AALS Hot Topic Program

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Session Type: AALS Hot Topic Programs

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel

Room: Maryland B

Floor: Lobby Level

In 2019, U.S. News and World Report announced that it is developing a metric of “scholarly impact” rankings for law school faculty scholarship. The plan as announced will rely on data from William S. Hein & Co. Initially, this ranking will be reported separately from the overall rankings of law schools but eventually it might be incorporated into those overall rankings. Critics of the new metric have raised concerns about the quality of the data and methods involved in this effort. Some scholars have suggested alternative metrics that might capture more aspects of scholarship of value to the legal academic community.