October 6, 2009

Gender, Race, and Age in SSRN Download Rankings

SSRN In our article, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006), Bernie Black and I noted that one of the advantages of SSRN download counts over the other faculty rankings measures (citation counts, publication counts, and reputation surveys) is that SSRN downloads favor younger scholars at improving law schools while the other measures favor more established scholars and schools.  We also noted that women and minorities are under-represented in SSRN download counts as they are in citation counts, publication counts, and reputation surveys, but speculated that the representation of women and minorities would improve in the future as they posted more papers on SSRN, particularly in the recent downloads measure.  We closed the article with case studies of the SSRN download rankings in our respective fields -- corporate and tax law (pp. 120-22).  The SSRN download data were from August 2005.  The chart below compares that data with the most recent tax download data (September 2009) on gender, race, and age:

Top 25

All-Time Downloads

Top 25

Recent Downloads

2005

2009

2005

2009

% Women

16%

20%

20%

39%

% Men

84%

80%

80%

61%

% Minority

8%

4%

0%

0%

% White

92%

96%

100%

100%

Mean Age

47.0

47.6

45.4

46.3

Median Age

47.0

48.0

44.5

47.0

Earlier this year, I asked Why Do Female Tax Profs Do Better in the SSRN Rankings Than Their Nontax Counterparts?.  The representation of women in the Top 25 has increased from 2005 to 2009 in both all-time (4 percentage points) and recent (19) downloads.  However, the representation of minorities has decreased in all-time downloads (4) downloads and has stayed at 0 in recent downloads (based on self reporting in the AALS listing of minority law teachers).

On the age front, Tax Profs in the Top 25 of the SSRN download rankings in both 2005 (all time: 47.0 mean, 47.0 median; recent: 45.4 mean, 44.5 median) and 2009 (all time: 47.6 mean, 48.0 median; recent: 46.3 mean, 47.0 median) are much younger than Tax Profs (55 mean, 54 median) and law professors (53 mean, 52 median) generally.  Eric A. Lustig, Who We Are: An Empirical Study of the Tax Law Professoriate, 1 Pitt. Tax Rev. 85 (2003) (2001 AALS data).  However, the mean and median ages have increased from 2005 to 2009 in both download categories -- all-time (0.6 mean, 1.0 median) and recent (0.9 mean, 2.5 median) downloads.

October 6, 2009 in Legal Education, Tax, Tax Faculty Rankings, Tax Prof Rankings, Tax Profs | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 15, 2009

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

SSRN Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his ranking of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 8/19/09):

 

 

All-Time Downloads

 

Recent Downloads

1

Michigan

26,128

Michigan

6777

2

Harvard

23,955

Illinois

4366

3

Illinois

15,724

UC-Davis

3976

4

Pennsylvania

14,560

Harvard

3285

5

Colorado

13,418

Chicago

2708

6

Chicago

11,882

Loyola-L.A.

2669

7

USC

10,970

Pennsylvania

2381

8

Loyola-L.A.

10,839

Colorado

2377

9

UCLA

10,817

Washburn

2322

10

UC-Davis

9474

Baltimore

2266

11

Columbia

8653

Florida State

2126

12

Boston University

8516

UCLA

1997

13

Florida State

8501

USC

1939

14

Cincinnati

7711

Connecticut

1800

15

Chapman

6341

San Diego

1792

16

Stanford

6247

Chapman

1746

17

NYU

6000

Florida

1644

18

Florida

5518

Pace

1637

19

Washburn

5392

Columbia

1468

20

Baltimore

5164

Boston University

1467

21

Indiana-Bloomington

5012

Case Western

1372

22

Boston College

4638

Notre Dame

1346

23

Notre Dame

4608

Northwestern

1297

24

UC-Berkeley

4463

Texas Tech

1249

25

George Mason

4455

UC-Berkeley

1190

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any full-time law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied. Articles co-authored by members of a single faculty are counted only once towards that faculty’s tally.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

September 15, 2009 in Tax, Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 23, 2009

New 2010 U.S. News Tax Rankings

Us_news The new 2010 U.S. News Law School Tax Rankings were released today:

