On the effective communication of the results of empirical studies, part i

To claim that empirical work is a fundamental part of legal scholarship borders on the boring. It has been said (and documented) too many times for us to recount here; even the Association of American Law Schools ("AALS") acknowledged the increasing centrality of empirical work when it devoted its 2006 annual meeting to the topic. Unfortunately, though, neither law professors nor their audiences are fully reaping the benefits of empirical work. The primary problem is that while legal academics are producing high-quality research, they have been less effective at communicating the products of their labor. A strong devotion to tabular, rather than graphical, displays, and the discussion of "statistical significance" rather than substantive importance, are just two areas requiring improvement. Adapting a burgeoning literature in the social and statistical sciences to the unique interests of legal scholars, we supply general suggestions for improving the communication of empirical studies. In the next installment (also to appear in the Vanderbilt Law Review), we outline more specific strategies aimed at effectively (and accessibly) presenting data and statistical results, and from these devise a set of protocols for implementation by legal publications.