Sharing and Caring: Creating a Culture of Constructive Criticism in Computational Legal Studies

TL;DR

This paper proposes seven principles to foster a culture of constructive criticism in computational legal studies, emphasizing comprehensive publication practices and community engagement to advance the field.

Contribution

It introduces a set of foundational principles for promoting constructive criticism and suggests a new publication paradigm for computational legal studies.

Findings

Recommends making publications fully reproducible with data and code.

Encourages inviting criticism throughout the publication process.

Proposes establishing a flagship journal for the field.

Abstract

We introduce seven foundational principles for creating a culture of constructive criticism in computational legal studies. Beginning by challenging the current perception of papers as the primary scholarly output, we call for a more comprehensive interpretation of publications. We then suggest to make these publications computationally reproducible, releasing all of the data and all of the code all of the time, on time, and in the most functioning form possible. Subsequently, we invite constructive criticism in all phases of the publication life cycle. We posit that our proposals will help form our field, and float the idea of marking this maturity by the creation of a modern flagship publication outlet for computational legal studies.