Law Professor Blogger Census (Version 3.1)
posted by Daniel Solove
UPDATED! This version of the census (Version 3.1) incorporates changes and additions to Version 3.0 of the census released last week. Thank you to all readers who pointed out omissions and errors. As a result of the comments, 20 new bloggers have been added to the census. In addition to the chart, the stats below have all be updated. Based on these changes, there are 202 law professor bloggers, a greater percentage of female bloggers, and three additional schools in the schools with the most bloggers list: American, Case Western, and St. John’s.
Back in June of 2005, I decided to do a census of law professor bloggers. I released Version 1.0, and after receiving comments from readers, released an updated Version 2.0 on June 16, 2005, which is available here.
In Version 2.0 of the census, on June 16, 2005, I listed 130 bloggers (28 female, 102 male), and schools with the largest number of bloggers: San Diego (7), UCLA (5), George Mason (5), Cincinnati (4), Ohio State (4), GW (3), Georgetown (3), Stanford (3), St. Thomas (3), Chapman (3), Villanova (3).
I’ve decided to update the census for this fall, creating Version 3.1.
Current statistics for Version 3.1 are:
Number of Bloggers: 202 bloggers.
Growth: Since the last census on June 16, 2005, the number of bloggers has grown from 130 to 202, an increase of 55%! That’s a big increase in less than 5 months.
Gender: Of the bloggers, 50 are female and 152 are male. Thus, about 25% are female and 75% are male. There are 22 new female bloggers and 50 new male bloggers. Female bloggers increased by 78.5% and male bloggers increased by 49%.
Schools: Schools with the most bloggers include:
Chicago (14)
UCLA (7)
San Diego (7)
GW (5)
Cincinnati (5)
George Mason (5)
Stanford (4)
Northwestern (4)
Ohio State (4)
U.C. Davis (4)
American (4)
Case Western (4)
St. John’s (4)
Schools in the U.S. News Top 20 rankings account for 61 bloggers
1. Yale (3)
2. Harvard (2)
3. Stanford (4)
4. Columbia (2)
5. NYU (2)
6. Chicago (14)
7. Pennsylvania (0)
8. Michigan (3)
8. Virginia (1)
10. Northwestern (4)
11. Cornell (3)
11. Duke (1)
11. Berkeley (1)
14. Georgetown (3)
15. UCLA (7)
15. Texas (3)
17. Vanderbilt (1)
18. USC (0)
19. Minnesota (1)
20. Boston University (1)
20. George Washington (5)
There are 61 bloggers from Top 20 schools. The number is roughly a third (30%) of the total number of bloggers (202). It thus appears that the Top 20 schools have a disproportionately large representation in the blogosphere. Only 2 schools in the Top 20 have no bloggers.
The Chicago Law Faculty Blog partly accounts for the disproportionate numbers among Top 20 schools. Without Chicago, there are 47 bloggers from the Top 20 schools, accounting for 23% of the total number of bloggers. Not including Chicago, the average Top 20 law school has 2.35 bloggers.
If we use Brian Leiter’s Top 20 law faculties based on scholarly citations, we must include 3 different schools (Colorado, Emory, Illinois – 4 bloggers) and exclude 3 schools (Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt, Minnesota – 2 bloggers total). This results in a net increase of 2 bloggers, thus yielding 63 bloggers from the Leiter Top 20.
The schools with the most bloggers generally fare quite well in the Leiter rankings.
Chicago – Blogger Rank = 1, Leiter Rank = 1
UCLA – Blogger Rank = 2, Leiter Rank = 15
San Diego – Blogger Rank = 2, Leiter Rank = 23
GW – Blogger Rank = 4, Leiter Rank = 16
George Mason – Blogger Rank = 4, Leiter Rank = 23
Cincinnati – Blogger Rank = 4, Leiter Rank = Unranked (outside Top 30)
Stanford – Blogger Rank = 5, Leiter Rank = 4
Northwestern – Blogger Rank = 5, Leiter Rank = 12
Ohio State – Blogger Rank = 5, Leiter Rank = 28
U.C. Davis – Blogger Rank = 5, Leiter Rank = Unranked (outside Top 30)
American — Blogger Rank =5, Leiter Rank = Unranked (outside Top 30)
Case Western — Blogger Rank = 5, Leiter Rank = Unranked (outside Top 30)
St. John’s — Blogger Rank = 5, Leiter Rank = Unranked (outside Top 30)
New changes and additions to the census are indicated with the word “NEW.” This designation either means that the blog is new or the blogger is new or both.
November 14, 2005 at 12:02 am
Posted in: Law Professor Blogger Census
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Responses (6)
SCOTUSblog - November 14, 2005 at 8:56 am
Blog Round-Up – Monday, November 14th
The identity of Article III Groupie of Underneath Their Robes is revealed! Concurring Opinions has this updated post on statistics related to professors who blog. Law.com has posted this article on Hope v. Pelzer. In 2002 the Supreme Court, by…
SCOTUSblog - November 14, 2005 at 8:58 am
Blog Round-Up – Monday, November 14th
The identity of Article III Groupie of Underneath Their Robes is revealed! Concurring Opinions has this updated post on statistics related to professors who blog. Law.com has posted this article on Hope v. Pelzer. In 2002 the Supreme Court, by…
CALIopolis - November 14, 2005 at 3:35 pm
Census of Law Prof Blogs Updated
Mike - November 16, 2005 at 7:24 pm
How many of those listed are generally right of center? I counted 23 folks who would have no objection to being described as generally right of center, but I only recognized about 30% of the names. It would be interesting to see if the representation of conservative law prof bloggers is greater in the blogosphere than the representation of conservative law profs in the academic world.
A Knight's Blog - December 28, 2005 at 6:59 pm
Bloggin’ Profs
If you are interested in the intersection of academics blogging, check out something I have been working on in regards to blogging political scientists.
For a study of blogging law profs, go here.
And to see links to a variety of blogging academics,…
PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts - December 28, 2005 at 6:59 pm
Blogging Political Scientists Census-Beta Version
Note: As I receive additional information, I am updating the table. I also have added some additional commentary, and may add more.
Speaking of SPSA papers, I have been working for some time (mentioned early on here) on determining how many politic…
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