2024 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Bryce Clayton Newell (Oregon), 2024 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews:

This is an updated ranking of the top flagship law reviews at US law schools (updated as of August 7, 2024). For a summary and more details about method, see below the table. You can also compare MetaRanking from 2018-2024, including changes in ranking over time here: MetaRank Comparison 2018-2024.

For specialty/secondary journal rankings (not yet updated for 2024), see:

• Meta-Ranking (Law & Tech Journals) – 2023
• Meta-Ranking (Online/Companion Journals) – 2023

The MetaRank was computed by averaging ranks (using a 25% weighting from each) of the following rankings:

prRank = US News Peer Reputation score ranking (averaged over 10 years);
usnRank = overall US News school ranking (averaged over 10 years);
wluRank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking;
gRank = Google Scholar Metrics ranking (note: “1000” means journal was not indexed).

Journal	MetaRank	prRank	usnRank	wluRank	gRank
Harvard Law Review	1	2	3	1	1
Yale Law Journal	2	3	1	4	2
Stanford Law Review	3	1	2	3	5
Columbia Law Review	4	4	5	2	3
University of Chicago Law Review	5	5	4	12	4
New York University Law Review	6	6	6	10	6
California Law Review	7	7	11	5	6
University of Pennsylvania Law Review	8	9	6	6	10
Michigan Law Review	9	8	9	7	9
Virginia Law Review	10	10	8	13	11
Duke Law Journal	11	11	9	11	13
Georgetown Law Journal	12	14	14	9	13
Northwestern University Law Review	13	13	12	14	15
Cornell Law Review	14	12	13	8	25
Vanderbilt Law Review	15	17	17	15	11
UCLA Law Review	16	15	15	20	18
Boston University Law Review	17	22	21	18	8
Minnesota Law Review	18	19	20	16	17
Texas Law Review	19	16	16	22	23
Washington University Law Review	20	18	18	26	23
Southern California Law Review	21	19	19	27	22
Iowa Law Review	22	30	25	17	18
Notre Dame Law Review	23	22	22	24	26
Boston College Law Review	24	29	30	21	18
Fordham Law Review	25	33	36	19	15
George Washington Law Review	26	25	24	28	28
UC Davis Law Review	27	26	43	25	18
Indiana Law Journal	28	34	40	23	26
UC Irvine Law Review	29	27	27	35	39
Wisconsin Law Review	29	28	33	33	34
Emory Law Journal	31	21	23	43	42
Florida Law Review	32	36	34	30	30
William & Mary Law Review	32	32	36	31	31
North Carolina Law Review	34	24	31	38	40
Alabama Law Review	35	37	26	36	37
University of Illinois Law Review	36	40	41	29	29
Washington Law Review	37	38	42	31	32
Georgia Law Review	38	34	29	42	47
Ohio State Law Journal	39	31	32	40	51
Arizona State Law Journal	40	39	28	51	52
Arizona Law Review	41	42	46	39	45
UC Law Journal	42	44	58	37	35
University of Colorado Law Review	43	41	46	49	40
Wake Forest Law Review	43	45	38	48	45
Washington and Lee Law Review	45	43	39	52	43
Cardozo Law Review	46	53	60	34	32
Maryland Law Review	47	48	50	47	35
Utah Law Review	48	49	45	41	48
Brigham Young University Law Review	49	50	34	46	62
Connecticut Law Review	50	51	56	50	52
American University Law Review	51	51	83	44	48
SMU Law Review	52	64	48	54	62
Houston Law Review	53	60	57	66	55
Tulane Law Review	54	46	55	59	84
Denver Law Review	55	56	76	55	59
George Mason Law Review	56	59	44	67	79
University of Richmond Law Review	57	66	54	63	68
Temple Law Review	58	54	53	72	79
Georgia State University Law Review	59	60	69	73	57
Florida State University Law Review	60	47	49	81	84
Lewis & Clark Law Review	61	89	93	45	38
Oklahoma Law Review	62	80	66	68	52
Pepperdine Law Review	63	60	51	69	91
Nevada Law Journal	64	75	72	57	76
Seton Hall Law Review	65	87	61	62	72
San Diego Law Review	66	58	80	83	62
Villanova Law Review	67	77	67	74	69
South Carolina Law Review	68	82	88	64	57
Case Western Reserve Law Review	69	68	73	96	59
Brooklyn Law Review	70	73	91	61	72
Missouri Law Review	71	73	64	89	72
Chicago-Kent Law Review	72	79	90	71	59
Nebraska Law Review	72	88	74	75	62
University of Kansas Law Review	74	67	63	86	84
Tennessee Law Review	75	65	59	78	101
Buffalo Law Review	76	104	106	53	43
University of Miami Law Review	77	57	70	113	69
Marquette Law Review	78	98	98	58	56
Loyola University Chicago Law Journal	79	71	77	79	84
Penn State Law Review	80	93	71	70	84
Michigan State Law Review	81	90	97	56	79
Texas A&M Law Review	81	84	82	65	91
Oregon Law Review	83	54	85	98	0
Howard Law Journal	84	70	113	77	1000
Kentucky Law Journal	85	76	65	105	104
University of Cincinnati Law Review	86	91	79	97	84
University of Pittsburgh Law Review	87	69	81	108	95
Rutgers University Law Review	88	72	86	103	95
Seattle University Law Review	88	92	118	80	66
CUNY Law Review	90	109	130	60	1000
Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review	91	63	68	127	104
Syracuse Law Review	91	96	102	88	76
Saint Louis University Law Journal	93	96	92	91	84
Northeastern University Law Review	94	81	75	109	1000
UMKC Law Review	95	108	122	76	69
FIU Law Review	96	132	94	85	66
St. John's Law Review	97	100	78	84	121
Arkansas Law Review	98	95	89	112	93
West Virginia Law Review	99	112	107	95	76
Louisiana Law Review	100	103	96	101	101

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2023 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Law Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Washington & Lee has just released the 2023 tax law review rankings of six major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Elder Law Review ("Illinois")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on citations to articles published in 2019-2023 (methodology):

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

	Combined	Impact	Journals	Cases	Currency
1. NYU	10.84	0.80	117	1.43	0
2. Virginia	9.31	0.65	112	1.57	1
3. Columbia	7.98	0.72	45	1.13	0
4. Tax Notes	7.05	0.01	235	0.01	0
5. Illinois	6.17	0.42	78	0.84	1
6. ABA	4.81	0.28	74	0.64	2

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Exclusive Article Submission Window For The Tax Lawyer

The Tax Lawyer is offering an exclusive submission window for articles to be published in the Spring issue of the Tax Lawyer through December 1, 2023. If you’ve got a completed or almost completed draft of an article on any tax issue of 12,000-35,000 words, please submit it to Editor, Publications, at [email protected]. You can also submit via Scholastica if you prefer. Your article will be published by May 2024.

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2003-2022 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Law Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Following up on yesterday's post, 2022 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Law Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2:  here are the Washington & Lee 2003-2022 tax law review combined rankings of eight major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Houston Business & Tax Review ("Houston")
• Pittsburgh Tax Review ("Pittsburgh")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on the annual combined rankings in 2003-2022 among these eight journals by:

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

Ave	Journal	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	09	08	07	06	05	04	03
1.6	1. NYU	1	1	3	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2.5	2. Virginia	2	2	2	4	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	4	4	4	4	4
2.8	3. Florida	3	3	1	1	1	2	3	4	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	3	2	2	3	2
3.3	4. Tax Notes	4	5	4	3	2	4	4	3	4	4	4	3	3	3	2	2	3	3	2	3
5.4	5. ABA	6	6	NR	6	NR	5	5	5	5	5	6	5	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5
7.9	6. Houston	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	10	9	7	6	6	7	7	7	8	8	9	8	8	9	9
7.9	7. Pittsburgh	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	8	8	8	7	8	5	6	5	5	5	22	NR	NR	NR	NR
10.1	8. Columbia	5	4	5	5	NR	6	6	10	10	13	14	33	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

As I have previously noted, Tax Notes fares poorly in the Impact Factor category (citations/number of articles published) because W&L apparently counts as "articles" all of the advance sheet material in Tax Notes Federal.

Tax Notes Federal is #1 by a wide margin in the number of citations in law reviews:

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2022 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Law Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Washington & Lee has just released the 2022 tax law review rankings of six major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on citations to articles published in 2018-2022 (methodology):

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

	Combined	Impact	Journals	Cases	Currency
1. NYU	15.26	1.02	164	0	1.81
2. Virginia	12.12	0.8	137	1	1.52
3. Florida	7.69	0.44	115	2	0.80
4. Tax Notes	6.65	0.01	257	0	0.01
5. Columbia	5.88	0.41	57	0	0.73
6. ABA	4.49	0.22	82	2	0.38

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2023 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Bryce Clayton Newell (Oregon), 2023 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews:

This is an updated ranking of the top flagship law reviews at US law schools (updated as of July 25, 2023). For a summary and more details about method, see below the table. You can also compare MetaRanking since 2018, including changes in ranking over time here: MetaRank Comparison 2018-2023. I have also analyzed the potential Meta-Ranking for specialty law and technology journals (2022) in a separate blog post (2023 Law+Tech ranking is not yet completed).

