Re: L.Rev (C) Release

On Wed, 27 Oct 1999, Richard A. Schafer <schafer[_at_]mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
> Although I can't speak for that particular journal, as a former journal
> editor I can make some guesses:
>
> 1. Journals really want to be the first to publish articles. We
> would refuse out of hand any submission that had ever been
> published elsewhere, including on a website. It's important to
> the journal's reputation (or so we're taught to believe) that
> they only publish first-publication materials. Why allow

Well, that's going to become increasingly problematic. Virtually all pieces that get published in law reviews first exist as working papers. In the old days those were circulated through private networks. But now with the Soc. Sci. Research Network (www.ssrn.com) working papers are broadly available on the web. And a quick glance shows that the law reviews at Columbia, U. of Chi., U. Mich. and Penn. are all planning to publish pieces that have appeared in working paper form on SSRN.

> publication (even pre-publication) in non-English languages? I
> suspect largely because a) no one ever translates law review
> articles and b) foreign language journals are in competition
> with English language journals.

Did you mean "b) foreign language journals are NOT in competition with English language journals

> 2. Actually, there *is* money in there. Our journal's contract with
> Westlaw paid us for every hit on an article from our journal.
> While not enough to raise a family on, we received significant
> funds from this annually. So it's *very* important to be able
> to get rights to republish the article on services like Lexis
> and Westlaw.

Good point. I suppose SSRN and my web site will reduce downloading fees. Well, as a general matter I think that West and Lexis shouldn't get the kind of rents they do on legal materials, and to the extent I am such a material, I don't feel too bad that they, and the law reviews with whom they contract, will get reduced fees.

JK

John Kasdan
<kasdan[_at_]columbia.edu> Received on Fri Oct 29 1999 - 15:49:19 GMT