How the “Most-Cited Flagship Journal” Ranking Is Calculated (ABA-Approved Law Schools)

Overview

This ranking highlights the scholarly impact of ABA-approved law schools by identifying the most-cited flagship journals associated with those institutions. For each law school, the flagship journal is its primary general law review or main student-edited law journal. Citation and usage data are drawn exclusively from articles published in these flagship journals within HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. HeinOnline’s ScholarRank formula is applied at the journal level to produce a top 100 list of the most influential flagship titles.

Eligibility

Only flagship journals of ABA-approved law schools qualify for inclusion in this ranking. For each qualifying institution, only the articles that are published in its designated flagship journal are counted, regardless of the authors’ institutional affiliations. The final list presents the top 100 flagship journals based on their cumulative citation and usage metrics.

Metrics Used

This ranking is based on the following five metrics, each drawn from flagship journal article data in HeinOnline:

1. Cited by Articles (0 to 5 Years)
   Counts the number of times flagship journal articles have been cited by other articles in HeinOnline within the past five years. Citation style sources include the Bluebook, Prince’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations, and the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.
2. Cited by Articles (5+ Years)
   Counts the number of times flagship journal articles have been cited by other articles in HeinOnline more than five years after publication. Citation style sources include the Bluebook, Prince’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations, and the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.
3. h5-index
   Measures the productivity and citation impact of the flagship journal’s publications over the most recent five complete calendar years. The index reflects the number of articles (h) published by the journal during that period that have each been cited at least h times.
4. h-index
   Measures the overall productivity and citation influence of the flagship journal’s entire body of published articles. It is based on the journal’s most cited articles and the citations those articles have received.
5. Accessed (Past 12 Months)
   Measures relevancy and recency by counting the total number of times flagship journal articles have been accessed by HeinOnline users in the past twelve months. An article counts as accessed when it is clicked from search results, navigated to directly, or retrieved through the citation navigator.

Calculation Method

Z-scores are calculated for each of the five metrics. These five Z-scores are averaged to generate each flagship journal’s overall score. The final average score is placed into the standard competition ranking to determine the top 100 flagship journals.

Formula

Z-score Calculation:
Zx = (x – µ) / σ

Average Z-score:

Zµ = (Z1 + Z2 + Z3 + Z4 + Z5) / 5

Final ScholarRank:

Zµ, ranked using standard competition rules.

Update and Refresh Schedule

This ranking is refreshed with every monthly HeinOnline content release, at which point all citations are fully recounted. This ensures that the standings remain current as new scholarship is published and cited.

Additional Information and FAQs

For more details and answers to frequently asked questions, visit:
https://help.heinonline.org/kb/scholarly-impact-rankings-faq/