The W&L Top 100 Law Review Rankings and the Land Use Law Scholar

I have had reason this spring to revisit--more often than I'd like--the relative rankings of law reviews.  It seems these days that many people rely upon the Washington & Lee Law Review Rankings as an indicator of what constitutes a "good" journal placement.  

In reviewing the W&L Top 100 journals, however, I have noticed that the presence of secondary journals in that top ranking seems to inure to benefit of those writing in tech law, international law, business law, and law and policy, as those are the subject areas of the secondary journals that proliferate in the W&L Top 100.  By my count, in the 2013 W&L 100--the latest data available--31 law reviews (those with an asterisk in the first column below) are aimed at topics unlikely to accept land use law-related articles.  That means that, for land use law scholars, the W&L Top 100 is really the W&L Top 69 (those journals without an asterisk).  I also did the same analysis on the 2003 W&L Top 100; at that time, 24 journals were non-land use law journals (see below).  This seems to indicate that the prevalence of secondary journals in the Top 100 has been common for some time; I have not, however, crunched the data on all ten years of rankings available at the W&L site.

Of course, there are plenty of places where land use law scholars can place their articles and, in the era of digital reproduction, placement seems to matter less and less.  I am curious, though, what others make of this, if anything.  Just as this affects land use law scholars, it would seemingly affect other scholars, such as criminal law scholars, that would not have the opportunity to place in many of the W&L Top 100 law reviews.

2013 W&L Top 100 (31 non-land use journals marked with asterisks (**) in the first column)

	Rank		Journal
	1		Stanford Law Review
	2		Harvard Law Review
	3		Columbia Law Review
	4	The	Yale Law Journal
	5		University of Pennsylvania Law Review
	6	The	Georgetown Law Journal
	7		UCLA Law Review
	8		Michigan Law Review
	9		California Law Review
	10		Virginia Law Review
	11		Minnesota Law Review
	12		Texas Law Review
	13		New York University Law Review
	14		Fordham Law Review
	15		Cornell Law Review
	16		Notre Dame Law Review
	17		Northwestern University Law Review
	18		Iowa Law Review
	19		Duke Law Journal
	20		Vanderbilt Law Review
	21		William and Mary Law Review
	22		Boston University Law Review
	23	The	University of Chicago Law Review
	24		University of Illinois Law Review
	25		Boston College Law Review
	26		Cardozo Law Review
	27		North Carolina Law Review
	28		U.C. Davis Law Review
	29		Indiana Law Journal
	30		Southern California Law Review
	31	The	George Washington Law Review
	32		Hastings Law Journal
	33		Emory Law Journal
**	34		Harvard Journal of Law & Technology
	35		Florida Law Review
	36		Connecticut Law Review
	37		Wisconsin Law Review
	38		Washington University Law Review
	39		Supreme Court Review
**	40		Harvard International Law Journal
**	41		Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review
	42		Wake Forest Law Review
	43		American University Law Review
	44		Washington Law Review
**	45		Harvard Journal on Legislation
	46		Arizona Law Review
	47		Ohio State Law Journal
	48		Lewis & Clark Law Review
**	49		Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
	50		Washington and Lee Law Review
**	51		Virginia Journal of International Law
	52	The	Harvard Environmental Law Review
**	53		University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law
**	54		Yale Journal on Regulation
	55		Alabama Law Review
**	55		Harvard Business Law Review
	57		University of Cincinnati Law Review
	58		University of Colorado Law Review
	59		Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law
**	60	The	American Journal of Comparative Law
	60		George Mason Law Review
	62		Tulane Law Review
**	63		Berkeley Technology Law Journal
**	63	The	Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
	65		DePaul Law Review
**	66	The	Journal of Corporation Law
**	67		Journal of Legal Analysis
	67		Michigan State Law Review
**	69		American Journal of International Law
	70		Houston Law Review
	71		Florida State University Law Review
**	72		Yale Journal of Law & Technology
**	73		Harvard Law & Policy Review
	74		Georgia Law Review
**	75	The	Yale Journal of International Law
**	76		Harvard Journal of Law & Gender
	77		Hofstra Law Review
	78		American Business Law Journal
	79		Buffalo Law Review
**	80		Chicago Journal of International Law
**	80	The	Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics
	82		Akron Law Review
	82		Pepperdine Law Review
	84		Maryland Law Review
	85		Fordham Urban Law Journal
**	86		William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
	87		Brigham Young University Law Review
**	87		Constitutional Commentary
	89		Brooklyn Law Review
**	89		Yale Law & Policy Review
**	91		Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy
**	92		Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law
**	93	The	Journal of Legal Studies
**	93		University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
	95		Utah Law Review
	96		Missouri Law Review
**	97		Administrative Law Review
	98		University of Chicago Legal Forum
**	99		Michigan Journal of International Law
	100		Tennessee Law Review

