Legal Scholarship, Electronic Publishing, and Open Access

Image via Wikipedia

SSRN-​​Legal Scholarship, Electronic Publishing, and Open Access: Transformation or Steadfast Stagnation? by Stephanie Plotin:

Abstract:
This arti­cle uses a social shap­ing of tech­nol­ogy per­spec­tive, which stud­ies the com­plex inter­ac­tions between tech­nol­ogy and the cul­ture of a dis­ci­pline, to inves­ti­gate the evo­lu­tion of legal schol­ar­ship in the dig­i­tal age, and to deter­mine how the open access move­ment has influ­enced var­i­ous forms of legal schol­ar­ship, par­tic­u­larly law reviews, their online com­pan­ions, and legal blogs.

An inter­est­ing look at open access in the law jour­nal context:

A sociotech­ni­cal or social shap­ing of tech­nol­ogy per­spec­tive is help­ful in
explain­ing how tech­nol­ogy and elec­tronic pub­lish­ing have impacted schol­arly legal
com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Those tak­ing an information-​​processing view, focus­ing on the
tech­ni­cal fea­tures of elec­tronic media, have either pre­dicted sweep­ing changes that
have not come to pass or are advo­cat­ing the adop­tion of tech­ni­cal changes with­out
con­sid­er­ing the exist­ing aca­d­e­mic cul­ture. In con­trast, a focus on schol­arly legal
cul­ture and the insti­tu­tions and par­tic­i­pants inter­act­ing within it explains why
cer­tain things (law reviews) have mostly stayed the same, while other forms (elec­tronic repos­i­to­ries, legal blogs) have embraced the pos­si­bil­i­ties of the avail­able
tech­nol­ogy. Technology influ­ences legal schol­ar­ship and cul­ture, legal schol­ar­ship
and cul­ture influ­ence tech­nol­ogy, and the results require an under­stand­ing
of both.

The arti­cle includes a dis­cus­sion about legal blogs:

Just as spe­cial­ized law reviews pro­vided a forum for “out­sider scholar–
ship,” legal blogs pro­vide an elec­tronic forum for dis­cus­sions about top­ics such as
crit­i­cal race the­ory, affir­ma­tive action, fem­i­nism, and sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion law. These blogs can pro­vide a vir­tual com­mu­nity where schol­ars can con­nect and
express views that are not well rep­re­sented in main­stream legal pub­li­ca­tions, in
addi­tion to con­nect­ing with a wider com­mu­nity of read­ers.… Finally, the pop­u­lar­ity of legal blogs can be seen as an indi­ca­tor of larger
changes in legal scholarship.

See also:

• Plotin on Open Access at the Legal Theory Blog by Lawrence Solum

Related arti­cles by Zemanta

• Social Science Research Network (SSRN) (inpro​pri​a​per​sona​.com)
• Another Attempt to Repeal Open Access (inpro​pri​a​per​sona​.com)
• Peter Suber on the future of open access (hyper​org​.com)
• Law libraries ask for open access (hyper​org​.com)