The Open Access Advantage for American Law Reviews

Edison: Law + Technology (JPTOS's Open Access Journal), Forthcoming

22 Pages Posted: 8 Oct 2014 Last revised: 4 Oct 2015

See all articles by James M. Donovan

James M. Donovan

University of Kentucky

Carol A. Watson

University of Georgia School of Law

Caroline Osborne

West Virginia University College of Law

Date Written: December 1, 2014

Abstract

Open access legal scholarship generates a prolific discussion, but few empirical details have been available to describe the scholarly impact of providing unrestricted access to law review articles. The present project fills this gap with specific findings on what authors and institutions can expect.

Articles available in open access formats enjoy an advantage in citation by subsequent law review works of 53%. For every two citations an article would otherwise receive, it can expect a third when made freely available on the Internet. This benefit is not uniformly spread through the law school tiers. Higher tier journals experience a lower OA advantage (11.4%) due to the attention such prestigious works routinely receive regardless of the format. When focusing on the availability of new scholarship, as compared to creating retrospective collections, the aggregated advantage rises to 60.2%. While the first tier advantage rises to 16.8%, the mid-tiers skyrocket to 89.7%. The fourth tier OA advantage comes in at 81.2%.

Citations of legal articles by courts is similarly impacted by OA availability. While the 15-year aggregate advantage is a mere 9.5%, new scholarship is 41.4% more likely to be cited by a court decision if it is available in open access format.

Keywords: Institutional repositories, citation analysis, law reviews

Suggested Citation

Donovan, James M. and Watson, Carol A. and Osborne, Caroline, The Open Access Advantage for American Law Reviews (December 1, 2014). Edison: Law + Technology (JPTOS's Open Access Journal), Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2506913 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2506913

James M. Donovan (Contact Author)

University of Kentucky ( email )

J. David Rosenberg College of Law
620 S. Limestone Street
Lexington, KY 40506-0048
United States

Carol A. Watson

University of Georgia School of Law ( email )

225 Herty Drive
Athens, GA 30602
United States
706-542-5078 (Phone)

Caroline Osborne

West Virginia University College of Law ( email )

PO Box 6025
Morgantown, WV 26506
United States

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