Law School Faculty Recognized for Scholarly Work

Social Science Research Network’s download data show articles by GW Law School faculty members are some of the most popular.

July 15, 2013

Orin Kerr SSRN

Professor of Law Orin Kerr is one of the most downloaded authors on the Social Sciences Research Network.

By Julyssa Lopez

A recent report from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), an online depository for scholarly articles and research papers, shows George Washington University Law School faculty papers are among the most downloaded publications in the legal world.

SSRN collects scholarly papers from faculty members across universities nationwide and then tracks the number of downloads each article receives to compile its reports. Reports are based on the number of downloads in the past 12 months and the number of all-time downloads.

The SSRN list of 350 top law schools is led by Harvard Law School, with GW not far behind in the second position. The two schools have the most downloads both in the last year and for all time. New York University School of Law, Yale Law School and the University of Chicago Law School follow GW with the highest downloads in the last year, while the University of Chicago Law School, Columbia Law School and Stanford Law School follow GW with the highest downloads for all time.

There are 1,188 papers authored by GW Law School faculty members available on SSRN. These have a total of 568,676 downloads, with each paper averaging about 479 downloads. In the last 12 months, GW Law School papers have received 90,281 downloads.

Popular articles on the site include Professor of Law Orin Kerr’s piece, “Searches and Seizures in the Digital World,” originally published by the Harvard Law Review in 2005. The article has been downloaded 2,514 times since he made it available on SSRN.

Interim Dean of the GW Law School Gregory Maggs attributes the popularity of the school’s articles to the hard work of its faculty members. “The SSRN statistics provide one measure of the scholarly impact of the research and analysis done at the GW Law School. It is gratifying to know that so many scholars from around the world are interested in reading articles written by our faculty members,” Dean Maggs said. “The authors are truly interested in advancing knowledge and improving legal policies and practices.”