Trends in Co-Authorship in the Australian Group of Eight Law Reviews

This paper examines trends in co-authorship in the Group of Eight (Go8) law reviews over the period 1975 to 2010. Several conclusions emerge. First, co-authorship occurs less in legal scholarship than in other disciplines. Second, co-authorship in Australian legal scholarship is less than in legal scholarship in the United States. Third, in terms of gender differences, males collaborate more than females. Fourth, academics at the leading law schools provide a disproportionate number of co-authored articles in the Go8 law reviews. Fifth, there is a positive correlation between co-authorship and publishing in the top Australian law journals. Between a quarter and a third of those who co-authored three or more articles in the Go8 law reviews were also those who published the most in the top Australian law journals over the period 1990–2010.