{"title":"Evaluating Chinese Legal Scholarship in Journals: Are Journal Rankings and Elite Law Journals Representing the Best Quality?","authors":"Jian Zhang","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2706585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2706585","url":null,"abstract":"In China law journals are ranked together with journals from the (other) social sciences. As a result the evaluation of journals is based on bibliometric indicators. This has major disadvantages because quantitative indicators, such as citation scores, are merely a proxy for research quality and the citation patterns in law are quite different from other disciplines. Moreover, the current journal rankings do not enhance a fair status competition between law journals because only a very small part of the total amount of Chinese law journals are included in the rankings, while specialized law journals with relatively few readers have to compete with general interest law reviews aiming for a much broader audience. As far as Chinese elite law journals, also apply more qualitative evaluation methods, such as peer review, this does not solve the problem as long as there is no consensus on the criteria that reviewers have to apply and there are no guidelines for the selection of (independent) reviewers. More importantly, there are signs that the peer review process of journals is corrupted by “guanxi” – the informal social relationships that rule the publishing culture in legal academia. This might also explain the high level of in-house publications that can be found in most elite law journals run by staff members from the elite law schools. The paper argues that serious reforms are unavoidable if China wants to be ready for the challenges that globalisation is posing for academic legal publishing.","PeriodicalId":38415,"journal":{"name":"Tilburg Law Review-Journal of International and Comparative Law","volume":"23 1","pages":"59"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2018-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2139/SSRN.2706585","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47390788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Value of Systematic Content Analysis in Legal Research","authors":"Maryam Salehijam","doi":"10.5334/TILR.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/TILR.5","url":null,"abstract":"In ignoring the overall debate regarding the need to incorporate empirical research methods in legal scholarship, this article explores the utility of applying a particular method, namely, systematic content analysis (SCA), as a complementary tool in legal research. A research method commonly utilized by social scientists, SCA is a replicable technique that can be applied in the analysis of a variety of texts, ranging from interview transcripts to legal texts such as case law, legislation and contracts. To further support the incorporation of SCA in legal research, this article, in its second section, provides an overview of SCA, as well as its various stages. Subsequently, the third section assesses the suitability and necessity of SCA by considering its limitations and benefits. In addition, the fourth section reflects on the issues, ranging from emotional to practical, that might be faced by legal scholars when attempting to conduct SCA. This article concludes by emphasizing the need to familiarize not only legal scholars, but also law students to the world of SCA.","PeriodicalId":38415,"journal":{"name":"Tilburg Law Review-Journal of International and Comparative Law","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2018-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41376803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluating Chinese Legal Scholarship in Journals: Are Journal Rankings\u0000 and Elite Law Journals Representing the Best Quality?","authors":"Jian Zhang","doi":"10.5334/tilr.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/tilr.2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38415,"journal":{"name":"Tilburg Law Review-Journal of International and Comparative Law","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2018-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46808312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}