Law Schools

The Anonymized Review Game

Is anonymized review for prestigious journals helping reduce the elitism bias in the academy?

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Businessman examining contract. Thoughtful mature man in formalwear holding hand on chin while examining document and sitting at working placeDear Prestigious Law Review,

Thank you for the opportunity to review the anonymized work, “THIS ARTICLE TITLE LOOKS VERY FAMILIAR.” It is a great piece of work, from an author I know well, have read, and is within my discipline.

That is why I write to you. You see, for over 20 years, I have been submitting articles to your journal. In many of those instances, my rejection has been within hours. In a few, after a second read in which people have contacted me to tell me they read it for you and gave it a glowing review. So I wonder why you would consider me for the honor of reviewing this piece for you.

I’m not the only one who is puzzled. You see, some of us faculty members at various schools talk. And we’ve all reviewed pieces for you. A puzzling thing has been discovered. In every instance we’ve endorsed the pieces, you’ve rejected them. We are not saying that correlation implies causation, but it’s a lot of correlations from several different people in my field.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve all disclosed to you that we knew who the author was.  I certainly hope the reviewer of “ETHICS MANDATE DISCLOSURE” disclosed they knew the author! If they don’t, I look forward to their tweets blasting Justice Thomas.

In one instance, when I strongly suggested rejecting a piece, you published it. This suggests to me that I should engage in “reverse psychology,” but I think a better course of action is to just say no to reviewing pieces where I know the author.  That pretty much means any piece in my field.

I don’t mean to pick on you, dear editors. You have a hard, unpaid job. I don’t hate the player, I hate the game. And the game is still rigged. I agonize about whether I should contribute to it. Because I so very much want to help students. But I also so very much hate hierarchies, as they are anti-intellectual.

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And the game is also that “anonymized” review that isn’t really anonymous perhaps leads to some biases, beyond that which are already present in the field of “legal academia.” Should I even be legitimizing this game of proxies that the data suggests is biased in every way? More precisely, as I and a co-author once noted, if “you look at all the articles published in the top ten law reviews, it is very difficult to find an author who did not graduate from, or who does not work in, a top-ten law school.” Approximately 70% at the time we wrote the piece.

One hint that it is common for people to know the identity of the author is your sentence: “If you are able to provide written comments, please disclose whether you know the identity of the author (if so, please don’t mention who it is or provide any identifying information in your response) and whether you’ve provided feedback on prior drafts of the paper. We will keep your review strictly confidential.” In other words, the anonymization isn’t necessarily between the author and reviewer, but between you (the decision maker) and the author

If that’s true, then seeking my opinion just extends that proxy, doesn’t it? Doesn’t that mean that the identity of the reviewer comes into play? Well, that might explain why articles I endorse get rejected.

You ask two specific questions about the piece. I kind of find the questions leading. Perhaps it suggests places where you think the article is weak, and that leads me to question whether I think that as well or whether my thinking that was biased by your questions.

In short, I appreciate the efforts to eliminate elitism in law review placements. But we’re not there yet. And this system — in which we are all being encouraged to play a part — is still problematic.

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Sincerely,

LawProfBlawg

PS: Also, you only gave me a two-day turnaround during my heavy teaching days.

LawProfBlawg is an anonymous law professor. You can see more of his musings here. He is way funnier on social media, he claims. Please follow him on X/Twitter/whatever (@lawprofblawg). He’s also on BlueSky, Mastodon, and Threads depending on his mood.  Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.

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