2003 W&L Top 100 (24 non-land use journals marked with asterisks (**) in the first column)

	Rank		Journal
	1		Harvard Law Review
	2	The	Yale Law Journal
	3		Columbia Law Review
	4		Stanford Law Review
**	5		DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal
	6	The	Georgetown Law Journal
	7		California Law Review
	8		New York University Law Review
	9		Cornell Law Review
	10		Virginia Law Review
	11		Michigan Law Review
	12		UCLA Law Review
	13		Supreme Court Review
	14		University of Pennsylvania Law Review
	15	The	University of Chicago Law Review
	16		Texas Law Review
	17		Minnesota Law Review
	18		Fordham Law Review
	19		Northwestern University Law Review
	20		Vanderbilt Law Review
	21		Duke Law Journal
	22		North Carolina Law Review
	23		Southern California Law Review
	24		William and Mary Law Review
	25		Notre Dame Law Review
	26		Indiana Law Journal
	26		Iowa Law Review
	28		Arizona Law Review
**	29		Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review
	29		Ohio State Law Journal
**	31	The	Journal of Legal Studies
	32		Emory Law Journal
	33		University of Colorado Law Review
	34		University of Illinois Law Review
	35		Wisconsin Law Review
	36		Connecticut Law Review
**	37		American Journal of International Law
	38		American University Law Review
	39		Boston University Law Review
	40		Wake Forest Law Review
	41		U.C. Davis Law Review
**	42	The	Business Lawyer
**	43		Harvard International Law Journal
	44		Hastings Law Journal
	45		Washington University Law Review
	46		Cardozo Law Review
	47		Tulane Law Review
**	48		American Criminal Law Review
	49		Houston Law Review
**	50		Berkeley Technology Law Journal
	51		Villanova Law Review
	52	The	George Washington Law Review
	52		Oregon Law Review
	54		Buffalo Law Review
	55		Albany Law Review
**	55		Virginia Journal of International Law
	57		Georgia Law Review
	58		University of Pittsburgh Law Review
	59		Chicago-Kent Law Review
	59	The	Harvard Environmental Law Review
	61		Washington and Lee Law Review
	62		Maryland Law Review
**	63		Harvard Journal of Law & Technology
**	64		Harvard Journal on Legislation
	65		Washington Law Review
	66		DePaul Law Review
	67		Florida State University Law Review
	68		Columbia Human Rights Law Review
	69		Boston College Law Review
	70		University of Cincinnati Law Review
**	71		American Journal of Law & Medicine
	72		Arizona State Law Journal
**	72		University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law
	74		Case Western Reserve Law Review
**	75		Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
	76		SMU Law Review
	77		Brooklyn Law Review
	77		University of Miami Law Review
**	79		Michigan Journal of International Law
**	80	The	Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
	80		Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review
**	80		Minnesota Journal of International Law
	83		Hofstra Law Review
	84		Brigham Young University Law Review
	85		University of Chicago Legal Forum
**	86		Yale Journal on Regulation
**	87	The	Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics
**	88		Yale Law & Policy Review
	89		Rutgers Law Review
	90		South Carolina Law Review
	90		William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
	92		San Diego Law Review
**	93		Columbia Journal of Transnational Law
	93		Fordham Urban Law Journal
**	95	The	American Journal of Comparative Law
**	96		Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
	97		University of Richmond Law Review
**	98		Cornell International Law Journal
	98		Tennessee Law Review
	100		South Texas Law Review