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Monday, August 14, 2006
To Sympose or Not to Sympose
Since I've gotten such helpful responses to my earlier posts, and since such a high percentage of this blog's readership seems to be law professors (fits with the title, I guess), here's another question: what do people think about the relative merits of symposium contributions vs. conventional articles? I've been told that a symposium piece isn't considered as significant in terms of placement for tenure reviews. I'm less interested in that issue because, leaving aside the merit of considering placement in the process of tenure review, my tenure file will be closed before I have the chance to submit anything else. (Though such thoughts might be useful for junior professors who are reading.) I'm wondering more whether there's any distinction that academics make when they're working as academics--when you hear of an article, or come across it in your research, does it make any difference that it's part of a symposium? Does it make you less likely to read it than you would be otherwise if it's in a prestigious journal--and/or more likely if it's in a less prestigious one? And how valuable do you think that the experience of participating in symposia--traveling and presenting papers--is?
Posted by Kim Roosevelt on August 14, 2006 at 02:02 PM | Permalink
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Kim Roosevelt will make an apprearance here tomorrow for the inauguration of the Conglomerate Book Club. In the meantime, he [Read More]
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Comments
I think a similar set of questions (and answers) can be asked about the book review -- i am a fan of book reviews for the same reasons mentioned above about symposium papers -- they are short, they are expected to make some argument, you get more than one perspective, and they are certainly in many cases more appropriate to assign in your class readings than the full law review or the full book that is reviewed.
Posted by: Orly Lobel | Aug 17, 2006 9:19:50 PM
Generally, I judge articles, symposia, etc., on their merits. If its on point, if I like the opening and closing, if the article is written by a well known expert; these are what I look for. There is some truth that a symposia can provide a quick resource for short pieces often stripped of decorative cow manure. But the best writers are worth reading all the way through even if its over 80 pages. Quality can be found in all manner of sources.
Posted by: Ronald X. Groeber, Ball State Univ | Aug 15, 2006 10:41:19 PM
There are generalizations on both sides of this issue, and neither are helpful. Many symposium pieces are a waste of time; many are not. I think that the quality of symposium pieces vis-a-vis articles is too mixed for one to make a useful generalization.
As for whether to do a symposium, I typically decide based on whether the topic is something I really want to write about and whether the participants are people I'd enjoy being at a conference with. I've participated in a few symposia early on in my career, and I met a number of people in my field I had been wanting to meet. I'm generally pleased with my symposia pieces -- not my best work, but not bad either. I'm glad I participated in the symposia I did.
As for evaluating symposium pieces, I can only provide my personal view, since I don't have a good sense of the general views of the academy. In my opinion, it doesn't matter whether a piece is called an article, or a symposium piece, or an essay, or even a book review. It should be evaluated on whether or not is is any good. There are symposium pieces that are better than most articles. There are even book reviews that have more insights than a regular article. A 20-page essay can contain just as many insights as a 60-page article. Length and labels don't matter. The key issue is whether the work is any good.
Posted by: Daniel J. Solove | Aug 15, 2006 12:40:46 AM
I disagree. Most symposium pieces are a total waste; the authors know they have a guaranteed placement, so they give the journals their leftover crud that they would never submit on the merits. The pieces are usually useless, and no one pays any attention to them. There are exceptions, but they are exceptions.
Posted by: louisthelawprof | Aug 14, 2006 11:07:02 PM
I'm with Scott and Rick. The symposium is a chance for experts to talk to other experts. The US law rev. article form often reminds me of Rorty's characterization of dissertations in philosophy in Europe: a chance to give one's take on the whole history of the field, with some minor spin. While the symposium piece allows a much more targeted intervention.
Posted by: Frank | Aug 14, 2006 8:31:19 PM
I'm a fan, too, of symposium pieces, and not only because I've written a few. My impression is that such pieces often have every bit as much good thinking and insight, without the requisite (at least until recently) lengthly deck-clearing and summarizing that causes traditional articles to drag and bloat.
Posted by: Rick Garnett | Aug 14, 2006 4:02:21 PM
From a reader's point of view, I love symposia: by finding one on-point article, (1) I get 4 or 5 on the topic I was researching, and (2) their brevity means that in the time it takes to read 80-100 pages, I get three to five pro/con/other perspectives rather than one long article. In short, I think they increase the efficiency of my research and "keeping up" with my field(s) in a number of ways.
I also like assigning symposium pieces as class reading, because for maybe 40 pages of reading, you can get two good pro/con pieces. (In contrast, I have a hard time assigning full law review articles to students, because one article is 50-80 pages of reading that yields only one thing to discuss in class.
Posted by: Scott Moss | Aug 14, 2006 3:18:18 PM
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