The MetaRank was computed by averaging ranks (using a 25% weighting from each) of the following rankings:

prRank = US News Peer Reputation score ranking (averaged over 10 years);
usnRank = overall US News school ranking (averaged over 10 years);
wluRank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking;
gRank = Google Scholar Metrics ranking (note: “1000” means journal was not indexed).

Journal	MetaRank	prRank	usnRank	wluRank	gRank
Harvard Law Review	1	1	3	1	1
Yale Law Journal	2	3	1	3	2
Stanford Law Review	3	2	2	2	4
Columbia Law Review	4	4	5	4	3
California Law Review	5	7	9	5	4
New York University Law Review	6	6	6	10	7
Michigan Law Review	7	8	9	9	9
University of Chicago Law Review	8	5	4	21	6
University of Pennsylvania Law Review	9	9	7	13	9
Georgetown Law Journal	10	14	14	6	11
Duke Law Journal	11	11	11	15	11
Vanderbilt Law Review	12	17	17	8	8
Northwestern University Law Review	13	13	12	14	16
Virginia Law Review	14	10	8	22	18
UCLA Law Review	15	16	15	7	22
Cornell Law Review	16	12	13	18	23
Texas Law Review	17	15	16	19	19
Minnesota Law Review	18	19	20	11	20
Notre Dame Law Review	19	22	22	12	16
Boston University Law Review	20	23	21	24	11
Boston College Law Review	21	29	30	16	11
Iowa Law Review	22	29	25	19	15
Southern California Law Review	23	19	19	30	23
Washington University Law Review	24	18	18	31	32
George Washington Law Review	25	25	24	28	25
Fordham Law Review	26	33	37	17	20
UC Davis Law Review	27	26	41	23	28
William & Mary Law Review	28	32	34	27	28
Indiana Law Journal	29	34	38	25	27
North Carolina Law Review	30	23	31	34	38
Emory Law Journal	31	21	23	41	45
University of Illinois Law Review	32	40	43	26	25
Alabama Law Review	32	37	26	35	36
Florida Law Review	34	36	35	32	33
Wisconsin Law Review	35	28	33	38	38
Washington Law Review	36	38	42	29	30
UC Irvine Law Review	37	27	29	44	43
Ohio State Law Journal	38	31	32	47	53
Wake Forest Law Review	39	45	40	39	40
Georgia Law Review	40	35	28	48	56
Arizona State Law Journal	41	39	27	50	53
UC Law Journal	41	44	56	36	33
Maryland Law Review	43	48	48	42	35
University of Colorado Law Review	43	43	47	43	40
Arizona Law Review	45	42	46	40	47
Cardozo Law Review	46	53	60	33	31
Utah Law Review	47	49	45	46	40
Washington and Lee Law Review	48	41	39	51	56
Brigham Young University Law Review	49	50	35	45	59
Connecticut Law Review	50	52	58	53	62
American University Law Review	51	51	80	52	45
Tulane Law Review	51	46	54	59	69
University of Richmond Law Review	53	68	52	64	50
Denver Law Review	53	55	75	54	50
George Mason Law Review	55	59	44	60	72
Temple Law Review	56	57	53	58	76
Houston Law Review	57	60	57	67	62
SMU Law Review	58	63	50	68	66
Georgia State University Law Review	59	62	67	74	47
Oklahoma Law Review	60	79	66	55	53
Lewis & Clark Law Review	61	88	93	37	36
Florida State University Law Review	61	47	49	75	83
Tennessee Law Review	63	65	59	72	1000
Nevada Law Journal	64	76	72	49	76
Pepperdine Law Review	65	60	55	77	83
University of Kansas Law Review	66	67	64	79	66
Chicago-Kent Law Review	67	77	89	69	43
Seton Hall Law Review	68	87	61	65	69
Villanova Law Review	69	78	70	76	62
San Diego Law Review	69	58	82	80	66
Case Western Reserve Law Review	71	69	71	95	59
South Carolina Law Review	72	84	91	61	59
Texas A&M Law Review	73	95	87	57	1000
University of Miami Law Review	74	56	68	102	71
Missouri Law Review	75	70	62	89	83
Penn State Law Review	76	92	73	70	72
Kentucky Law Journal	76	74	63	83	87
Nebraska Law Review	78	85	74	71	81
Brooklyn Law Review	79	70	90	62	90
Buffalo Law Review	80	103	106	56	49
Michigan State Law Review	81	89	97	63	76
Marquette Law Review	82	97	101	66	65
Rutgers University Law Review	83	73	84	87	87
Loyola University Chicago Law Journal	84	72	77	92	94
Seattle University Law Review	85	93	116	73	58
University of Cincinnati Law Review	86	90	78	97	76
Saint Louis University Law Journal	87	98	92	85	76
University of Pittsburgh Law Review	87	66	79	103	103
Oregon Law Review	89	54	83	110	1000
Northeastern University Law Review	90	81	76	104	1000
Syracuse Law Review	91	96	102	90	83
Santa Clara Law Review	92	82	123	85	1000
UMKC Law Review	93	107	121	78	75
Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review	94	64	69	141	111
New Mexico Law Review	95	91	86	105	1000
Arkansas Law Review	96	94	88	113	94
Indiana Law Review	97	83	105	112	90
St. John's Law Review	98	102	81	109	103
Drexel Law Review	99	111	104	91	1000
City University of New York Law Review	100	113	126	81	1000
Howard Law Journal	100	75	112	107	1000

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U.S. News, Department Of Education, And Law Schools Take The Gloves Off In Rankings Battle

Wall Street Journal Op-Ed:  Why Elite Law and Medical Schools Can’t Stand U.S. News, by Eric J. Gertler (Chairman & CEO, U.S. News):

The decision by some elite law and medical schools to opt out of the U.S. News & World Report ranking surveys has ignited a national debate on meritocracy and equity. But lost in this discussion is the reason U.S. News ranks academic institutions and why our rankings are so important to aspiring students. ...

Our rankings don’t capture every nuance. Academic institutions aren’t monolithic or static; comparing them across a common data set can be challenging. But we reject our critics’ paternalistic view that students are somehow incapable of discerning for themselves from this information which school is the best fit.

Moreover, the perspective of elite schools doesn’t fit with that of the broader law- and medical-school community. Our editors held meetings with 110 law deans following the outcry over our rankings. Excepting the top 14 law schools, almost 75% of the schools that submitted surveys in 2022 did so in 2023. For medical schools, the engagement level was higher.

While we know that our rankings are important to students, we’re incredulous that our critics blame our rankings for just about every issue academia confronts. ... [E]lite schools object to our use of a common data set for all schools because our rankings are something they can’t control and they don’t want to be held accountable by an independent third party. ...

By refusing to participate, elite schools are opting out of an important discussion about what constitutes the best education for students, while implying that excellence and important goals like diversity are mutually exclusive.

Is it tolerable to leave schools unaccountable for the education they deliver to students? We think not.

Reuters, U.S. News Rankings Come Under Fire at Yale, Harvard Conference:

The U.S. Secretary of Education on Wednesday criticized annual higher education rankings published by U.S. News and World Report, saying they have "created an unhealthy obsession with selectivity."

Secretary Miguel Cardona was speaking at a conference organized by the law schools at Harvard and Yale universities, amid a backlash over the magazine's influential law school rankings.

“We need a culture change," Cardona said, asserting that U.S. News' emphasis on selectivity and exclusivity has helped steer underserved students to lower-tier institutions. "It’s time to stop worshipping at the false altar of U.S. News & World Report.”

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Resources For Authors Submitting Law Review Articles In The Spring 2023 Cycle

1. Bryce Clayton Newell (Oregon), 2022 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews:

This is an updated ranking of the top flagship law reviews at US law schools. ...

The MetaRank was computed by averaging ranks (using a 25% weighting from each) of the following rankings:

prRank = US News Peer Reputation score ranking (averaged over 10 years);
usnRank = overall US News school ranking (averaged over 10 years);
wluRank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking;
gRank = Google Scholar Metrics ranking (note: “1000” means journal was not indexed).

2. Nancy Levit (UMKC) & Allen Rostron (UMKC), Information for Submitting Articles to Law Reviews & Journals (Revised Jan. 13, 2022):

This document contains information about submitting articles to law reviews and journals, including the methods for submitting an article, any special formatting requirements, how to contact them to request an expedited review, and how to contact them to withdraw an article from consideration. It covers 195 law reviews.

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2022 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Update: 2023 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews

Bryce Clayton Newell (Oregon), 2022 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews:

This is an updated ranking of the top flagship law reviews at US law schools (updated as of September 16, 2022). For a summary and more details about method, see below the table. You can also compare MetaRanking since 2018, including changes in ranking over time here: MetaRank Comparison 2018-2022.

The MetaRank was computed by averaging ranks (using a 25% weighting from each) of the following rankings:

prRank = US News Peer Reputation score ranking (averaged over 10 years);
usnRank = overall US News school ranking (averaged over 10 years);
wluRank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking;
gRank = Google Scholar Metrics ranking (note: “1000” means journal was not indexed).

