Social Science Research Network
 | |
| Producer | Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. |
|---|---|
| History | 1994 to present |
| Languages | English |
| Access | |
| Cost | free |
| Coverage | |
| Disciplines | Social sciences and humanities |
| Record depth | Index, abstract & full-text |
| Format coverage | Papers |
| Print edition | |
| ISSN | 1556-5068 |
| Links | |
The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a website devoted to the rapid dissemination of scholarly research in the social sciences and humanities. SSRN was founded in 1994 by Michael Jensen and Wayne Marr, both financial economists. SSRN is owned by Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. (SSEP). Jensen continues to serve as chairman of the company, and Gregg Gordon is the president and CEO.[1]
SSRN was ranked the top open-access repository in the world by Ranking Web of Repositories (an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group belonging to the Spanish National Research Council) in January 2013.[2]
Academic papers in PDF can be uploaded directly to the site by authors and are then available for worldwide free downloading. Publishers and institutions can upload papers and charge a fee for readers to download them.[3] Users can also subscribe to abstracting email journals covering a broad range of subject matters. These e-journals then periodically distribute emails containing abstracts (with links to the full text where applicable) of papers recently submitted to SSRN in the respective field.
In economics, and to some degree in law (especially in the field of law and economics), almost all papers are now first published as preprints on SSRN and/or other paper distribution networks such as Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) before being submitted to an academic journal.
On SSRN, authors and papers are ranked by their number of downloads, which has become an informal indicator of popularity on prepress and open access sites.[4]
SSRN, like other preprint services, circulates publications throughout the scholarly community at an early stage, permitting the author to incorporate comments into the final version of the paper before its publication in a journal. Moreover, even if access to the published paper is restricted, access to the original working paper remains open through SSRN.
SSRN has mirror sites at the European Corporate Governance Institute (London), Korea University (Seoul), Stanford Law School (California) and University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Illinois).[3]
See also
References
- ↑ "SSRN frequently asked questions". Social Science Research Network. Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
- ↑ "World". Ranking Web of Repositories. Cybermetrics Lab. January 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
- 1 2 Jensen, Michael C. (2 February 2012). "About SSRN". Social Science Research Network. Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
- ↑ See Bernard S. Black and Paul Caron, "Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance", SSRN ID # 784764 (proposing that SSRN's download measure can be useful in ranking scholarly performance of law faculty).