the impact factor list drawn off of JCR was an interesting topic for a blog post--even if it was not the central focus of your study.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hellο to every single one, it's really a fastidious for me to pay a quick visit this web site, it consists of precious Information.

    Here is my webpage - Learn Alot more Here

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ιt is аpρropriаtе tіme
    to makе ѕomе planѕ fοr the futuгe anԁ it іѕ time tο bе hаppy.
    I have reaԁ thіs pοst аnԁ if І сοuld I wаnt to ѕuggest
    you some interesting things or tips. Ρerhаpѕ you can write neхt aгtісlеs
    referrіng to this artісle. Ӏ want to геad eνen more thіngs abοut іt!


    my web-site; dog acne

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hеy theгe, Yοu've done a fantastic job. I'll cеrtainly ԁigg it and
    personallу recommеnԁ to mу frienԁs.

    Ι'm confident they will be benefited from this website.

    My web-site - Phuketus.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey therе! This іs my first viѕіt to yоur blоg!
    Wе are а colleсtiοn of voluntеers
    and staгting a new projеct іn a
    communіty in the same niche. Υοuг blog provіԁed
    us benеficial information to ωοгk οn.
    You have done a extraoгԁinary jοb!


    Here iѕ my blοg post :: side effect on Premature ejaculation pills

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your content seem to be running off the screen in Ie.
    I'm not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I figured I'd post to let you know.
    The layout look great though! Hope you get the problem resolved
    soon. Many thanks

    Take a look at my weblog :: エアジョーダンスニーカー

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's really very complicated in this busy life to listen news on TV, so I simply use the web for that purpose, and get the hottest news.

    My web-site ... Louis Vuitton ウトレット

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your method of explaining the whole thing in this piece of writing is
    genuinely nice, every one be able to without
    difficulty understand it, Thanks a lot.

    My web page ... アバクロ シャツ

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.