Journal	MetaRank	prRank	usnRank	wluRank	gRank
Harvard Law Review	1	1	3	1	1
Yale Law Journal	2	3	1	2	2
Stanford Law Review	3	2	2	3	5
Columbia Law Review	4	4	5	5	3
California Law Review	5	7	9	4	4
University of Chicago Law Review	6	5	4	12	6
University of Pennsylvania Law Review	7	9	7	6	8
New York University Law Review	8	6	6	13	9
Michigan Law Review	8	8	9	8	9
Georgetown Law Journal	10	14	14	7	9
Duke Law Journal	11	11	11	11	12
Northwestern University Law Review	12	13	12	14	16
Virginia Law Review	13	10	8	22	17
Texas Law Review	13	15	15	15	12
Vanderbilt Law Review	15	17	17	18	7
UCLA Law Review	16	16	16	10	18
Notre Dame Law Review	17	22	21	9	12
Minnesota Law Review	18	20	20	16	20
Cornell Law Review	19	12	13	23	29
Boston University Law Review	20	24	21	20	15
Southern California Law Review	21	19	19	26	27
Iowa Law Review	22	29	25	21	18
Washington University Law Review	23	18	18	29	34
Emory Law Journal	24	21	23	33	24
George Washington Law Review	25	25	24	31	23
Boston College Law Review	26	29	30	25	21
UC Davis Law Review	27	26	37	19	25
Fordham Law Review	28	34	39	17	22
William & Mary Law Review	29	33	33	24	31
Indiana Law Journal	30	32	34	27	29
North Carolina Law Review	31	23	31	35	34
Washington Law Review	32	36	38	30	28
University of Illinois Law Review	33	39	43	28	26
Wisconsin Law Review	34	27	32	39	39
Alabama Law Review	35	38	25	36	41
Ohio State Law Journal	36	31	35	37	43
Florida Law Review	37	37	41	32	38
Washington and Lee Law Review	38	41	36	44	42
Arizona State Law Journal	39	40	27	47	51
UC Irvine Law Review	40	28	28	56	55
Arizona Law Review	41	44	45	41	39
Hastings Law Journal	42	43	55	40	32
Georgia Law Review	43	35	29	43	64
Maryland Law Review	44	48	48	45	37
University of Colorado Law Review	45	42	46	46	45
Cardozo Law Review	46	53	59	34	36
Wake Forest Law Review	47	45	42	50	48
Brigham Young University Law Review	48	50	40	55	48
Utah Law Review	49	49	47	49	50
American University Law Review	50	51	77	38	32
University of Richmond Law Review	51	69	52	53	53
Houston Law Review	52	60	56	58	55
Tulane Law Review	53	46	51	73	64
Temple Law Review	54	57	54	64	64
Connecticut Law Review	55	52	57	52	83
SMU Law Review	55	65	50	74	55
George Mason Law Review	57	58	44	59	85
Denver Law Review	58	56	74	75	52
Lewis & Clark Law Review	59	86	90	42	43
Chicago-Kent Law Review	59	75	87	54	45
Georgia State University Law Review	61	64	65	80	53
University of Miami Law Review	62	54	69	81	60
Brooklyn Law Review	62	70	88	51	55
Tennessee Law Review	64	66	60	72	1000
Pepperdine Law Review	65	62	58	83	70
Nevada Law Journal	66	76	66	62	71
Case Western Reserve Law Review	67	68	67	81	61
Florida State University Law Review	68	47	49	98	85
Oklahoma Law Review	68	78	72	68	61
University of Kansas Law Review	70	67	73	85	61
Missouri Law Review	71	71	64	79	75
Seton Hall Law Review	72	88	61	69	73
Nebraska Law Review	73	84	70	78	64
Villanova Law Review	74	82	75	77	64
Penn State Law Review	75	92	68	61	80
Michigan State Law Review	76	91	92	48	75
Kentucky Law Journal	76	72	63	86	85
Buffalo Law Review	78	99	101	60	55
South Carolina Law Review	79	85	94	66	72
Seattle University Law Review	80	93	115	67	45
Loyola University Chicago Law Journal	81	73	76	89	83
Oregon Law Review	82	54	86	96	1000
San Diego Law Review	83	59	81	115	85
Saint Louis University Law Journal	83	98	91	87	64
University of Cincinnati Law Review	85	89	79	98	79
Texas A&M Law Review	86	105	100	71	1000
CUNY Law Review	87	112	122	57	1000
Hofstra Law Review	88	101	114	63	73
Marquette Law Review	89	95	103	75	80
Rutgers University Law Review	90	74	82	126	75
Santa Clara Law Review	91	80	113	70	102
Baylor Law Review	92	87	53	113	1000
Indiana Law Review	93	81	104	101	85
University of Pittsburgh Law Review	93	63	80	121	107
Arkansas Law Review	95	94	84	103	91
Loyola of L.A. Law Review	96	61	71	132	110
UMKC Law Review	97	108	117	65	91
New Mexico Law Review	97	90	83	104	1000
Louisiana Law Review	99	104	93	95	91
Syracuse Law Review	100	96	99	97	101

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2021 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Update:  2023 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Bryce Clayton Newell (Oregon), 2021 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews:

This is an updated ranking of the top flagship law reviews at US law schools (updated as of September 29, 2021). ... The ranking table below includes 193 flagship law reviews from ABA accredited law schools. Even if you ignore the “MetaRank,” the table provides access to the updated rankings from US News (peer reputation and overall rankings, averaged over the 10-year period from 2013 edition through the 2022 edition of US News’ rankings) and the current Washington & Lee Rankings (2016-2020; released on June 30, 2021) and Google Scholar (July 2021) rankings. 

prRank = Average 10-year US News Peer Reputation score ranking;
usnRank = Average 10-year overall US News school ranking; 
wluRank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking; 
gRank = Google Scholar Metrics ranking; 
wlu(IF)Rank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Impact Factor Ranking (NOT included in meta-rank).

Journal	MetaRank	prRank	usnRank	wluRank	gRank	wlu(IF)Rank
Harvard Law Review	1	1	3	1	1	13
Yale Law Journal	2	2	1	2	2	2
Stanford Law Review	3	3	2	4	5	1
Columbia Law Review	4	4	5	8	3	29
California Law Review	5	7	9	3	7	3
Univ. of Penn. Law Review	6	9	7	6	6	5
Univ. of Chicago Law Review	7	5	4	14	8	15
Georgetown Law Journal	8	14	14	5	4	6
Michigan Law Review	9	8	10	9	11	8
Virginia Law Review	10	9	8	18	10	12
Duke Law Journal	11	11	11	12	14	7
NYU Law Review	12	6	6	22	19	21
Texas Law Review	13	15	15	16	9	16
UCLA Law Review	14	16	16	13	13	4
Cornell Law Review	15	12	13	15	22	8
Northwestern Univ. Law Rev.	15	13	12	23	14	18
Vanderbilt Law Review	17	17	17	20	11	24
Minnesota Law Review	18	20	20	10	16	14
Notre Dame Law Review	19	23	21	7	16	10
Iowa Law Review	20	29	25	11	16	20
Boston University Law Review	21	25	24	21	20	23
Washington Univ. Law Review	22	18	18	30	29	17
George Washington Law Rev.	23	24	23	29	21	36
Emory Law Journal	24	21	22	32	24	21
Southern California Law Rev.	25	19	19	31	32	18
Boston College Law Review	26	29	29	24	22	33
William & Mary Law Review	27	33	35	19	27	11
Fordham Law Review	28	34	39	17	25	43
U.C. Davis Law Review	29	26	37	26	30	27
Washington Law Review	30	35	33	28	28	25
North Carolina Law Review	31	22	36	34	36	31
Indiana Law Journal	32	32	31	35	34	33
Wisconsin Law Review	32	27	32	33	40	26
Univ. of Illinois Law Review	32	39	41	27	25	31
Ohio State Law Journal	35	31	37	37	36	28
Washington & Lee Law Rev.	36	40	34	41	41	49
Alabama Law Review	36	37	26	43	50	39
Florida Law Review	38	37	43	36	41	29
Arizona State Law Journal	39	41	27	51	44	58
Hastings Law Journal	40	42	55	38	30	46
Arizona Law Review	41	44	44	42	36	33
Maryland Law Review	42	48	48	39	33	39
Cardozo Law Review	43	53	59	25	34	41
Wake Forest Law Review	44	45	40	45	45	57
Georgia Law Review	45	35	30	46	70	36
Univ. of Colorado Law Rev.	46	43	45	47	50	51
BYU Law Review	47	49	41	48	48	48
American Univ. Law Review	48	50	75	40	36	43
U.C. Irvine Law Review	49	28	28	84	62	99
Utah Law Review	50	51	47	60	56	62
Connecticut Law Review	51	52	57	49	62	36
Houston Law Review	52	63	56	53	54	54
George Mason Law Review	53	57	46	50	78	51
Univ. of Richmond Law Rev.	54	70	54	56	54	49
Tulane Law Review	55	46	51	72	67	76
Case Western Reserve L. Rev.	56	67	64	58	48	79
SMU Law Review	57	65	50	73	62	84
Temple Law Review	58	58	53	64	78	58
Tennessee Law Review	59	61	60	69	1000	54
Missouri Law Review	60	69	64	70	52	77
Florida State Univ. Law Rev.	61	47	49	82	78	70
Lewis & Clark Law Review	62	83	89	44	43	45
Pepperdine Law Review	63	66	58	68	70	65
Denver Law Review	64	56	73	80	56	79
Chicago-Kent Law Review	64	73	83	57	52	69
Brooklyn Law Review	66	71	85	54	56	65
Univ. of Miami Law Review	67	54	69	81	67	71
Nevada Law Journal	68	80	68	62	67	53
Univ. of Kansas Law Review	69	62	74	83	59	95
Michigan State Law Review	70	92	91	52	45	46
Loyola Univ. Chicago L.J.	71	75	76	75	62	81
Georgia State Univ. Law Rev.	72	68	62	102	59	112
Oklahoma Law Review	73	77	70	71	75	68
Seton Hall Law Review	74	87	61	65	87	75
Nebraska Law Review	74	81	72	77	70	84
Seattle Univ. Law Review	76	91	112	54	47	62
San Diego Law Review	77	59	81	88	78	84
Penn State Law Review	78	93	71	61	85	42
Villanova Law Review	79	88	80	76	70	73
Kentucky Law Journal	80	72	63	93	93	90
DePaul Law Review	81	97	116	58	62	61
Buffalo Law Review	82	99	99	74	70	71
Saint Louis Univ. L.J.	83	98	92	94	59	106
South Carolina Law Review	84	89	95	67	93	62
Univ. of Cincinnati Law Rev.	85	86	77	98	87	115
Hofstra Law Review	86	100	111	63	76	67
Rutgers Univ. Law Review	87	74	84	115	78	129
Indiana Law Review	88	79	104	87	87	99
Marquette Law Review	89	94	103	78	87	77
Santa Clara Law Review	90	76	110	79	102	54
Arkansas Law Review	91	95	87	100	93	109
UMKC Law Review	92	107	120	66	85	81
Oregon Law Review	93	55	88	120	1000	123
Univ. of Pittsburgh Law Rev.	93	60	79	122	116	123
New Mexico Law Review	95	90	82	106	1000	88
Louisiana Law Review	96	103	90	97	100	97
St. John's Law Review	97	104	86	109	93	112
Baylor Law Review	98	85	52	129	1000	119
Loyola of L.A. Law Review	99	63	67	142	128	137
West Virginia Law Review	99	110	101	96	93	97
Howard Law Journal	99	84	115	103	98	95
CUNY Law Review	99	111	119	85	1000	60

