Faculty Blogs and Influence: SSRN Downloads (Part 4)

We have been discussing the growing influence of law faculty blogs, a topic examined in my paper, Of Empires, Independents, and Captives : Law Blogging, Law Scholarship, and Law School Rankings. We have already examined the growing number of blog citations in law review articles and in court opinions. Today we look at the relationship between blogging and SSRN downloads.

SSRN rankings have become an increasingly popular source of evidence about academic reputation. At least one study has suggested that law school rankings on SSRN (which rank by downloads within the prior 12 months) correlate with academic reputation.  Whatever the faults in relying on SSRN rankings, they are visually compelling and simple to read. They can provide knowledge about the scholarly output of a faculty that would otherwise take considerable time and effort to acquire.  They are reported to be influential in the law review placement process and have been used as a “faculty evaluation tool.”   To the extent blogging increases SSRN downloads, therefore, it can influence the perception of a faculty member's scholarship and the academic reputation of a law school. 

The evidence of a relationship between SSRN downloads and blogging is anecdotal but suggests that one exists.  An examination of the top 100 scholars in SSRN (based upon downloads) as of Feb. 4, 2008 shows that 17 are unaffiliated with US law schools. Of the remainder, 56 were from top 20 schools and another 13 from the remaining schools in the top 50. Only 14 (about 17%) were from schools outside the top tier. In other words, scholars in the top schools dominate SSRN downloads.  

Many of the faculty in these rankings at the top tier schools regularly participate in the blogosphere.  These include:  Solove (Concurring Opinions), Leiter (Law School Reports and Philosophy), Bainbridge (ProfessorBainbridge and Mirror of Justice), Ribstein (Ideoblog), Solum (Legal Theory), Fleischer (The Conglomerate), Balkin (Balkinization), Kerr (Volokh Conspiracy), Barnett (Volokh Conspiracy), Zywicki (Volokh Conspiracy), and Somin (Volokh Conspiracy). 

But the relationship between blogging and downloads is far more pronounced among the faculty at schools outside the top tier.  Of the 14 scholars not from the top tier, almost half (six) had a significant blogging presence. These included Jim Chen, at Louisville (who writes prolifically on blogs in the Jurisdynamics Network), Jeffrey Lipshaw at Suffolk (Legal Profession Blog), Richard Bales at Northern Kentucky (Workplace Blog), Brian Tamanaha at St. Johns (Balkinization), William Sjostrim at Northern Kentucky (Truth on the Market), and Glenn Reynolds at Tennessee (Instapundit). 

Among the blogs that write in the corporate governance area, Bainbridge (UCLA) is ranked #9, Ribstein (Illinois) #13, Smith (Brigham Young) #113, and Brown (Denver) #116. 

In addition, I conducted a small experiment to study the reaction of posting to downloads. On July 24, 2007, a paper on SSRN with 199 downloads and about 495 abstract views was prominently mentioned in the first paragraph in a post on the Harvard Corporate Governance blog. Although previously discussed on The Race to the Bottom, the post provided notice to a new group of readers. Within 48 hours, the paper, which had largely been inactive in the prior week, received 21 downloads and approximately 29 abstract views.

Similarly, another paper written in 1988 and posted in 2007 that had largely become inactive for both downloads and abstract views was mentioned in a week long series of posts on the topic of the paper (beneficial ownership of shares) during a seven day period in late November and early December, 2007. At the start of the series, the paper had 20 downloads and 78 views. Over the period of the posts, the number of downloads increased to over 60, the number of views to over 200.

This suggests that blogging can impact SSRN downloads.  The connection has a common sense component.  If more people are made aware of scholarship, more people will download and read it.  Moreover, blogging is an effective mechanism for advertising the contents of a longer piece of scholarship, requiring pithy and less dense descriptions of the significant ideas.  Finally, blogging allows authors to route around the traditional biases in both law review placement and SSRN downloads that favor faculty at the top schools.  To the extent that there is any relationship between SSRN downloads and rankings, blogging can affect this relationship.