The Law Review Games

I've always found it curious that these sorts of articles are posted on SSRN. I assume it is because the authors want to boost their download numbers. Whether that's the case or not, it lowers my opinion of Cherry, Secunda, and the like.

If everything we do has to be about rankings and how to game the system, my hat is off to Profs Cherry and Secunda not only for satirizing the system, but also for simultaneously boosting their downloads in the process.

Seriously, aren't these technologies about sharing ideas first and bean-counting as a secondary concern?

@Jacqui, thanks for the kind words, glad you liked it.
@T Shakur, we posted the parody on SSRN so that others going through the law review submission process could read it and hopefully get a laugh. The metric of download numbers is kinda silly anyway. But maybe it's just an East Coast-West Coast thing.

Thanks for the laugh, Miriam and Paul!

Thanks for the second laugh, Miriam, from your comments above. East Coact-West Coast . . . I had to laugh out loud.

Is "T Shakur" a pseudonym? I thought it was a funny piece although I would undoubtedly have found it funnier still if I had read The Hunger Games. I have often thought this was a fairly grim process by which you manage to turn good news ("Yeah! Someone like my article!") into veritable avalanche of rejection through the miserable expedite process. Like Jacqui I assume that SSRN can be used to share ideas generally. Who really takes the down load counts that seriously?

I'm sorry, but I don't think SSRN is the appropriate forum for posting a parody. I view SSRN as a forum for disseminating social science research which your paper is not. Seems to me you should have done it as a series of blog posts. Posting it on SSRN cheapens the brand.

Download metrics may be silly just as US News rankings are silly, but people pay attention to them. Can you honestly say the thought of increasing downloads never played into the posting (or for that matter your other paper about law review submissions or Paul's paper on the lateral job market)?

T Shakur: If SSRN didn't want this type of paper being posted, why didn't they turn it down? I don't think it's my responsibility to protect SSRN's "brand" (um, whatever that means…). Further, while I don't have pretenses about being Alexander Pope, I do believe that parody & satire play a role in exposing unfair systems. The current system of law review submission is flawed, and many have criticized it (seriously), but I hoped to expose these flaws by poking fun at it. Is that wrong?
To switch gears, what would be an appropriate forum for posting a parody, in your mind, other than blogging about it? And I ask this because I am not currently guest blogging on any general interest law website, and I don't believe workplace prof (where Paul Secunda blogs) would be the place to blog the text of it either, since it does not really have much to do with labor & employment law. So … ?
Finally, you point out that I have another satire piece about the law review process posted and it has a lot of downloads(I cannot speak for Paul). I have yet to receive any remuneration, awards, (um, anything) based on number of downloads, so if it does say anything, it's that other academics possibly agree with the critique I'm making (perhaps?)
Oh, hell, you know what, you're right. I wrote it and posted it just to prop up my download numbers. Next time I'll title my article "F—" and see what happens on SSRN. Wait, someone's already done that?

I just hope that Miriam & Paul (or others who might consider writing in the same vein) don't get discouraged by a single hater. The Hunger Games piece gave me the biggest laugh I've had all week, and I think it did show the flaws endemic in the current process. Paul's lateral piece is the most informative writing I've ever read on the lateral hiring process, and the number of downloads it gets shows how useful it is. I really appreciate that both pieces are easily available on SSRN. For those who enjoyed the Hunger Games piece–or for everyone who's ever served on an appointments committee–please go read "Dunya" by Marianne Wesson (published some years ago in UMKC L Rev). You'll thank me later.