RANKING LAW JOURNALS AND THE LIMITS OF JOURNAL CITATION REPORTS

Journal rankings published by Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are widely used to assess research quality, which influences important decisions by academic departments, universities, and countries in the allocation of research funds. We study refereed law journal rankings by JCR and Washington and Lee...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEconomic inquiry Vol. 52; no. 4; pp. 1301 - 1314
Main Authors EISENBERG, THEODORE, WELLS, MARTIN T.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston, USA Wiley Periodicals, Inc 01.10.2014
Blackwell Publishers Ltd
Western Economic Association
Subjects
Bias
Database industry
Decision
Garfield, Eugene
Information services
Information services industry
Law
Periodicals
Rankings
Ratings & rankings
Studies
Universities
United States
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Summary:Journal rankings published by Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are widely used to assess research quality, which influences important decisions by academic departments, universities, and countries in the allocation of research funds. We study refereed law journal rankings by JCR and Washington and Lee Law Library (W&L). JCR's rankings are uncorrelated with W&L's. The differences appear to be attributable to underrepresentation of law journals in JCR's database. We illustrate the effects of database bias on rankings through case studies of three elite journals, the Journal of Law and Economics, Supreme Court Review, and the American Law and Economics Review. (JEL C18, C81, Y10)
Bibliography:istex:ECF749B1739652DFFDE5A2E374B772E00C6D0B22
ArticleID:ECIN12133
ark:/67375/WNG-D9P1ZRP3-M
ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0095-2583
1465-7295
DOI:10.1111/ecin.12133