van Gestel, Rob; Lienhard, Andreas --- "Introduction" [2019] ELECD 843; in van Gestel, Rob; Lienhard, Andreas (eds), "Evaluating Academic Legal Research in Europe" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 1

Book Title: Evaluating Academic Legal Research in Europe

Editor(s): van Gestel, Rob; Lienhard, Andreas

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Introduction

Author(s): van Gestel, Rob; Lienhard, Andreas

Number of pages: 19

Abstract/Description:

Who are the best legal scholars in Europe in different fields of law? Which journals are considered the best in Europe and what sorts of assessment methods do editorial boards and publishers apply when evaluating manu¬scripts? These are but a few of the questions that are difficult to answer for legal academics, university managers and funding bodies. To outsiders, these kinds of questions might seem trivial, because in most other (social) sciences many scholars know each other’s h-index, there are official rankings of journals and publishers, and editorial boards are quite clear about the standards they apply for (single or double blind) peer review. In law, however, all this is different. Not only do legal academics in Europe publish a wide variety of articles, essays, books, commentaries, case notes and so on, in a broad range of languages, about a wide variety of national legal systems; but unlike scholars in the hard sciences, they also address multiple audiences. The readership of legal scholars ranges from other academics to courts, solicitors, legislators and so on. Without realizing it, the absence of uniform evaluation practices for academic legal publications may have unexpected consequences.