In the legal literature

I was working on my faculty promotion file earlier this year (sigh) and looked to see where my work was being cited so I could document its "impact." Lots of interesting citations—in congressional testimony, in media stories, and in a couple of academic monographs (notably including Hugh LaFollette’s In Defense of Gun Control, published by Oxford University Press). One surprise was a profusion of law reviews articles. I found references to my work in Texas Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Duke Law Review (where the point I made was badly misrepresented), University of Chicago Law Review, Buffalo Law Review, Iowa Law Review, and New England Law Review.

Law reviews are sort of a weird corner of academic publishing. They aren't really peer mentored, and they're usually edited by law students (smart but inexperienced and as-yet inexpert people). So a lot of ideas make it to print with less rigor than you might expect in other academic journals. Which is kind of scary, when you realize that our courts, including SCOTUS, draw heavily on them.