RE: the purpose of law reviews?

I think you underestimate the cost of performing the transfer of the material to web-suitable format.

Many journals now post current materials online. But those on-line archives only go back a few years. I know that in the case of the journal I worked on in law school, the cost and effort of going back and digitizing the past issues was prohibitive. Even though the text is already in digital format on LEXIS and Westlaw, it's a giant pain in the $%**# to upload the information on-line and format it correctly, especially for a typical journal that is run by law students who have other things to do (like pass their classes) than learning html code.

Besides, the main impetus to putting the materials on line would normally be the academic community. But law professors and law students have near universal access to both Lexis and Westlaw, thanks to the two companies' "Crack Dealer" method of marketing (Hey, law student, come here. Why don't you try Shepardizing on Lexis. Its cool. You'll like it. I'll give you the first hit for free. You can pay me later when you go work for a big law firm.) It's so easy for law students and professors to access the materials through the online service providers that putting the materials on disparate web sites would actually be a step backwards (for them).

If other academic groups had a free (to them) service that aggregated all the materials from all their relevant journals in one easy-to-use system, there wouldn't be web services in those area either.

-David Hale

On Thursday, May 31, 2001 8:19 PM, Earl H. Merry [SMTP:early[_at_]eastcore.net] wrote:
>
>
> While reading Posner's Problems of Jurisprudence I am constantly
> stymied by the fact that I don't have access to Lexis-Nexis or
> WESTLAW. I work for a small software company and can't justify
> even asking for such an expensive resource right now. Everytime
> I see a footnote that interests me (often) I go to the Web and try
> to find the work cited: Often to no avail. =;-(.
>
> Can anyone on the list enlighten me as to the reasons why law review
> articles are not available online for free? My Alma Mater, UGA LAW,
> has <bold>NO</bold> access whatsoever. A quick and insignificant
> check of other Law Reviews and reveals <bold>AT MOST</bold> sporadic
> coverage.
>
> I would like to believe that the phenomenon of free peer-reviewed
> publishing, see e.g. Steven Harnard's article at
> http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december99/12harnad.html, in the scientific
> peer-reviewed world might have similarities that lawyers and legal
> academics can benefit from. For example, the primary purpose of both
> peer reviewed journals and law reviews seems to me to be the
> advancement of knowledge.
>
> The 2nd circuit, which as all on the list know is a force to be
> reckoned with and followed areas copyright, has ruled in Tasini that
> when free-lance authors granted serial publishing rights to media
> businesses, those authors reserved the duration of their rights which
> includes the right to license their works for digital publication. see
> http://www.nwu.org/tvt/tvthome.htm.
> Does anyone have an opinion on how this impacts the availability of
> law review material?
>
> I understand that law reviews might have to cover expenses, but I
> really doubt that the sales revenue they generate is significant.
> Correct me please if I am mistaken. Am I missing some
> large expense other than theactual cost of publication?
>
>
>
> I will take replies on and off the list.
>
> Thanks.
>
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> * Howard Merry **"Take what you have gathered *
> * www.EastCore.net ** from coincidence" *
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>
>
Received on Fri Jun 01 2001 - 17:10:53 GMT