Publishing in Law Reviews and Journals

Submit to DASH, Harvard University's open access repository

If you are a current HLS student, deposit your work in DASH (Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard).

CC License

You may reproduce any part of it for noncommercial purposes as long as credit is included and it is shared in the same manner.

Deciding where to publish

Comparing Law Journal Impact Factor/Prestige

Over the years, many ranking systems for law journals have evolved, incorporating a variety of methodologies and factors, including frequency of citation, prominence of author, etc.. Although such rankings can be useful for getting an idea of the prestige or "impact factor" of a journal, they should be taken with a grain of salt and in consideration of other factors that might be important to you. Ranking of journals is frequently a subject of articles and blog postings. Play close attention to how the data was compiled---e.g. through database searches, opinions of experts in the field, etc..

Law Journal Submissions and Ranking The Washington & Lee Law School Library produces this site that lists law journals by subject, country and other factors, and allows users to rank journals by impact factor or immediacy index. (Both are based on citation counts more or less, see ranking methodology). Provides contact and submission information.

Clarivate Journal Citation Reports (Harvard ID and PIN required)
Ranks journals in a wide range of disciplines including about 100 law journals. Rankings are based on citation counts in thousands of journals in the sciences and social sciences. From the home page, click Categories, then click Social Sciences, General. From the expanded menu, click Law.

Most Cited Journals on HeinOnline This top 100 list is based on HeinOnline's citator feature called ScholarCheck. You can also use ScholarCheck to create your own metric. They also have a collection of most-cited law journals.

Eigenfactor This system ranks journals as Google ranks websites (mapping relationship structures). The coverage of law is not comprehensive, but it is useful for looking at journals in the context of the social sciences generally.

Google Scholar Metrics Google Scholar provides five-year h-index and h-median numbers for ranking purposes.

Measuring Quality - Writing for and Publishing in Law Reviews (Choosing Where to Submit and Publish) A great guide compiled by the Gallagher Library at the University of Washington Law School, explaining the most common ranking factors, including important an extensive selection of articles and surveys.