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Daily Archives: June 20, 2021

Citation Stickiness, Computer-Assisted Legal Research, and the Universe of Thinkable Thoughts

Kirschenfeld, Aaron and Chew, Alexa, Citation Stickiness, Computer-Assisted Legal Research, and the Universe of Thinkable Thoughts (April 19, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3860978

“Legal information has been available in widespread digital format for more than forty years. In that time, law librarians have wondered whether this digital switch has changed how law students and lawyers conduct research and, if so, what those changes are. Does legal research differ when conducted in print sources rather than computerized sources? What influence did the systems of organizing law in the print era have on the digital systems that followed? While we cannot put these questions to rest, we hope to shed some light on those difference by studying the work of lawyers and courts from the print era, the transition-to-digital era, and the digital era. Using a metric called “citation stickiness,” we studied how often parties to an appeal and the judges hearing that appeal agreed on the cases relevant to resolve the issues on appeal. This, we hoped, would also show whether there were perceptible differences in coherence and stability of the legal information landscape. Citation stickiness works like this: a citation is “sticky” if it appears in at least one party’s brief and then again in the court opinion. In an initial study of 325 federal court cases from 2017, 49% of the 7,552 cases that were cited in the courts’ opinions had been cited by at least one party in a brief. This study considers cases from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided in 1957, 1987, and 2017. After examining the citations in the briefs and opinions in our sample of cases, we compare our findings from the pre-digital era and from the digital era. What we learned surprised us.”

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 19, 2021

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 19, 2021 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the… Continue Reading

Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography

Via LLRX – This Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography by Charles W. Bailey, Jr., the publisher of Digital Scholarship and a noncommercial digital artist, includes over 800 selected English-language articles and books that are useful in understanding the curation of digital research data in academic and other research institutions. Continue Reading

Postal banking could provide free accounts to 21 million Americans who don’t have access to a credit union or community bank

Via LLRX – Postal banking could provide free accounts to 21 million Americans who don’t have access to a credit union or community bank – About a quarter of census tracts with a post office don’t have a community bank or credit union branch, suggesting postal banking could provide a financial lifeline to the millions… Continue Reading

Ransomware claims are roiling an entire segment of the insurance industry

Washington Post – “The recent surge of ransomware attacks is upending the cyber insurance industry, pushing up the requirements and cost of coverage just as more companies need it. Ransomware attacks — in which cybercriminals take over an organization’s computer network and demand a payment to hand back control — have increased in frequency and… Continue Reading

How Does Artificial Intelligence Work?

BuiltIn.com: “Less than a decade after breaking the Nazi encryption machine Enigma and helping the Allied Forces win World War II, mathematician Alan Turing changed history a second time with a simple question: “Can machines think?”  Turing’s paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” (1950), and its subsequent Turing Test, established the fundamental goal and vision of… Continue Reading

BBC takes ‘fresh look’ at the legal profession with new podcast for aspiring lawyers

Legal Cheek: “The BBC’s legal division has launched a new podcast series aimed at aspiring lawyers who don’t fit the cookie cutter mould. When Lucy Moorman, executive producer of the ‘Not All Lawyers Have Law Degrees’ podcast, trained to become a barrister some 25 years ago, you had to have 12 formal dinners in your… Continue Reading

Scientific publishing’s new weapon for the next crisis: the rapid correction

STAT News: “Research papers published in scientific journals are both the primary source of public scientific information and the main metric for scientists’ career success. Getting a paper published can be a long, tedious process that involves peer review: a detailed assessment of the manuscript by a small number of external experts.These experts aren’t infallible,… Continue Reading

Why more public libraries are doubling as food distribution hubs

The Conversation: “In the summer of 2021, public libraries everywhere, from Idaho and Oklahoma to Tennessee and Arizona, will offer free meals to families with children in their local communities. What might look like a new role for libraries builds on their long tradition of serving as innovation spaces, community centers and sanctuaries for people… Continue Reading