Analyzing My SSRN Downloads by Topical Category

August 21, 2022 · by · in Life as a Law Professor

I have posted 80 works to SSRN that collectively have generated over 60,000 downloads. This creates a dataset to play with. I categorized each of the 80 works into one of 11 topical categories. As you would expect, this classification involved some judgment calls; many pieces could have been fairly classified into multiple categories. However, all of the works fit neatly into at least one of the 11 categories.

Before looking at the chart, can you guess my #1 most-read topic?! 🤣

A few words about the categories’ scope. “Content regulation” is a mix of content moderation/editorial process papers and papers about substantive restrictions on content and constitutional topics. “Law professor” is the inside-baseball discussions about how we do our work as professors. “Other IP” is mostly trade secrets and patents.

Another measurement is which topics generate the most readership per work. The top three categories are emojis, contracts, and privacy, which all average about 1,500 downloads per work in their categories (well ahead of the other categories).