Trends in Legal Scholarship – Open Access Increases Research Impact

Last month James M. Donovan, Law Library Director and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law, and Carol A. Watson, Law Library Director at the University of Georgia School of Law, published the findings of their study on open access legal scholarship in Citation Advantage of Open Access Legal Scholarship.  Their study was the first to research the actual impact of open access on legal scholarship and provides empirical support for publishing in open access law journals.  According to Donovan and Watson, authors’ articles published in open access journals are cited more frequently than articles published in traditional print journals of the same publication.  Their results revealed that authors can expect to receive 58% more citations if they publish in open access law journals.  Their article can be downloaded for free from SSRN at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1777090.