From a Trickle to a Flood: A Case Study of the Current Index to Legal Periodicals to Examine the Swell of American Law Journals Published in the Last Fifty Years

Abstract

Using the lists of journals indexed in the Current Index to Legal Periodicals from the last fifty years, this article analyzes the increase in the number of general law reviews, specialized law journals, student-edited journals, and peer-edited and refereed law journals over the last half-century. Data from the Current Index to Legal Periodicals were combined with further data collected from HeinOnline, American Bar Association statistics, and U.S. News & World Report statistics. Comparison of this data shows not only a massive increase in the number of law journal titles being published, but also suggests a correlation between the number of law journals published by a law school and its student population, length of time that it has been accredited by the American Bar Association, and its U.S. News & World Report ranking. This article also contains a list of all law journals currently indexed by the Current Index to Legal Periodicals including each journal's date of initial publication, in addition to a list of all print student-edited law journals published by ABA accredited and provisionally accredited U.S. law schools.

Keywords: trends in legal scholarship, current index to legal periodicals, legal publishing, student-edited law journals, peer-review, peer-edit, refereed, U.S. News & World Report

JEL Classification: K00