Law Faculty Publishing Guide: Scholarship Platforms

New research suggests that increasing the number of places where a scholar's work can be found and accessed increases both exposure (as counted in downloads) and citations. For example, in 2020, Osborne and Miller (cited below) reached the following conclusions:

• Having a HeinOnline Author Profile positively impacts citation across all platforms.
• Having a Google Scholar Profile increases exposure (downloads) from both SSRN and institutional repositories (IRs). The effect is more pronounced for SSRN downloads than for IR downloads.
• Having a Google Scholar Profile also positively impacts citation across all analyzed platforms (including Westlaw and Lexis), except for HeinOnline.

Caroline L. Osborne & Stephanie Miller, "The Scholarly Impact Matrix: An Empirical Study of How Multiple Metrics Create an Informed Story of a Scholar’s Work," 39 Legal References Services Quarterly 283 (2020). 

Further, in 2023, Osborne and Miller observed the following about their libraries' Institutional Repository (IR) statistics over a five-year period:

• Downloads from their IRs outperformed downloads from SSRN by over 60%, reflecting a broader audience attracted by their IRs. However, "[p]rioritizing scholarship in the IR does not substitute posting to SSRN. Both are recommended to maximize exposure and dissemination of scholarship."
• Google Scholar is "a critical tool for measuring impact and citation to scholarship outside of law as a discipline."
• Google Scholar captured citations one to two quarters earlier than an alert on HeinOnline or Westlaw. The authors theorize that "this is the result of the publication cycle of law journals, the lag time to disseminate to commercial platforms, and the paywalls which block access to a broader audience who may access and cite to scholarship."

Caroline L. Osborne & Stephanie Miller, "Observations on Scholarly Impact, September 2023," Law Library Scholarship Blog, West Virginia University College of Law  (September 14, 2023).