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Determinants of Citations to Articles in Elite Law Reviews

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  • Ayres, Ian
  • Vars, Fredrick E

Abstract

This article analyzes the determinants of citations to pieces published from 1980 to 1995 in Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and The Yale Law Journal. We also rank articles by number of citations using regressions controlling for time since publication, journal, and subject area. To summarize a few of our results: citations per year peak at 4 years after publication, and an article receives half of its expected total lifetime citations after 4.6 years; appearing first in an issue is a significant advantage; international law articles receive fewer citations; jurisprudence articles are cited more often: articles by young, female, or minority authors are more heavily cited. Articles with shorter titles, fewer footnotes per page, and without equations have significantly more citations than other articles. Total citations generally increase with an article's length, but citations per published page peak at 53 pages. Copyright 2000 by the University of Chicago.

Suggested Citation

  • Ayres, Ian & Vars, Fredrick E, 2000. "Determinants of Citations to Articles in Elite Law Reviews," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 427-450, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:v:29:y:2000:i:1:p:427-50
    DOI: 10.1086/468081
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    1. Editors, 2016. "16 and all that," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 16(1), pages 3-4, March.
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    1. Wang, Jiaxi & Zhang, Jingjing, 2023. "The impact of policy collaboration networks and policy topic networks on policy diffusion: Empirical evidence from the energy field," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    2. S. Stremersch & I. Verniers & C. Verhoef, 2006. "The Quest for Citations: Drivers of Article Impact," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 06/422, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    3. Gilat Levy, 2005. "Careerist Judges," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(2), pages 275-297, Summer.
    4. Juan Xie & Kaile Gong & Jiang Li & Qing Ke & Hyonchol Kang & Ying Cheng, 2019. "A probe into 66 factors which are possibly associated with the number of citations an article received," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(3), pages 1429-1454, June.
    5. Iman Tahamtan & Askar Safipour Afshar & Khadijeh Ahamdzadeh, 2016. "Factors affecting number of citations: a comprehensive review of the literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1195-1225, June.
    6. Ajiferuke, Isola & Famoye, Felix, 2015. "Modelling count response variables in informetric studies: Comparison among count, linear, and lognormal regression models," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 499-513.
    7. Zhi Li & Yuh-Shan Ho, 2008. "Use of citation per publication as an indicator to evaluate contingent valuation research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 75(1), pages 97-110, April.
    8. Tang, Li & Yang, Defang & Wang, Mingxing & Guo, Ying, 2024. "The mediating impact of citation scope: Evidence from China's ESI publications," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3).
    9. Martorell Cunil, Onofre & Otero González, Luis & Durán Santomil, Pablo & Mulet Forteza, Carlos, 2023. "How to accomplish a highly cited paper in the tourism, leisure and hospitality field," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    10. Battiston, Pietro & Sacco, Pier Luigi & Stanca, Luca, 2022. "Cover effects on citations uncovered: Evidence from Nature," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    11. Tom Coupé & Victor Ginsburgh & Abdul Noury, 2010. "Are leading papers of better quality? Evidence from a natural experiment," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 62(1), pages 1-11, January.
    12. Moritz Müller & Robin Cowan & Helena Barnard, 2023. "The role of local colleagues in establishing international scientific collaboration: Social capital in emerging science systems," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 32(5), pages 1077-1108.
    13. Dongyu Zang & Chunli Liu, 2023. "Exploring the clinical translation intensity of papers published by the world’s top scientists in basic medicine," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(4), pages 2371-2416, April.
    14. Carmela Lutmar & Yaniv Reingewertz, 2021. "Academic in-group bias in the top five economics journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(12), pages 9543-9556, December.
    15. Berninger, Marc & Kiesel, Florian & Schiereck, Dirk & Gaar, Eduard, 2021. "Citations and the readers’ information-extracting costs of finance articles," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    16. Nunkoo, Robin & Hall, C. Michael & Rughoobur-Seetah, Soujata & Teeroovengadum, Viraiyan, 2019. "Citation practices in tourism research: Toward a gender conscientious engagement," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    17. Meyer, Matthias & Waldkirch, Rüdiger W. & Duscher, Irina & Just, Alexander, 2018. "Drivers of citations: An analysis of publications in “top” accounting journals," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 24-46.
    18. Sahuguet, Nicolas & Mechoulan, Stéphane, 2011. "Assessing Racial Discrimination in Parole Release," CEPR Discussion Papers 8506, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Chen, Wei & Yan, Yan, 2023. "New components and combinations: The perspective of the internal collaboration networks of scientific teams," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    20. Lee Stapleton, 2015. "Do academics doubt their own research?," SPRU Working Paper Series 2015-24, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    21. Lutz Bornmann & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2025. "Pattern, Perception, and Performance: Tripartite Phrases in Academic Paper Titles," CESifo Working Paper Series 11671, CESifo.
    22. Reingewertz, Yaniv & Lutmar, Carmela, 2018. "Academic in-group bias: An empirical examination of the link between author and journal affiliation," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 74-86.
    23. Tahamtan, Iman & Bornmann, Lutz, 2018. "Core elements in the process of citing publications: Conceptual overview of the literature," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 203-216.
    24. Lina Xu & Steven Dellaportas & Jin Wang, 2022. "A study of interdisciplinary accounting research: analysing the diversity of cited references," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2131-2162, June.

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