  • 1. NYU (#1 last year)
  • 2. Florida (#2)
  • 2. Georgetown (#3)
  • 4. Northwestern (#4)
  • 5. Harvard (#6)
  • 6. Boston University (#8)
  • 6. Miami (#6)
  • 6. UCLA (#5)
  • 9. Michigan (#10)
  • 10. Stanford (#13)
  • 11. San Diego (#16)
  • 11. Virginia (#9)
  • 13. Columbia (#19)
  • 13. Texas (#10)
  • 15. Chicago (#17)
  • 16. Loyola-L.A. (#13)
  • 17. Chapman (unranked)
  • 17. Penn (#19)
  • 19. Denver (#19)
  • 19. SMU (#22)
  • 19. U. Washington (#15)
  • 19. Yale (#10)
  • 23. Boston College (unranked)
  • 23. George Washington (unranked)

The upward moves from last year in the overall tax rankings are:

  • +6 Columbia (#13)
  • +5 San Diego (#11)
  • +3 Stanford (#10)
  • +3 SMU (#19)
  • +2 Boston University (#6)
  • +2 Chicago (#15)
  • +2 Penn (#17)
  • +1 Georgetown (#2)
  • +1 Harvard (#5)
  • +1 Michigan (#9)
  • Chapman, Boston College, and George Washington were unranked last year and rank #17, #23, and #23, respectively, this year

The downward moves from last year in the overall tax rankings are:

  • -9 Yale (#19)
  • -4 U. Washington (#19)
  • -3 Texas (#13)
  • -3 Loyola-L.A. (#16)
  • -2 Virginia (#11)
  • -1 UCLA (#6)
  • Duke, USC, and Villanova ranked #18, #22, and #22, respectively, last year and are unranked this year

Here are the rankings of the graduate tax programs:

  • 1. NYU (#1 last year)
  • 2. Florida (#2)
  • 2. Georgetown (#3)
  • 4. Northwestern (#4)
  • 5. Boston University (#6)
  • 5. Miami (#5)
  • 7. San Diego (#9)
  • 8. Loyola-L.A. (#7)
  • 9. Chapman (unranked)
  • 10. Denver (#10)
  • 10. SMU (#11)
  • 10. U. Washington (#8)

The upward moves from last year in the graduate tax program rankings are:

  • +2 San Diego (#7)
  • +1 Georgetown (#2)
  • +1 Boston University (#5)
  • +1 SMU (#10)
  • Chapman was unranked last year and ranks #9 this year

The downward moves from last year in the graduate tax program rankings are:

  • - 2 U. Washington (#10)
  • - 1 Loyola-L.A. (#8)
  • Villanova was ranked #11 last year and is unranked this year

For the 2009 U.S. News Tax Rankings, see here.

April 23, 2009 in Law School Rankings, Legal Education, Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 20, 2009

Early Release of 2010 U.S. News Tax Rankings

Although the 2010 U.S. News Law School Tax Rankings will not be released until Thursday, April 23, the Top 10 list appearing in the magazine has been published on the Internet.  Perhaps the biggest development is Georgetown moving up to #2 (tied with Florida): 

  • 1.  NYU (#1 last year)
  • 2.  Florida (#2)
  • 2.  Georgetown (#3)
  • 4.  Northwestern (#4)
  • 5.  Harvard (#6)
  • 6.  Boston University (#8)
  • 6.  UCLA (#5)
  • 6.  Miami (#6)
  • 9.  Michigan (#10)
  • 10. Stanford (#13)

I will publish the complete Top 25 Tax Rankings when they become available on Thursday (if not earlier).  For the 2009 tax rankings, see here.

Update:  For the release of the full 2010 U.S. News Tax Rankings of the Top 24 schools, see here.

