19 Nov The Monopoly Board of Citation Rankings
Brian Leiter has just published his ranking of the Most Cited Law Professors by Specialty, 2000-2007. There are many interesting reflections one could draw from this list, but one that I find particularly important is what I will call the Monopoly Board of Citation Rankings. If you’re in the “wrong” neighborhood, a citation value of 250 is phenomenal. If you’re in a really nice neighborhood, a citation value of 250 is good. But if you’re in the best neighborhood, a citation value of 250 is, well, respectable.
Leiter’s findings strongly reinforce the common perception that it is much easier to be viewed as successful if you publish in certain specialties rather than others. That is, it is far easier to be cited frequently if you are a constitutional law or business law scholar and far more difficult to be cited frequently if you write about tax, labor, or heaven forbid, trusts & estates.
The list below ranks the number of citations for the 10th most-cited person in each specialty based on Leiter’s rankings. (Caveat: The 10th spot is not a perfect indicator of specialty ranking, but it offers a decent estimate of how a star (rather than a superstar) might fare in each specialty).
1. BOARDWALK (Constitutional Law) 1640
2. PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE (Business Law) 920
3. NORTH CAROLINA AVENUE (Law and Economics) 870
4. PACIFIC AVENUE (Critical Theory) 830
5. MARVIN GARDENS (Criminal Law) 740
5. VENTNOR AVENUE (Intellectual Property/Cyberlaw) 740
7. ATLANTIC AVENUE (International Law) 620
8. ILLINOIS AVENUE (Environmental Law) 500
9. INDIANA AVENUE (Law and Social Science) 460
10. TENNESSEE AVENUE (Legal History) 420
11. ST. JAMES PLACE (Law and Philosophy) 410
12. VIRGINIA AVENUE (Legal Ethics/Legal Profession) 390
13. STATES AVENUE (Civil Procedure) 380
14. ST. CHARLES PLACE (Torts & Products Liability) 300
15. CONNECTICUT AVENUE (Evidence) 250
16. VERMONT AVENUE (Tax) 240
17. ORIENTAL AVENUE (Labor and Employment) 230
18. MEDITERRANEAN AVENUE (Wills, Trusts & Estates) 90
What about immigration lawyers? I guess we’re the red headed stepchild of the legal world … lower than Baltic or the utilities–maybe the equivalent of “you won $10 in a beauty pageant.”
For a post on the limitations of this study on Tennessee Avenue (aka Legal History), and for other interdisciplinary fields, I have a post on the Legal History Blog. Besides skewing in favor of scholars who publish primarily in journals covered by the Westlaw JLR database used by Leiter, as opposed to peer-reviewed journals outside database, the study also skews in favor of larger sub-fields (e.g. American legal history over medievalists).
What happened to Baltic, New York, Kentucky, and tony Park Place? Secret citations?
Andrea,
Leiter only provides 18 specialties, leaving a few gaps in the Monopoly Board. Baltic (right next to Mediterranean) and Park Place (right next to Boardwalk) were excluded because no other specialties were close to Trusts & Estates and Constitutional Law.
Roger Alford
That was clever and useful. Thanks for posting it.