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Blogs, and “Short Form” Legal Scholarship
A new article describes changes in legal scholarly communication as a shift from long, rights-protected mediated forms to short, open-access, unmediated ones. The author, Lawrence Solum, also considers the causes of the change, and the future. His comments are based mainly on his experiences as a blogger.
Solum, Lawrence B., “Download It While Its Hot: Open Access and Legal Scholarship” . Lewis & Clark Law Review, Vol. 10, p. 841, 2006 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=957237
The article appears in a special issue on open access and the legal world.
Yes Michael – it’s a stimulating issue: http://www.slaw.ca/2007/01/18/does-open-access-publication-help-or-hinder-legal-scholarship/
One advantage of an open system like SSRN is open statistics of readership. For example, a recent article with an innovative title –
“An RSVP to Professor Wexler’s Warm TJ Invitation: Unable to Join You, Already (Somewhat Similarly) Engaged”, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=948947 – gets 35 abstract views for every download of the full paper. This helps authors see what works and what not
Like the single who never gets a call out of speed dating.
Tells you something.
As Belloc said, “When I die, I hope it will be said,
His sins were scarlet, but his books were read”.
Jeeze – I will be sure to check next time I post. Apologies.
I don’t mind hearing about things more than once because we all have different approaches to the ideas. Also, it gives me a nudge to check something out that I might have passed over before.
Cheers,
Connie