Assessment of law journals in Croatia, Italy and Spain

Legal science is quite distinctive compared to other disciplines, also social sciences disciplines (variety of publications, interlink between practice and research, multiple audiences, etc.). In addition, the fact that legal science has always shied away from bibliometrics-based evaluation practices make the field a specific case study. The case study presented in this chapter is located precisely in this context and within a heated discussion that sees the law domain and its communities at the centre of the debate. An overview of the practices, policies, and criteria applied in law journal assessment in three countries (Croatia, Italy, and Spain) is provided. The panorama is varied, but it is constantly changing. Most of the qualitative criteria for journal assessment are common to all three countries, but significant differences are in place when it comes to mandating these criteria in practice. According to the survey on law journals across countries, an adequate definition of the appropriate criteria for assessing journal quality could significantly improve journals’ editorial policies and therefore the quality of legal publications