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HeinOnline

ScholarCheck

A scholarly analysis tool to help users learn more about documents, titles, and authors and their impact in the research community.

ScholarRank

In addition to the various features that use ScholarCheck throughout HeinOnline, we've created an overall ranking based on the calculation of five ScholarCheck metrics. We call this ranking ScholarRank.

ScholarRank on Author Profile Pages

On a HeinOnline author's profile page, see ScholarCheck metrics displayed prominently above the author's works, showcasing their scholarly impact and providing the overall ScholarRank that has been calculated accordingly. 

Metrics counted in ScholarRank:

  • Number of times cited by other articles in HeinOnline within the past five years
  • Number of times cited by other articles in HeinOnline beyond the past five years
  • Number of times cited by cases available in HeinOnline or Fastcase within the past five years
  • Number of times cited by cases available in HeinOnline or Fastcase beyond the past five years
  • Number of times articles have been accessed by HeinOnline users within a rolling 12-month period

Other metrics displayed (but not counted in the overall ScholarRank):

  • Average citations per article
  • Average citations per document
  • Number of self-citations
  • H-Index (an author-level metric that attempts to measure both the productivity and citation impact of the publications of an author)

See author Bonnie Shucha's profile page as an example below. 

See a listing of ScholarRank's Top 250 authors in HeinOnline here. 

Using ScholarRank in the Law Journal Library

Within the Law Journal Library, use ScholarRank to browse. Select the "Most-Cited" browse-by option to view:

  • Most-cited authors
  • Most-cited articles
  • Most-cited journals
  • ScholarRank's Top 250 Authors
  • ScholarRank's Top 50 Articles
  • ScholarRank's Top 250 Journals

How Is ScholarRank Calculated?

ScholarRank is determined by the calculation of five HeinOnline ScholarCheck metrics.

First, the raw data is gathered for each of the five metrics. These metrics are: 

  • Cited by Articles (0-5 Years)
    This metric counts the number of times this author has been cited by other articles in HeinOnline within the past five years only. Citation style sources include the Bluebook, Prince’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations, and the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.
  • Cited by Articles (5+ Years)
    This metric counts the number of times this author has been cited by other articles in HeinOnline beyond the past five years only. Citation style sources include the Bluebook, Prince’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations, and the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.
  • Cited by Cases (0-5 Years)
    This metric counts the number of times this author has been cited by cases available in HeinOnline or via Fastcase within the past five years only.
  • Cited by Cases (5+ Years)
    This metric counts the number of times this author has been cited by cases available in HeinOnline or via Fastcase beyond the past five years only.
  • Accessed (Past 12 Months)
    This metric is used to account for relevancy & recency and counts the cumulative number of times an author’s articles have been accessed by HeinOnline users within a rolling 12-month period. In order for an author’s article to count as accessed, the article must be clicked from either search results or by browsing to the article, or retrieved using the citation navigator.

This raw data is then displayed on the author profile. See the example below:

Next, the Z-score is calculated for each of the five metrics. The five Z-scores are averaged, and the final average is entered into standard competition ranking. The author's standing within this ranking produces the author's final ScholarRank. In the example below, the raw data displayed from the screenshot above was calculated as described to produce a final rank of "8."

The ScholarRank of "8" shown above was thus calculated in the following manner*:

Z-Score Calculation (to calculate the Z-scores of each metric): Zx = (x-µ)/σ

Average Z-Score (determined by averaging the five Z-scores): Zµ = (Z1 + Z2 + Z3 + Z4 + Z5)/5

Final ScholarRank (determined by ranking each author’s Average Z-scores): Zµ, ranked by standard competition

*Standard deviations and averages fluctuate daily; as such, the final results are subject to change.