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The Roaring Fall 2021 Admissions Season: Will A Law School Have A 175 LSAT Or 4.0 UGPA Median?

Following up on yesterday's post, 98% Of The Way Through The Fall 2021 Law School Admissions Cycle: Applicants Are Up 14%, With Biggest Increase (66%) Among The 170+ LSAT Band:  Spivey Consulting, Recapping the 2020-2021 Law School Admissions Cycle & Predicting the Upcoming Cycle:

In this podcast, Mike Spivey is joined by PowerScore founder and CEO Dave Killoran and Spivey Consulting Business Intelligence Director Justin Kane ... to discuss takeaways from this previous 2020-2021 admissions cycle and to make predictions for the upcoming 2021-2022 cycle.

The fall 2021 admissions discussion addressed a number of interesting points, including:

• Potential causes of the dramatic increase in LSAT scores
• The pandemic gave test-takers more time to study
• The online test was shorter and taken in the more convenient and comfortable home environment
• Predicted LSAT and UGPA medians:  +2, +.05
• Predicted 1L enrollment: +10%
• Which will occur first: a school with a 175 LSAT median or a 4.0 UGPA median? (The current highs are a 173 LSAT median (Harvard, Yale) and a 3.94 UGPA Median (Alabama, Yale)

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2003-2020 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Law Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Following up on yesterday's post, 2020 Tax Journal Rankings: Florida Tax Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2:  here are the Washington & Lee 2003-2020 tax law review combined rankings of eight major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Houston Business & Tax Review ("Houston")
• Pittsburgh Tax Review ("Pittsburgh")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on the annual combined rankings in 2003-2020 among these eight journals by:

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

Ave	Journal	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	09	08	07	06	05	04	03
1.7	1. NYU	3	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2.5	2. Virginia	2	4	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	4	4	4	4	4
2.7	3. Florida	1	1	1	2	3	4	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	3	2	2	3	2
3.1	4. Tax Notes	4	3	2	4	4	3	4	4	4	3	3	3	2	2	3	3	2	3
5.4	5. ABA	NR	6	NR	5	5	5	5	5	6	5	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5
7.9	6. Houston	NR	NR	NR	10	9	7	6	6	7	7	7	8	8	9	8	8	9	9
7.9	7. Pittsburgh	NR	NR	NR	8	8	8	7	8	5	6	5	5	5	22	NR	NR	NR	NR
11.3	8. Columbia	5	5	NR	6	6	10	10	13	14	33	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

Tax Notes Federal fares poorly in the Impact Factor category (citations/number of articles published) because W&L apparently counts as "articles" all of the advance sheet material in Tax Notes Federal.

Tax Notes Federal is #1 by a wide margin in the number of citations in law reviews:

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2020 Tax Journal Rankings: Florida Tax Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Washington & Lee has just released the 2020 tax law review rankings of six major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on citations to articles published in 2016-2020 (methodology):

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

	Combined	Impact	Journals	Cases	Currency
1. Florida	11.12	0.69	161	1	1.43
2. Virginia	10.90	0.75	135	1	1.19
3. NYU	10.64	0.62	166	0	1.11
4. Tax Notes	8.92	0.01	290	1	0.02
5. Columbia	8.10	0.58	93	0	1.18
ABA	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

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October 2020 California Bar Exam Results

The California State Bar has released school-by-school data on the October 2020 California Bar Exam.  Here are the results for first time test takers for the 21 California ABA-accredited law schools, along with each school's U.S. News ranking (California and overall):

Bar Pass Rank (Rate)	School	US News Rank CA (Overall)
1 (97.7%)	Stanford	1 (2)
2 (96.7%)	UCLA	3 (15)
3 (96.0%)	UC-Berkeley	2 (9)
4 (91.8%)	Loyola-L.A.	9 (62)
5 (91.3%)	USC	4 (19)
6 (88.8%)	San Diego	10 (83)
7 (87.6%)	UC-Irvine	5 (27)
8 (86.7%)	UC-Davis	6 (38)
9 (86.1%)	UC-Hastings	8 (59)
10 (85.9%)	McGeorge	Rank Not Published
11 (84.6%)	Southwestern	Rank Not Published
84.1%	Statewide Ave. (CA ABA-accredited)
12 (80.7%)	San Francisco	Rank Not Published
13 (80.6%)	Chapman	12 (111)
14 (79.6%)	Pepperdine	7 (47)
15 (75.6%)	Santa Clara	11 (107)
16 (72.9%)	La Verne	Rank Not Published
17 (71.8%)	Cal-Western	Rank Not Published
18 (55.9%)	Western State	Rank Not Published
19 (46.7%)	Thomas Jefferson	Rank Not Published
20 (44.4%)	Golden Gate	Rank Not Published

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2019 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Notes #1, Florida Tax Review #2

Here are the Washington & Lee tax law review rankings of the six major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on citations to articles published in 2015-2019 (methodology):

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

	Combined	Impact	Journals	Cases	Currency
1. Tax Notes	15.16	0.02	406	5	0.03
2. Florida	14.30	0.75	188	1	1.45
3. NYU	12.29	0.65	161	0	1.16
4. Virginia	8.52	0.46	108	2	0.61
5. Columbia	6.98	0.45	69	0	0.53
6. ABA	5.82	0.16	115	4	0.23

As I have previously noted, Tax Notes fares poorly in the Impact Factor category (citations/number of articles published) because W&L apparently counts as "articles" all of the advance sheet material in Tax Notes. Tax Notes is #1 by a wide margin in the number of citations in law reviews, with more than double the citations of its nearest competitor.

2020 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Update:  2023 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Bryce Clayton Newell (Oregon), 2020 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews:

This is an updated ranking of the top flagship law reviews at US law schools (updated as of July 15, 2020). ... The ranking table below includes 191 flagship law reviews from ABA accredited law schools. Even if you ignore the “MetaRank,” the table provides access to the updated rankings from US News (peer reputation and overall rankings, averaged over the 10-year period from 2012 through the 2021 edition) and the current W&L (2015-2019; released on June 1, 2020) and Google Scholar (July 2020) rankings.. ...

prRank = Average 10-year US News Peer Reputation score ranking;
usnRank = Average 10-year overall US News school ranking; 
wluRank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking; 
gRank = Google Scholar Metrics ranking; 
wlu(IF)Rank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Impact Factor Ranking (NOT included in meta-rank).

