SSRN Levels the Playing Field, Says Gregg Gordon

In a public lecture co-hosted by CMDS and the CEU Library, Gregg Gordon explained how the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), the leading social science research repository in the world, is “causing problems and creating opportunities.”

Gordon, who is president and CEO of SSRN, which he founded with Michael C. Jensen in 1994, described it as the “global player for the social science research community.” He noted that the two most important features of SSRN are that the author retains control, and it provides a level playing field for all scholars.

In his presentation, Gordon cited some impressive statistics that showed a steady increase in the number of new authors and new submissions, and in SSRN’s global reach. Its eLibrary database now has 600,000 papers from over 270,000 authors. It is this breadth that helps to promote the cross-pollination of ideas among scholars from different countries and varied disciplines. Gordon noted that SSRN is an especially valuable resource in countries like India, providing many with access to information they would not otherwise be able to reach.

SSRN has also made scholarly papers “living, breathing research documents” by enabling authors to revise their work throughout the research/publication process. Gordon said that some authors are using SSRN to stake claim to ideas in the early stage of their research. He noted that the ability to revise articles was a particularly popular feature. “On some days, we receive more revisions than new submissions,” he said.

Gordon admitted that SSRN is facing some challenges, such as how to organize rapidly expanding fields like women and gender studies, education, and sociology. Another challenge is “making sure that the noise does not overwhelm the signal.” He noted that the growing abundance of scholarship poses challenges for individual scholars and other readers of scholarly research. “In a world with so much information we need to help people figure out what they want,” said Gordon.

One of the ways that SSRN is especially valuable for authors is that it provides quick access to the information that matters a lot to them: the number of downloads and citations, and their Eigenfactor score, which demonstrates how a paper is impacting other papers. Gordon shared research that showed SSRN papers receive 10-20 percent more citations than other scholarly papers when shared through the SSRN eLibrary.

Although these benefits are important, Gordon said that the “really cool thing” is the way that SSRN promotes and encourages connectedness amongst different disciplines. “It is this connectedness that helps all of us see the world differently and makes it easier and faster to create innovative research.”