April 20, 2009 in Law School Rankings, Legal Education, Tax, Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 24, 2008

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 9/12/08) [click on chart to enlarge]:

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties__4   

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied. Articles co-authored by members of a single faculty are counted only once towards that faculty’s tally.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

September 24, 2008 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 13, 2007

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 12/6/07) [click on chart to enlarge]:

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_12

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

December 13, 2007 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 22, 2007

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 8/1/07):

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_08   

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

August 22, 2007 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 28, 2007

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 6/1/07):

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_60 

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. (Lateral transfers due to take effect July 2007 are not yet incorporated.) Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied. This month’s tally for Michigan is boosted by the addition of Jim Hines.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

June 28, 2007 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 16, 2007

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Ssrn_100Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 5/1/07):

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_50  

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. (Lateral transfers due to take effect July 2007 are not yet incorporated.) Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied. This month’s tally for Michigan is boosted by the addition of Jim Hines.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

May 16, 2007 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 12, 2007

Overall Law Faculty Rankings v. Tax Faculty Rankings

Ssrn_238Brian Leiter (Texas) has posted The Top 15 Most Downloaded Law Faculties, 2006 on our Leiter's Law School Rankings site.  The following chart compares how the overall faculty rankings compare to the tax faculty rankings compiled by Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.):

Leiter_v_4

[Click on chart to enlarge.]  Note that 7 of the schools comprising the Top 15 Faculties also are among the Top 15 Tax Faculties.

March 12, 2007 in Law School, Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 7, 2007

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Ssrn_100Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 3/1/07):   

Ssrn_top_25_tax_faculty_307

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the 2005-2006 AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of 2006-2007 new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied. This month’s rankings include several requested additions to the NYU tally, among others.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

March 7, 2007 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 6, 2007

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Ssrn_100Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 2/1/07): 

   

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_207_1

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the 2005-2006 AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of 2006-2007 new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied. This month’s rankings include several requested additions to the NYU tally, among others.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

February 6, 2007 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 11, 2007

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Ssrn_100Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 1/1/07):      

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_107

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the 2005-2006 AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of 2006-2007 new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied. This month’s rankings include several requested additions to the NYU tally, among others.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

January 11, 2007 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 7, 2006

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Ssrn_100Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 12/1/06):Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_1206 

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the 2005-2006 AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of 2006-2007 new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied. This month’s rankings include several requested additions to the NYU tally, among others.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

December 7, 2006 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 8, 2006

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Ssrn_100Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 11/1/06):

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_11_06_p_1

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the 2005-2006 AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of 2006-2007 new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied. This month’s rankings include several requested additions to the NYU tally, among others.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

November 8, 2006 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 16, 2006

Updated SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Ssrn_100Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 10/1/06):   

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_10_06_p

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the 2005-2006 AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of 2006-2007 new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

October 16, 2006 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 11, 2006

Updated SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Ssrn_100Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 9/1/06):   

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_0906_to_1

I’m still working the bugs out of the system. I now have Yariv Brauner back at Florida, not Arizona State. In addition, I’ve added Donald Weidner to Florida State’s tally. These faculty changes account for all of the changes in “all-time downloads.” Otherwise, the “all-time download” rankings are unchanged from last month. “Recent downloads,” of course, are much more of a “What have you done for me lately?” phenomenon.

For more details about Ted's study, see below the fold:

SSRN tax faculty ranking changes since August 2006:

Seto_on_the_top_25_tax_faculties_0906_to_2

For purpose of Ted Seto’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the 2005-2006 AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of 2006-2007 new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are also made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

September 11, 2006 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 19, 2006

More on Tax Faculty Rankings

Jim Maule responds to our publication of Ted Seto's second monthly tax faculty rankings (here and here), questioning the usefulness of SSRN downloads as a rankings measure and proposing an alternative ranking based on the number of BNA tax portfolios published by a school's tax faculty.  Here are the top schools under Jim's measure:

  • 1.  Villanova
  • 2.  Iowa State
  • 3.  SMU
  •      Suffolk
  • 5.  Emory
  •     Georgia
  •     Houston
  •     Michigan
  •     Washington & Lee

Although Jim claims that this ranking is "no more or less meaningful than any other tax faculty ranking," I suspect most people would find SSRN's tax faculty ranking more persuasive:

  • 1.  Harvard
  • 2.  UCLA
  • 3.  Penn
  • 4.  USC
  • 5.  Michigan
  • 6.  Columbia

Indeed, SSRN's ranking of law faculties as a whole also seems to identify the right top schools:

  • 1.  Chicago
  • 2.  Harvard
  • 3.  Columbia
  • 4.  Stanford
  • 5.  Texas
  • 6.  UCLA
  • 7.  Yale
  • 8.  Georgetown

Jim is certainly right that SSRN is an incomplete measure, as it includes only a subset of faculty scholarship.  But as I argue in a forthcoming essay in a Yale Law Journal Pocket Part symposium on The Future of Legal Scholarship, the enormous data available on SSRN (3,500 law faculty have posted 11,500 papers on SSRN, which have been downloaded 2.4 million times) provide important insights into the market for legal scholarship.

