NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 7, 2009

CONTACT: KATIE GALLAGHER
517/432-6848, galla145@law.msu.edu

Michigan State Law Review Rises in National Journal Rankings for Fifth Consecutive Year

East Lansing, MI – The Michigan State Law Review has once again risen significantly in the national rankings of law journals, as reported in Washington & Lee Law School’s annual law journal rankings, the authoritative source for law journal rankings.

This year marks the fifth year in a row that the Michigan State Law Review jumped up in the rankings. The journal now ranks 70th out of 205 flagship journals.

Mahfouz Ackall, editor in chief of the Michigan State Law Review,explains the importance of the journal’s boost in the ratings: “Authors use the rankings to decide where to publish or submit articles. A higher rank means more exposure which, in turn, means authors are more likely to accept offers to publish in the Michigan State Law Review,” Ackall says. “This also means we have the opportunity to publish more high-quality pieces.”

Ackall expects the journal’s rise in the rankings to continue because of the past and present Law Review membership. “The rise in rankings shows that the Michigan State Law Review is making a significant contribution to the legal community through the articles we publish.”

Washington & Lee determines a law journal’s rank using a composite of a journal’s impact-factor and total cites-count during the preceding eight years. Impact-factor is the average number of annual citations per article in each issue. The cites-count is the total number of citations to the journal over the past eight years. The ranking takes into account citations in cases, other journals, and other external sources.

Complete rankings and a description of the methodology are available at http://lawlib.wlu.edu/LJ/index.aspx.

Founded in 1931, the Michigan State Law Review is edited and published entirely by students at Michigan State University College of Law. The Law Review publishes four issues per year and also sponsors symposia focusing on current legal topics. For more information about the Law Review, visit http://msulr.law.msu.edu/.

The MSU College of Law was founded in 1891 and is a private institution of higher learning devoted exclusively to professional education in law. The Law College is one of only a few private law schools to be affiliated with a research university, enabling it to provide a comprehensive interdisciplinary legal education program. Classes offered in its state-of-the-art facilities provide students the benefits of a Big Ten campus while maintaining a small school culture. The Law College is one of the oldest continuously operating independent law colleges in the nation. For more information about the Law College, visit www.law.msu.edu.

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