Journal	MetaRank	prRank	usnRank	wluRank	gRank	wlu(IF)Rank
Yale Law Journal	1	2	1	1	1	2
Harvard Law Review	2	1	3	2	2	20
Stanford Law Review	3	3	2	3	3	1
Columbia Law Review	4	4	5	4	4	19
University of Chicago Law Review	5	5	4	9	6	15
Univ. of Pennsylvania Law Rev.	6	9	7	5	7	4
California Law Review	7	7	9	7	10	6
New York University Law Review	8	6	6	10	12	14
Georgetown Law Journal	9	14	14	6	5	10
Virginia Law Review	10	9	8	16	12	17
Michigan Law Review	11	8	9	15	16	8
Texas Law Review	12	15	15	14	8	20
UCLA Law Review	13	16	16	12	9	3
Duke Law Journal	13	11	11	17	14	5
Vanderbilt Law Review	15	17	17	19	15	13
Notre Dame Law Review	16	24	21	8	16	6
Cornell Law Review	17	12	13	23	22	12
Minnesota Law Review	18	20	20	13	18	15
Iowa Law Review	19	28	25	11	10	23
Northwestern Univ. Law Review	20	13	12	24	26	27
Washington Univ. Law Review	21	18	18	26	28	18
Boston University Law Review	22	25	24	22	20	22
Southern California Law Review	23	19	19	27	30	11
George Washington Law Review	24	23	22	29	22	42
Emory Law Journal	24	21	23	30	22	29
Boston College Law Review	26	29	30	21	19	27
William & Mary Law Review	27	33	35	18	21	8
UC Davis Law Review	28	26	36	28	22	26
Fordham Law Review	29	34	38	20	27	46
Indiana Law Journal	30	32	29	35	34	33
Washington Law Review	30	35	31	34	30	32
Wisconsin Law Review	32	26	34	39	37	38
Ohio State Law Journal	33	31	37	33	36	25
Univ. of Illinois Law Review	34	36	41	32	29	39
North Carolina Law Review	35	22	39	36	45	37
Florida Law Review	36	38	44	31	30	34
Washington & Lee Law Review	37	39	33	43	40	43
Alabama Law Review	38	40	27	40	52	35
Arizona Law Review	39	43	43	42	34	36
Hastings Law Journal	40	41	53	37	37	40
Arizona State Law Journal	41	44	28	55	42	61
UC Irvine Law Review	42	30	26	66	51	58
Cardozo Law Review	43	53	59	25	37	24
Wake Forest Law Review	44	45	40	47	47	49
Maryland Law Review	45	47	48	44	42	43
American Univ. Law Review	46	49	71	38	30	40
Colorado Law Review	47	42	45	50	55	52
Georgia Law Review	48	37	32	58	66	52
BYU Law Review	49	50	42	60	49	66
Utah Law Review	50	51	47	53	52	54
Houston Law Review	51	64	56	46	48	43
Connecticut Law Review	52	52	57	41	66	29
George Mason Law Review	53	56	46	49	66	51
Case Western Reserve Law Rev.	54	63	64	52	42	66
Univ. of Richmond Law Review	55	73	55	54	52	49
Tulane Law Review	56	46	51	69	85	83
Univ. of Miami Law Review	57	54	67	68	63	62
Temple Law Review	57	58	54	61	79	47
Brooklyn Law Review	59	70	82	48	58	66
SMU Law Review	59	66	49	64	79	77
Pepperdine Law Review	61	67	58	71	63	66
Lewis & Clark Law Review	61	81	87	51	40	56
Florida State Univ. Law Review	63	48	50	89	75	74
Seton Hall Law Review	64	85	62	62	55	58
Missouri Law Review	64	68	73	65	58	65
Nevada Law Journal	66	84	68	45	75	48
Chicago-Kent Law Review	67	72	80	63	58	74
San Diego Law Review	68	58	77	80	61	72
Michigan State Law Review	69	95	90	59	45	63
Univ. of Kansas Law Review	70	62	74	85	70	88
Nebraska Law Review	71	80	70	83	61	80
Loyola Univ. Chicago Law Journal	72	75	76	72	72	66
Oklahoma Law Review	73	78	69	76	75	87
Denver University Law Review	74	57	72	88	85	88
Penn State Law Review	75	93	66	57	90	31
Tennessee Law Review	76	61	61	96	94	110
Seattle University Law Review	77	91	108	56	63	71
Indiana Law Review	78	76	98	77	79	83
Georgia State Univ. Law Review	78	69	60	109	92	147
Univ. of Cincinnati Law Review	80	83	75	82	96	81
Villanova Law Review	80	86	85	86	79	88
South Carolina Law Review	82	89	95	87	70	83
DePaul Law Review	83	98	112	67	66	56
Kentucky Law Journal	84	71	63	108	107	125
Hofstra Law Review	85	99	109	74	72	81
West Virginia Law Review	86	109	99	70	79	58
Buffalo Law Review	87	100	96	84	79	74
Saint Louis Univ. Law Journal	88	97	92	102	72	114
Marquette Law Review	89	92	100	78	94	79
Rutgers Univ. Law Review	90	74	83	123	85	142
Baylor Law Review	90	87	52	113	1000	103
Albany Law Review	92	127	119	73	49	83
Arkansas Law Review	93	96	84	105	85	129
Santa Clara Law Review	94	77	106	99	96	77
UMKC Law Review	95	106	118	81	75	108
Louisiana Law Review	96	102	89	98	96	125
St. John’s Law Review	97	104	86	112	99	136
Howard Law Journal	98	90	116	100	99	103
Catholic Univ. Law Review	99	101	100	107	102	114
Loyola of L.A. Law Review	100	64	65	150	133	150

Oregon Law Review	101	55	88	136	1000	142
Texas A&M Law Review	101	123	115	75	102	63
Syracuse Law Review	103	94	96	101	126	99
Drake Law Review	103	132	110	90	85	91
Idaho Law Review	105	117	129	119	55	106
Univ. of Pittsburgh Law Review	106	60	81	141	112	136
New Mexico Law Review	107	88	79	131	1000	119
Chapman Law Review	108	141	131	79	1000	54
Texas Tech Law Review	109	135	113	91	92	99
Mississippi Law Journal	110	103	107	110	119	114
Cleveland State Law Review	111	140	117	94	90	91
Vermont Law Review	112	112	133	95	102	103
Univ. of Louisville Law Review	113	108	93	122	1000	97
Univ. of San Francisco Law Rev.	114	119	142	93	1000	73
Washburn Law Journal	115	136	128	97	1000	96
Northeastern Univ. Law Journal	116	82	77	150	1000	150
Maine Law Review	117	105	124	130	102	110
Mercer Law Review	118	121	121	111	115	136
Akron Law Review	119	144	135	92	102	91
Univ. of Hawai'i Law Review	119	79	94	150	1000	150
CUNY Law Review	121	114	120	121	1000	112
Tulsa Law Review	122	125	91	150	112	150
Montana Law Review	122	120	126	116	1000	95
Creighton Law Review	124	134	122	106	119	119
Stetson Law Review	125	110	104	134	1000	149
Quinnipiac Law Review	126	131	130	114	1000	99
Wayne Law Review	127	116	100	150	131	150
Univ. of Memphis Law Review	128	143	147	103	107	133
Univ. of St. Thomas Law Journal	129	139	125	139	99	125
Pace Law Review	130	132	136	128	109	136
Wyoming Law Review	131	118	126	132	1000	122
Duquesne Law Review	132	148	134	115	1000	99
Drexel Law Review	132	115	111	143	1000	130
Univ. of Baltimore Law Review	134	122	123	134	1000	112
Loyola Law Review	135	113	140	137	126	128
Suffolk Univ. Law Review	135	130	151	120	115	136
FIU Law Review	137	147	105	146	119	136
Gonzaga Law Review	138	111	114	147	1000	148
New York Law School Law Rev.	139	129	132	142	119	130
Southwestern Law Review	140	138	150	129	109	114
Univ. of Toledo Law Review	141	142	141	125	119	142
Univ. of Arkansas LR Law Rev.	142	107	137	150	134	150
Univ. of the Pacific Law Review	143	128	139	150	112	150
Univ. of New Hampshire Law Rev.	143	126	103	150	1000	150
Ohio Northern Univ. Law Review	145	169	153	104	1000	122
St. Mary's Law Journal	146	157	158	117	119	119
Mitchell Hamline Law Review	147	145	144	150	115	150
South Dakota Law Review	147	146	147	133	128	133
Capital University Law Review	149	170	161	117	109	107
Willamette Law Review	150	124	138	150	1000	150
Touro Law Review	151	167	161	127	115	130
Northern Kentucky Law Review	152	162	161	124	1000	91
Campbell Law Review	153	170	146	140	119	122
John Marshall Law Review	154	149	152	149	131	145
North Dakota Law Review	155	137	149	150	1000	150
Univ. of Detroit Mercy Law Rev.	155	173	161	126	1000	97
South Texas Law Review	157	157	156	148	128	145
Roger Williams Univ. Law Rev.	158	155	161	150	128	150
Southern Illinois Univ. L.J.	159	154	156	150	135	150
Cumberland Law Review	160	153	145	150	1000	150
Widener Law Review	161	150	161	144	1000	114
Univ. of Dayton Law Review	162	151	154	150	1000	150
Northern Illinois Univ. Law Rev.	163	156	155	150	1000	150
Widener Commonwealth Law Rev.	163	152	159	150	1000	150
New England Law Review	165	168	161	145	1000	133
Nova Law Review	166	159	161	150	1000	150
Regent Univ. Law Review	167	184	161	138	1000	108
Elon Law Review	167	160	161	150	1000	150
Golden Gate Univ. Law Review	169	161	161	150	1000	150
California Western Law Review	170	163	161	150	1000	150
Belmont Law Review	170	181	143	150	1000	150
Oklahoma City Univ. Law Review	170	165	159	150	1000	150
Mississippi College Law Review	173	164	161	150	1000	150
University of Mass. Law Review	174	166	161	150	1000	150
N. Carolina Central Law Review	175	172	161	150	1000	150
Univ. of the D.C. Law Review	176	174	161	150	1000	150
Florida A&M Univ. Law Review	177	175	161	150	1000	150
W. New England Law Review	178	176	161	150	1000	150
St. Thomas Law Review	179	177	161	150	1000	150
Thurgood Marshall Law Review	179	177	161	150	1000	150
John Marshall Law Journal	181	179	161	150	1000	150
Southern Univ. Law Review	182	180	161	150	1000	150
Charleston Law Review	183	182	161	150	1000	150
Faulkner Law Review	184	183	161	150	1000	150
Florida Coastal Law Review	185	184	161	150	1000	150
Appalachian Journal of Law	186	186	161	150	1000	150
Liberty University Law Review	187	187	161	150	1000	150
Barry Law Review	188	188	161	150	1000	150
Western State Univ. Law Review	189	189	161	150	1000	150
Thomas M. Cooley Law Review	189	189	161	150	1000	150
Ave Maria Law Review	191	191	161	150	1000	150

