Legal research in South Africa and its contribution to academia and society

This study explores citation profiles for legal research journals in South Africa by using two data sources: Google Scholar and LexisNexis. For the analysis of Google Scholar (GS) citations, legal research will be conceptualized as comprising all publications in any of the 30 South African legal research journals. LexisNexis, and specifically its collection of law reports, will be used to assess the extent of citing of the two journals in court decisions (i.e. judicial citations). The results will allow conclusions to be drawn regarding the value and practicability of Google Scholar and LexisNexis for the evaluation of legal research in South Africa.