1,720,959 research outputs found
Analyzing Pathways to the J.D. with National Student Clearinghouse Data
Full text linkThe lack of diversity in legal education and the profession is a well-established fact. Data and rich commentary from law school scholars clearly illustrate barriers to entry for historically underrepresented groups. Yet, we continue to see persistent gaps in law school and bar admission among ethnic minorities—particularly, Black and Latinx students. And although information on first-generation and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups is harder to obtain, we also find inequitable access for these students where data are available.
Although discussions of law school diversity necessitate examination of students’ racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, they also require an analysis of the pathways students must navigate to obtain law school admission. Conceptually, the law school admission process is depicted as a single, linear and uniform path for all students; in reality, it is a series of paths that can lead to disparate outcomes depending on the student and the route taken.
Observing these pathways and where they lead can help us better understand how students of all backgrounds come to access legal education, and how we might improve these paths to advance diversity and equity in law school admission and enrollment. At a time when our nation is embroiled in social unrest, racial injustice, and political discord, ensuring that law school graduating classes reflect the diversity of society is even more paramount.
Utilizing data from the National Student Clearinghouse (“Clearinghouse”) and the American Bar Association (ABA), this paper describes undergraduate pathways to the J.D. and how those pathways lead to different law school destinations. We use Clearinghouse data to conduct a retrospective analysis of the 2017-2018 cohort of law students and graduates to examine their demographics, undergraduate majors, undergraduate institution types, and educational experiences before and during law school. To examine law school destinations, we utilize ABA data to categorize law schools based on first-time bar passage rates, scholarship generosity, law job placement, and student retention. Each school is scored based on its combined performance on these metrics, then grouped according to its relationship to the mean score. Hereafter, these law school groupings are described as follows: Above Average, Just Above Average, Just Below Average, and Below Average. Law schools that have since closed are grouped separately.
Part I of the report disaggregates and summarizes the cohort by student demographics, pathways to law school, and law school destination. Part II examines law school destinations by student demographics and pathways. Finally, Part III discusses the results and their implications, offering suggestions for broadening pathways to law school and improving outcomes for underserved groups who successfully enroll
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Approaching the Bar: An Analysis of Post-Graduation Bar Exam Study Habits
Full text linkFor most law graduates, passing the bar exam is the culmination and most critical outcome of their legal education. The typical two months spent preparing after law school graduation are essential to success. However, empirical understanding of post-graduation bar preparation is limited; only a few studies in the legal academy have examined this period. Generally, law graduates are advised to treat bar preparation like a full-time job. But we lack research and data on the specific time management strategies and tactics that are correlated with bar passage. Given impending changes to the bar exam, such inquiries are critical to determining what post-graduation study approaches are currently most effective and what adjustments, if any, should be made to prepare law students for the bar exam of the future.
In an effort to contribute to a better understanding of the post-graduation bar prep period, this report describes the results of a 2017 study AccessLex conducted in the seven weeks leading up to taking the July bar exam, which examined the extent to which graduates’ study habits and non-academic activities predicted their bar exam outcomes. With help from the University of San Diego School of Law and Themis Bar Review, we recruited recent California law school graduates to participate in a daily time-diary survey that would yield insights into how they managed their studies in the weeks leading up to the bar exam. During the seven-week period, survey respondents completed a daily record of their activities in 30-minute increments, based on nine predetermined categories: bar preparation, employment, job search, commuting, personal care, caregiving, leisure, sleep, and “other.” In analyzing the data, we sought to answer the following questions: To what extent is bar passage associated with the number of hours spent studying? To what extent is bar passage associated with study habits and patterns (e.g., number of study sessions per day)? To what extent is bar passage associated with the amount of time spent on non-study activities? To what extent is the amount of study time associated with negative experiences (e.g., feeling unprepared) and mindset during the bar exam
Overall, this report makes the following observations: The likelihood of bar exam passage is strongly associated with the average number of hours spent studying daily. Although the average length of study session duration has no significant impact on bar passage, higher numbers of daily study sessions lead to a higher probability of bar exam success. Studying earlier in the day is more strongly associated with bar passage than studying at any other time of the day. Employment during the bar preparation period is negatively associated with bar success. Although graduates who study more hours per day are more likely to pass the bar exam, they are more likely to report running out of time on the multiple choice and essay sections of the bar exam. Graduates who studied an average of 10 or more hours per day are the main drivers behind this finding, indicating that there may be diminishing returns to daily averages of study beyond the 10-hour threshold.
Because this report focuses on a small group of first-time bar takers in California, the findings discussed have limited generalizability and should be considered exploratory in nature. We hope our approach serves as a methodological proof of concept that can be replicated among other legal education researchers and practitioners in other jurisdictions
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Law School in a Pandemic Ungrouped: How Online J.D. Experiences Varied Across Students
Full text linkAt the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, law schools and students resiliently forged ahead, endeavoring — many for the first time — to pursue their J.D. programs online. AccessLex Institute® and Gallup partnered to survey law students about their experiences with online J.D. courses during this time, releasing two Law School in a Pandemic reports in 2021 and 2022 to discuss each year’s findings. This third and final report in the series examines the extent to which student perceptions of their J.D. programs during the pandemic differed by various characteristics — namely race/ethnicity, age, enrollment status, caregiver status, and law school tier.
Generally, we find that part-time students, caregivers, students ages 30 and older, and those attending tier-four (T4) ranked law schools were most receptive to online J.D. courses and reported more favorable experiences compared to their counterparts. And while there were few differences by race/ethnicity, we find that underrepresented students of color were more likely than White and Asian students to perceive that online courses allow more time to gain legal work experience and work to earn money. However, underrepresented students were less likely to report easy access to career services and to agree their J.D. program is worth the cost. These findings suggest that the appeal of online J.D. courses varies across student demographics. Law schools seeking to broaden distance learning opportunities can leverage these results to design equitable, quality online experiences for their students
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