My Year of Citation Studies, Part 1
Law Library Journal, Vol. 110, No. 1, Pp. 167-80 (2018)
15 Pages Posted: 30 Jun 2018
Date Written: Winter 2018
Abstract
Scholars have studied the citation patterns for law journal articles from many angles. This year, I'm jumping into the fray, using Law Library Journal's "Practicing Reference" column as a forum to share findings from several modest investigations.
I got started when a professor who was teaching seminars for law journal students asked if I could give him lists of often-cited student pieces in environmental law and in IP and tech law (the topics of the two journals). Here I discuss the process for that project and its results.
I also take a look at articles. I list the most-cited articles from 2012 and discuss some challenges of studying what each cites—a question I wanted to answer but wasn't able to.
I compare the results from HeinOnline's ScholarCheck, Westlaw's KeyCite, Lexis's Shepard's, and Web of Science. There's overlap, but not as much as you might think.
Keywords: law reviews, law journals, legal periodicals, reference, librarianship, citation studies, bibliometrics
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