Scholarship on the evolution of scholarship

Though I aspire to someday do scholarship on the scholarship discussing scholarship, here I will be content to spotlight two pieces from the genre I noticed at the always great MoneyLaw:

• Law [Review]'s Empire: The Assessment of Law Reviews and Trends in Legal Scholarship by Alfred Brophy.

Abstract: Recent research details the close connections between a school's US News rankings and citations to a school's main law journal.  This brief essay builds on that research. Drawing upon John Doyle's database at Washington and Lee Law School, it looks to the 100 most-cited secondary student-edited law journals, with the goal of seeing the connections between well-cited secondary journals and school ranking.  A final table provides a ranking of the most-cited secondary journals.

• Law School Rankings, Faculty Scholarship, and Associate Deans for Faculty Research by Richard Buckingham, Diane D'Angelo & Susan Vaughn

Abstract: The authors contend that a boom in law school rankings has encouraged many U.S. law schools to take new measures to encourage and publicize faculty scholarship. The establishment of associate deans for faculty research is one such measure. The authors conducted a study to determine the number of law schools that have these dean-level positions. They argue that many law schools have established these positions as part of their efforts to improve their standing in the increasingly important rankings. The authors begin with a historical overview of the original law school model and discuss how that model evolved over time. They focus on how those changes led to a competitive law school market that helped lay the groundwork for U.S. News & World Report and other law school rankings. They then explore numerous alternative ranking methodologies and conclude with a study of ABA-accredited law schools that have appointed associate deans for faculty research.