1. Digital Commons and SSRN: Turning Perceived Conflict into Real Synergy
James M. Donovan & Carol A. Watson
April 15, 2014

2. Introduction James M. Donovan Carol A. Watson
University of Georgia
School of Law
Library Director
James M. Donovan
University of Kentucky College of Law
Library Director and James and Mary Lassiter Professor of Law

3. Overview
The history of SSRN, Digital Commons and the development of institutional repositories
How to positive address faculty concerns about losing SSRN download statistics
A statistical analysis of downloads on each platform and research behavior
The strengths and advantages of each platform

4. History of SSRN
Vision - Our vision was (and still is) to enable scholars to share and distribute their research worldwide, long before their papers work their way through the multi-year journal refereeing and publication process
Founded in 1994
Background information on SSRN history and service model is described in John Prebble, Julia Caldwell, & Amelia Keene, “Using the Social Science Research Network to Aid and to Promote Research,” 44 Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 631 (2013)

5. History of Digital Commons
Vision - Bepress was built by scholars to serve the needs of scholars. In the late 1990's, academic journals were plagued by slow turnaround times, limited access, and unreasonable prices
Founded in 1999 J

6. Development of Institutional Repositories
Laakso M, Welling P, Bukvova H, Nyman L, Björk B-C, et al. (2011) The Development of Open Access Journal Publishing from 1993 to PLoS ONE 6(6): e doi: /journal.pone

7. Faculty Concern
Won’t posting my articles elsewhere steal downloads away from SSRN?

8. Response to Faculty Concerns
Remain positive
Explain there is not a zero-sum of viewers
Describe benefits of placing scholarship in the IR
Increased exposure
> downloads over time I

9. Research Behavior

11. SSRN Strengths
Goal = saturating a small but keenly interested audience of legal scholars
Current awareness tool
Distribution of drafts and preprints
SSRN search engine searches the following fields: author, title, abstract, keywords and date

12. DC Strengths Articles more findable by Google Larger audience
Accommodates a variety of file formats
Superior customized design and branding

13. How do SSRN downloads differ from DC over time?
SSRN – quick burst then plateau
DC – continual increase as discovered by web searching

14. How do SSRN downloads differ from DC over time?
Weekly download totals for one article deposited simultaneously in SSRN and DC

15. Synergy
SSRN – excels at delivering scholarship to a cadre of legal specialists
DC – does a better job of presenting scholarship to a broader readership

16. Questions? Contact: James M. Donovan, james.donovan@uky.edu or
Carol A. Watson,