• 2022 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2021 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2020 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2019 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2018 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2016 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

2019 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Update:  2023 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Bryce Clayton Newell (Oregon), 2019 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews:

This is an updated ranking of flagship law reviews at US law schools (updated as of July 23, 2019, including the 2020 US News numbers). ... The ranking table below includes all of the law reviews that ranked in the top 150 in in the MetaRanking, including all journals that ranked in the top 100 at least one of the following rankings: US News Peer Reputation Score Ranking (avg., 2011-2020), US News Overall Ranking (avg., 2011-2020), the Washington & Lee University ranking (current version, 2010-2017; default weighting), the Google Scholar ranking (index as of July 2019), and the W&L Impact Factor Ranking (not included in the MetaRank). ...

prRank = US News Peer Reputation score ranking;
usnRank = Overall US News school ranking;
wluRank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking;
gRank = Google Scholar Metrics ranking;
wlu(IF)Rank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Impact Factor Ranking.

Journal	MetaRank	prRank	usnRank	wluRank	gRank	wlu(IF)Rank
Yale Law Journal	1	2	1	1	1	2
Harvard Law Review	2	1	3	2	2	26
Stanford Law Review	3	3	2	4	3	1
Columbia Law Review	4	4	4	5	5	7
Univ. of Pennsylvania Law Review	5	9	7	3	4	3
NYU Law Review	6	6	6	11	13	12
Virginia Law Review	6	9	8	7	12	5
California Law Review	8	7	9	15	7	17
Georgetown Law Journal	9	13	14	6	6	8
Michigan Law Review	9	8	10	7	14	5
Univ. of Chicago Law Review	9	5	4	21	9	29
Texas Law Review	12	15	15	10	7	19
UCLA Law Review	13	16	16	9	10	4
Duke Law Journal	14	11	11	16	16	9
Cornell Law Review	15	12	13	16	21	9
Minnesota Law Review	16	20	20	12	14	14
Vanderbilt Law Review	17	17	17	18	16	11
Iowa Law Review	18	28	25	14	10	15
Northwestern Univ. Law Review	19	14	12	26	30	22
Boston Univ. Law Review	20	26	24	20	19	36
Notre Dame Law Review	21	24	22	19	26	20
G. Washington Law Review	22	23	21	31	24	34
Southern Calif. Law Review	22	19	18	38	24	30
Emory Law Journal	24	21	23	35	21	26
Washington Univ. Law Review	25	18	19	32	32	23
Boston College Law Review	26	29	30	23	21	24
Fordham Law Review	27	34	39	13	18	39
Indiana Law Journal	28	31	28	27	26	21
William & Mary Law Review	29	33	35	22	29	18
U.C. Davis Law Review	30	27	34	34	26	32
North Carolina Law Review	31	22	38	29	43	25
Wisconsin Law Review	32	25	33	36	39	28
Univ. of Illinois Law Review	33	35	41	30	31	33
Washington Law Review	33	37	31	49	20	49
Washington & Lee Law Review	35	36	36	37	33	41
Florida Law Review	36	39	46	24	34	16
Ohio State Law Journal	37	30	37	39	40	31
Wake Forest Law Review	38	44	40	40	35	46
Hastings Law Journal	39	40	52	33	35	43
Arizona Law Review	40	42	43	42	35	43
Alabama Law Review	41	41	27	45	53	43
UC Irvine Law Review	42	32	26	66	51	57
Cardozo Law Review	43	53	59	25	40	38
Connecticut Law Review	44	52	56	28	47	13
Maryland Law Review	45	47	48	46	46	47
Colorado Law Review	46	42	44	60	43	69
American Univ. Law Review	47	49	66	41	35	40
Arizona State Law Journal	48	45	29	67	51	82
BYU Law Review	49	50	42	48	53	60
Georgia Law Review	50	38	32	51	85	37
George Mason Law Review	51	55	45	44	65	35
Utah Law Review	52	51	47	47	68	50
Houston Law Review	53	66	54	52	47	56
Case Western Reserve Law Review	54	63	63	57	40	71
Tulane Law Review	55	46	51	61	74	83
Florida State Univ. Law Review	56	48	50	68	72	55
Univ. of Miami Law Review	56	54	67	70	47	62
Pepperdine Law Review	58	68	58	54	59	60
Lewis & Clark Law Review	59	82	86	42	47	41
Seton Hall Law Review	60	83	64	54	59	54
San Diego Law Review	61	57	76	72	56	69
Univ. of Richmond Law Review	62	75	57	69	65	65
Brooklyn Law Review	63	69	81	56	68	72
Temple Law Review	63	59	55	83	77	59
SMU Law Review	65	64	49	98	68	115
Denver Univ. Law Review	66	60	71	71	85	85
Univ. of Cincinnati Law Review	67	80	72	61	77	74
Michigan State Law Review	67	97	92	58	43	81
Nevada Law Journal	67	87	70	74	59	58
Missouri Law Review	70	67	75	83	68	96
Chicago-Kent Law Review	71	70	80	85	65	96
Univ. of Kansas Law Review	71	61	74	88	77	96
Oregon Law Review	73	56	89	63	93	67
Loyola Univ. Chicago Law Journal	74	74	78	63	93	62
Tennessee Law Review	75	62	61	93	93	78
Nebraska Law Review	75	79	73	98	59	78
Seattle Univ. Law Review	77	89	103	50	72	62
Penn State Law Review	78	92	69	53	101	47
DePaul Law Review	79	100	109	58	58	53
Oklahoma Law Review	80	78	68	122	59	125
Indiana Law Review	81	76	94	82	85	104
Rutgers Univ. Law Review	82	73	83	92	93	85
Kentucky Law Journal	83	70	62	95	116	78
Loyola of L.A. Law Review	84	65	65	80	135	91
Santa Clara Law Review	84	77	104	63	101	52
Buffalo Law Review	86	101	98	72	77	51
Villanova Law Review	87	86	85	102	77	96
Marquette Law Review	88	90	101	75	85	74
Georgia State Univ. Law Review	89	72	60	96	124	115
Univ. of Pittsburgh Law Review	90	58	79	115	108	96
South Carolina Law Review	91	91	99	86	93	85
Louisiana Law Review	92	102	88	76	106	66
Mitchell Hamline Law Review	93	143	141	90	1000	123
Albany Law Review	94	126	116	78	56	115
Catholic Univ. Law Review	95	96	100	91	90	74
Saint Louis Univ. Law Journal	95	98	95	94	90	105
West Virginia Law Review	97	110	96	107	74	105
Arkansas Law Review	97	95	83	132	77	161
Hofstra Law Review	99	99	107	97	85	118
Syracuse Law Review	100	94	93	128	74	141
Mississippi Law Journal	101	104	108	89	93	85
Howard Law Journal	102	93	116	102	101	93
UMKC Law Review	103	106	115	100	93	123
Baylor Law Review	104	88	53	138	1000	126
Idaho Law Review	105	114	125	133	53	132
Akron Law Review	106	145	134	76	77	67
St. John’s Law Review	107	103	87	135	108	141
Vermont Law Review	108	109	132	79	116	73
Gonzaga Law Review	109	111	113	108	1000	94
Texas Tech Law Review	110	135	112	87	108	85
New York Law School Law Review	111	125	131	81	108	94
Maine Law Review	112	105	123	121	108	130
Duquesne Law Review	112	149	138	111	59	122
Univ. of Louisville Law Review	114	107	97	128	1000	113
Univ. of Hawaii Law Review	115	80	90	170	124	166
Cleveland State Law Review	116	140	120	105	101	74
Drake Law Review	117	131	111	104	124	96
New Mexico Law Review	118	85	76	156	1000	152
Pace Law Review	119	133	136	100	106	110
Univ. of San Francisco Law Review	120	119	140	109	1000	105
Wyoming Law Review	121	115	122	141	101	137
Texas A&M Law Review	122	134	133	1000	108	83
Quinnipiac Law Review	123	132	127	136	93	132
Maryland Law Review	124	120	118	116	135	150
Univ. of Baltimore Law Review	124	122	121	123	1000	91
Tulsa Law Review	126	124	91	151	124	170
The Wayne Law Review	127	116	102	142	135	135
Creighton Law Review	128	128	119	111	142	126
Washburn Law Journal	129	136	130	106	131	105
Chapman Law Review	130	141	129	116	120	103
Univ. of the Pacific Law Review	131	127	137	119	124	155
CUNY Law Review	132	118	127	136	1000	105
Drexel Law Review	133	117	114	145	1000	138
Stetson Law Review	134	112	105	155	1000	182
Southwestern Law Review	134	137	147	123	120	118
Univ. of Memphis Law Review	136	144	145	109	131	90
Northeastern Univ. Law Journal	137	84	82	182	1000	179
Loyola Law Review	138	113	143	127	148	126
Suffolk Univ. Law Review	139	130	150	119	135	146
Univ. of St. Thomas Law Journal	140	139	126	138	1000	118
South Dakota Law Review	141	146	145	118	135	110
Univ. of Arkansas Law Review	142	108	135	152	1000	161
Capital Univ. Law Review	143	169	161	111	108	96
Montana Law Review	143	121	124	162	142	152
Willamette Law Review	145	123	139	146	1000	146
New England Law Review	146	166	161	114	1000	130
Univ. of Toledo Law Review	146	142	142	125	146	146
Touro Law Review	148	167	161	134	108	158
FIU Law Review	149	153	110	160	150	170
John Marshall Law Review	150	150	153	126	150	141