The answer to SSRN's shortcomings is not to go in the other direction and focus on the offerings of a single publisher.  In our article, What Law Schools Can Learn from Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics, 82 Tex. L. Rev. 1483, 1533-37 (2004), Rafael Gely and I propose comprehensive and qualitative measurements of faculty scholarly performance:

Given the increasing market demand for more detailed and refined measurements of performance, future studies should provide a comprehensive list of all faculty publications, with the weighting disclosed by the authors and thus capable of further refinement by others. Indeed, we envision a custom-ranking process that allows users to assign their own rankings to the comprehensive data, as is developing now with law school rankings....

The next step in the development of citation count methodologies should extend measurements to include citations to faculty work in books and other forms of scholarship, as well as in judicial opinions, executive branch determinations, and congressional sources....[M]easurements of scholarly impact by citation counts to date consistently have foreshorn any qualitative measures and instead have embraced a strictly numerical approach. But assuming a reliable measure of law review quality can be developed, it may be proper to “count” an article in the #1-ranked journal more than an article of equivalent length in the #180-ranked journal. It also may be appropriate for an extensive discussion of a faculty member’s work in the text of an article to “count” more than a single mention in a string cite in a footnote of an article.

In addition to productivity and citation counts, a more rigorous and systematic use of peer evaluation could provide an alternative measure of individual faculty productivity. The Internet provides a venue for faculty to evaluate each other’s work, not unlike the “book reviews” common on Internet bookstores such as Amazon.com.

I subscribe to Philip Postlewaite's view in Life After Tenure: Where Have All the Articles Gone?, 48 J. Legal Educ. 558, 567 (1998):

[T]he consummate legal academic publishes for the academy (academic articles and university press books), for the profession (professional articles and treatises), and for students (casebooks and student guides). Each constituency is worth addressing, and the vehicles appropriate to the different constituencies are equally legitimate. No constituency and no vehicle of expression should be preferable to the others. All have value.

August 19, 2006 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 17, 2006

Updated SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Ssrn_100Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his monthly rankings of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 8/15/06): 

 

Chart1_1

Due to a misallocation of faculty members, Florida was overcounted last month and Illinois and Arizona State were undercounted. In this month’s rankings, these errors have been corrected. As a result, Florida has dropped and Illinois and Arizona State have risen in the rankings.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006). For more details about Ted's study, see below the fold:

SSRN tax faculty ranking changes since July 2006:

Chart_2_3

For purpose of Ted Seto’s analysis, a tax professor is defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the 2005-2006 AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of 2006-2007 new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied.

August 17, 2006 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 19, 2006

Seto on The Top 25 Tax Faculties

Ssrn_100Seto_2 As regular readers of this blog know, I prepare a weekly ranking of the Top 5 New Tax Papers, as well as a monthly ranking of the Top 25 Tax Professors, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads.  Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has gone a step further and prepared a study for publication here, SSRN Tax Faculty Downloads by Law School and City.  I will share the results of this study over the next three days.

In today's installment, Ted ranks the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through 7/1/06):

Top_25_tax_faculties_2

Note: Because of his recent move, Victor Fleischer's downloads are credited to Colorado rather than to UCLA.  Ted's conclusion:

SSRN downloads are, of course, only one measure of scholarly productivity and impact, and scholarship is certainly not the only relevant measure of the quality of a law faculty. With these qualifications, however, it’s pretty clear who comes out on top: UCLA’s tax faculty rocks. (If Louis Kaplow’s non-tax works are excluded, UCLA heads both lists.)

Ted Seto's 3-Part Study of Tax Faculties:

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006). For more details about Ted's study, see below the fold:

For purpose of this analysis, a tax professor is defined as any law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the 2005-2006 AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of 2006-2007 new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied.

July 19, 2006 in Tax Faculty Rankings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack