Scholarly influence in a diverse legal academy: Race, sex, and citation counts

This article explores sex and race differences in scholarly influence by examining logged citation counts for ail 815 professors who began tenure-track positions at accredited U.S. law schools between 1986 and 1991 and who remained on the tenure track in fall 1998. White men averaged significantly more citations than did women or minorities. The differences, however, were modest. Controlling for biographical variables through a series of regression equations, moreover, eliminated the citation gap between white men and both white and minority women, while substantially reducing the gap for minority men. The analyses suggest that most sex and race differences in citation counts are associated with differences in educational background, prestige of the institution at which a professor teaches, teaching assignments, and similar factors. As these differences diminish, already modest gaps in citation counts should decline as well.