• 2022 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2021 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2020 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2019 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2018 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2016 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Law Reviews And The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

LawProfBlawg (Anonymous Professor, Top 100 Law School), Law Reviews And The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:

It’s time once again to take a look at things in the top 10 law review front. ... Out of the top 10 law journals, 80 percent of the publications in top 10 law reviews for 2018 are written by authors whose alma mater is one of those schools. ... In 2018, Yale Law School J.D. alums account for 25 percent of all T10 articles published.  Harvard accounts for 19 percent. ...

What this does suggest is that, unsurprisingly, the hierarchy perpetuates itself.  As the data suggests, there is some modicum of privilege that arises from being an alum of a highly ranked law school.  One might call it classism in academia.  Even if you decide not to call it that, it’s a combination of unsavory things that give rise to hierarchy.

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The Most-Cited Tax Faculty At The 68 Most-Cited Law Schools

Following up on this morning's post, The 68 Most-Cited Law Faculties:  here are the 19 Tax Profs among the 10-most cited faculty at the Top 68 law schools:

2.   Harvard:  Louis Kaplow
12.  UC-Irvine:  Vic Fleischer
14.  Michigan:  Reuven Avi-Yonah 
21.  Minnesota:  Kristin Hickman
23.  USC:  Ed Kleinbard, Ed McCaffery, Mike Simkovic
29.  Florida State:  Jeff Kahn, Steve Johnson
29.  Cardozo:  Ed Zelinsky
36.  Indiana:  David Gamage, Leandra Lederman
49.  BYU:  Cliff Fleming
54.  Pittsburgh:  Tony Infanti
58.  Santa Clara:  Pat Cain; Boston College:  Diane Ring; Georgia:  Gregg Polsky

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SSRN e-Journal Rankings By Average Downloads Per Paper

Ryan Whalen (University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law), SSRN e-Journals and Downloads:

I did a bit of SSRN/LSN hacking, and determined that ... there are some pretty major differences in the average number of downloads different LSN journals get. The below relies on data from just under a quarter million papers that are classified to LSN e-journals, and only extends to LSN classifications (i.e. working paper series or other SSRN e-journal classifications are not included).

The Tax Law & Policy Journals rank 54th out 94 SSRN e-journals, with 185 downloads per paper:

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2018 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Update:  2023 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Bryce Clayton Newell (Kentucky), 2018 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews:

This is an updated ranking of flagship law reviews at US law schools (updated as of March 20, 2018, including the 2019 US News numbers). ... The ranking table below includes all of the law reviews that ranked in the top 150 in in the MetaRanking, including all journals that ranked in the top 100 at least one of the following rankings: US News Peer Reputation Score Ranking (avg., 2010-2019), US News Overall Ranking (avg., 2010-2019), the Washington & Lee University ranking (current version, 2009-2016; default weighting), the Google Scholar ranking (index as of June 2017), and the W&L Impact Factor Ranking (not included in the MetaRank). ...

prRank = US News Peer Reputation score ranking;
usnRank = Overall US News school ranking;
wluRank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking;
gRank = Google Scholar Metrics ranking;
wlu(IF)Rank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Impact Factor Ranking.

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Are The Google Law Review Rankings 'Worthless'?

Following up on yesterday's post, 2016 Google Law Review Rankings:

Brian Leiter (Chicago), Annals of "Bullshit" Rankings:

The problem (we've encountered it in philosophy in the past, but now everyone there knows Google  Scholar is worthless for measuring journal impact) is that there is no control for the volume of publishing by each journal, so any journal that publishes more pages and articles per year will do better than a peer journal with the same actual impact that publishes fewer articles and pages.

Rob Anderson (Pepperdine), Google Scholar Releases 2016 Journal Rankings, Controversy Ensues:

Leiter's arguments are (mostly) incorrect. And as my previous posts about Google Scholar were used as part of the ranking, I felt the need to respond. ...

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2016 Google Law Review Rankings

PrawfsBlawg: Google Scholar Law Review Rankings — 2016, by Bryce C. Newell (Tilburg University):

Includes only flagship/general law reviews at ABA accredited schools (I think I've captured (almost) all of these, but let me know if I've missed any). Rankings are calculated based on the average of Google's two scores (h5-index and h5-median), as proposed here by Robert Anderson. The final column shows how much a journal's rank has changed in 2016 versus last year's ranking (0 indicates no change, a positive number indicates the ranking has gone up in 2016, while a negative number indicates a drop in ranking in 2016).

Bryce lists 194 flagship law reviews. Here are the Top 25:

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Law Review Rankings By Supreme Court Citations: 2013-2016

Empirical SCOTUS, Gold Standard Cites:

Publications and citations are essential to the research academic. They help separate experts from novices in a given field. They provide metrics for universities to gauge the quality of their professors’ scholarship. In legal scholarship there is a particularly meaningful measure that distinguishes law from other disciplines: citations in published opinions. Supreme Court citations to law reviews convey the importance of an article to a particular area of law.

Articles by Sirico [The Citing of Law Reviews by the Supreme Court:1971-1999, 75 Ind. L.J. 1009 (2000)] and Newton [Law Review Scholarship in the Eyes of the Twenty-First Century Supreme Court Justices: An Empirical Analysis 2001-2011, 4 Drexel L. Rev. 399 (2012)] previously tracked these citations over different periods of time in the 20th and 21st centuries.

1.  Harvard (27 citations in 23 cases)
2.  Yale (26,18)
3.  Columbia (16,12)
4.  Chicago (11,9)
5.  NYU (9,8)
6.  Stanford (8,6)
7.  Michigan (7,5)
7.  Penn (7,7)
9. Georgetown (6,4)
9. Texas (6,5)
9.  Texas (6,5)

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2016 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Update: 2023 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Bryce Clayton Newell (Tilburg University), 2016 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews:

I decided to create a meta-ranking of the possible contenders for gauging the relative importance of journals and offers: US News Overall Ranking (averaged from 2010-2017), US News Peer Reputation Ranking (also averaged from 2010-2017), W&L Combined Ranking (at default weighting; 2007-2014), and Google Scholar Metrics law journal rankings (averaging the h-index and h-median of each journal, as proposed here by Robert Anderson). I've ranked each journal within each ranking system, averaged these four ranks using a 25% weighting for each, and computed and ranked the final scores. I think this approach benefits from incorporating a couple different forms of impact evaluation (W&L + Google) while not disregarding the general sentiment that law school “prestige” (USN combined rank + peer reputation rank, each averaged over an 8-year period) is an important factor in law review placement decisions.

