Citation Advantage of Open Access Legal Scholarship

Donovan, James M.; Watson, Carol A.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1777090

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Citation Advantage of Open Access Legal Scholarship

UGA Legal Studies Research Paper No. 11-07

32 Pages Posted: 5 Mar 2011 Last revised: 17 Mar 2011

See all articles by James M. Donovan

Carol A. Watson

University of Georgia School of Law

Date Written: March 4, 2011

Abstract

To date, there have been no studies focusing exclusively on the impact of open access on legal scholarship. We examine open access articles from three journals at the University of Georgia School of Law and confirm that legal scholarship freely available via open access improves an article’s research impact. Open access legal scholarship – which today appears to account for almost half of the output of law faculties – can expect to receive 50% more citations than non-open access writings of similar age from the same venue.

Keywords: Legal Scholarship, Open Access, Legal Research

JEL Classification: K10

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Donovan, James M. and Watson, Carol A., Citation Advantage of Open Access Legal Scholarship (March 4, 2011). UGA Legal Studies Research Paper No. 11-07, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1777090 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1777090