Here are the Top 25:

MetaRank	Journal	Change from USN Rank	MetaScore	Avg. USN Peer Rank	Avg. USN Overall Rank	W&L Rank	Google Rank
1	Harvard Law Review	1	1.5	1	2	2	1
2	The Yale Law Journal	-1	1.75	1	1	3	2
3	Stanford Law Review	0	2.75	3	3	1	4
4	Columbia Law Review	0	3.75	4	4	4	3
5	University of Pennsylvania Law Review	2	6.5	9	7	5	5
6	Michigan Law Review	4	8	8	10	8	6
7	California Law Review	1	9	7	8	12	9
8	New York University Law Review	-2	9.25	6	6	14	11
8	Virginia Law Review	1	9.25	9	9	9	10
10	The Georgetown Law Journal	4	9.75	13	14	6	6
11	Texas Law Review	4	12	15	15	10	8
12	University of Chicago L. Rev.	-7	12.75	5	5	25	16
12	Duke Law Journal	-1	12.75	11	11	16	13
14	Cornell Law Review	-1	13.25	12	13	15	13
15	UCLA Law Review	1	13.5	16	16	7	15
16	Northwestern University Law Review	-4	15.25	14	12	13	22
17	Minnesota Law Review	3	15.75	20	20	11	12
18	Vanderbilt Law Review	-1	17.5	17	17	20	16
19	Notre Dame Law Review	4	21.75	27	23	19	18
20	Iowa Law Review	5	22.5	27	25	18	20
21	Boston University Law Review	3	24.25	25	24	22	26
22	William and Mary Law Review	8	25.5	32	30	21	19
23	The George Washington L. Rev.	-2	26	23	21	29	31
23	North Carolina Law Review	11	26	21	34	28	21
25	Southern California Law Review	-7	26.5	19	18	32	37
26	Boston College Law Review	5	27.25	29	31	23	26

The big movers here (in this ranking versus the average US News Overall Rank from 2010-2017) seem to be (but there are quite a few others who moved around):

• New York Law School moved up a whopping 38 places (to #99);
• Vermont moved up 31 places (to #91);
• UC Irvine dropped 30 places (to #59);
• Akron moved up 28 places (to #99);
• Albany moved up 27 places (to #96).

Journals like Fordham (#26, up 10 places), Hastings (#36, up 12 places), Cardozo (#42, up 18 places), American (#46, up 11 places), and Lewis and Clark (#53, up 23 places) that have been frequently referred to in Angsting Thread comments as “hitting above their weight” all also improved at least 10 places (as did Missouri, Connecticut, Denver, Brooklyn, Chicago-Kent, Seattle, Oregon, Buffalo, Santa Clara, Indy, DePaul, South Carolina, St. Louis, Hofstra, Marquette, and Howard). Other journals dropping 10 or more places include: Arkansas-Fay., Kentucky, Georgia State, Temple, SMU, Arizona State, Georgia, and Alabama.

Other sizable moves in the top 20:

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2015 Google Law Review Rankings, Including Specialty Journals: The 10 Most-Cited Articles In The Tax Law Review

Following up on last week's post on the 2015 Google Law Review Rankings: my Pepperdine colleague Rob Anderson has expanded his annual Google Law Review Rankings to include specialty, secondary, and law-related peer-reviewed journals.  The Tax Law Review is the only tax journal to make the list of the Top 299 law review, at #121.  Here are the ten most cited articles in the Tax Law Review over the past five years:

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Google Law Review Rankings

My friend and colleague Rob Anderson (Pepperdine) has updated his annual Google Law Review Rankings, which cover 152 law reviews.  Here are the Top 25:

Rank	Law Journal Name	Average	h5-index	h5-median
1	Harvard Law Review	62	42	82
2	Yale Law Journal	52.5	38	67
3	Columbia Law Review	50	39	61
4	Stanford Law Review	49.5	37	62
5	University of Pennsylvania Law Review	47	36	58
6	Georgetown Law Journal	43	36	50
7	Michigan Law Review	43	30	56
8	Texas Law Review	41	32	50
9	California Law Review	40.5	34	47
10	Virginia Law Review	39	31	47
11	New York University Law Review	38.5	28	49
12	Minnesota Law Review	38	29	47
13	Cornell Law Review	35.5	30	41
14	Duke Law Journal	35.5	29	42
15	UCLA Law Review	35	29	41
16	Vanderbilt Law Review	34	27	41
17	University of Chicago Law Review	34	26	42
18	Notre Dame Law Review	32.5	27	38
19	William and Mary Law Review	32	26	38
20	Iowa Law Review	31.5	27	36
21	North Carolina Law Review	30.5	26	35
22	Florida Law Review	30	25	35
23	Northwestern University Law Review	30	25	35
24	Fordham Law Review	30	24	36
25	Wisconsin Law Review	30	21	39

Academic Journal Rockets To #1 Scholarly Impact Ranking Through Self-Citation

Chronicle of Higher Education, What Happens When a Scholarly Journal Constantly Cites Itself?:

The Journal of Criminal Justice has been on a roll. Once considered a somewhat middling publication — not in the same league as top journals like Criminology and Justice Quarterly — it is now ranked No. 1 in the field according to its impact factor, which measures the average number of citations a journal receives and is meant to indicate which titles are generating the most buzz.

Rocketing to No. 1 is even more impressive when you find out that in 2012 the Journal of Criminal Justice was way back in 22nd place. That’s quite a leap!

Predictably, that sharp uptick made some researchers in a field devoted to misdeeds a tad suspicious. Among them was Thomas Baker, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Florida. So Mr. Baker did what good researchers in all fields do: He took a hard look at the data. Then, after emailing it to a few friends, he decided to publish what he had found in the field’s widely read newsletter, The Criminologist.

What he found was this: Much of the rise in the journal’s impact factor was due to citations in articles published in the Journal of Criminal Justice itself.

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Google Law Review Rankings

My friend and colleague Rob Anderson (Pepperdine) has updated his Google Law Review Rankings to cover 229 law reviews.  Here are the Top 25:

Rank	Law Review Name	H5 Index	H5 Median	Avg
1	Harvard Law Review	39	71	55
2	Stanford Law Review	34	63	48.5
3	Yale Law Journal	37	56	46.5
4	Columbia Law Review	37	56	46.5
5	University of Pennsylvania Law Review	38	49	43.5
6	Michigan Law Review	31	56	43.5
7	UCLA Law Review	32	51	41.5
8	Duke Law Journal	31	52	41.5
9	Georgetown Law Journal	30	52	41
10	Cornell Law Review	31	48	39.5
11	Virginia Law Review	32	46	39
12	Texas Law Review	31	47	39
13	New York University Law Review	29	46	37.5
14	California Law Review	31	43	37
15	Minnesota Law Review	29	44	36.5
16	Journal of Law & Economics	27	46	36.5
17	Northwestern University Law Review	28	43	35.5
18	Iowa Law Review	27	43	35
19	University of Chicago Law Review	27	41	34
20	William and Mary Law Review	27	37	32
21	Vanderbilt Law Review	25	37	31
22	University of Illinois Law Review	24	38	31
23	Notre Dame Law Review	26	35	30.5
24	Boston College Law Review	24	37	30.5
25	Emory Law Journal	22	39	30.5

What Makes Lawyers Happy?

Lawrence S. Krieger (Florida State University, College of Law) & Kennon M. Sheldon (University of Missouri (Columbia), Department of Psychological Sciences), What Makes Lawyers Happy? Transcending the Anecdotes with Data from 6200 Lawyers:

Attorney well-being and depression are topics of great concern, but there has been no theory-driven empirical research to guide lawyers and law students seeking well-being. This article reports a unique study establishing a hierarchy of five tiers of factors for lawyer well-being, including choices in law school, legal career, and personal life, and psychological needs and motivations established by Self-Determination Theory. Data from several thousand lawyers in four states show striking patterns, repeatedly indicating that common priorities on law school campuses and among lawyers are confused or misplaced. Factors typically afforded most attention and concern, those relating to prestige and money (income, law school debt, class rank, law review, and USNWR law school ranking) showed zero to small correlations with lawyer well-being. Conversely, factors marginalized in law school and seen in previous research to erode in law students (psychological needs and motivation) were the very strongest predictors of lawyer happiness and satisfaction. Lawyers were grouped by practice type and setting to further test these findings. The group with the lowest incomes and grades in law school, public service lawyers, had stronger autonomy and purpose and were happier than those in the most prestigious positions and with the highest grades and incomes. Additional measures raised concerns: subjects did not broadly agree that judge and lawyer behavior is professional, nor that the legal process reaches fair outcomes. Specific explanations and recommendations for lawyers, law teachers, and legal employers are drawn from the data, and direct implications for attorney productivity and professionalism are explained.

• ABA Journal, Lawyers in Prestige Positions Aren’t as Happy as Those in Public Service-Jobs, Study Finds
• National Law Journal, Lawyer Depression Begins in School

Alford: The Strunk & White Law Review Rankings

Opinio Juris:  Omit Needless Words, by Roger Alford (Notre Dame):

Watching my youngest son draft and redraft his high school essays under the watchful eye of his English teacher, who is smitten by the inerrant wisdom of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, I was curious how the best legal scholarship in the country fares by classic rules of writing. To simplify my task, I have chosen one rule that is easily quantifiable. ... "[T]he expression 'the fact that' should be revised out of every sentence in which it occurs." ...

A ten-year search of the number of occurrences “the fact that” appeared in the flagship journals of the top law schools reveals the following: 

1. Harvard Law Review: 869
2. Michigan Law Review: 496
3. Yale Law Journal: 459
4. Columbia Law Review: 436
5. Chicago Law Review: 431
6. NYU Law Review: 428
7. Penn Law Review: 408
8. California Law Review: 406
9. Stanford Law Review: 388
10. Virginia Law Review: 364