W&L Law Journal Rankings Scraper

Export public Washington and Lee law journal rankings as clean, typed records for publishing research, submission targeting, library analysis, and repeatable journal comparisons.

The Actor reads the current public W&L ranking tables and combines journal identity, rank, combined score, impact factor, journal citations, case citations, currency factor, ISSN, homepage, source year, selected filters, and collection time.

No W&L login, cookies from the user, browser, or proxy configuration is required.

What does this Actor do?

The Actor turns the interactive W&L Law Journal Rankings form into one dataset row per journal.

It can:

• export the current overall ranking;
• rank by combined score, impact factor, journal citations, currency factor, or case citations;
• filter by a W&L subject category;
• filter by W&L country values;
• search journal names;
• enrich rows with public ISSN and journal-homepage details;
• limit output for quick comparisons or larger exports;
• preserve the ranking year and citation window shown by the source.

All five available ranking measures are included even when a different measure controls output order.

Who is it for?

Law authors and editors can compare journals before building a submission shortlist.

Law librarians can refresh ranking datasets without manually copying an interactive table.

Legal-research teams can compare citation reach, currency, and impact across categories.

Publishing analysts can schedule the same input and compare exported datasets over time.

Data teams can send normalized ranking rows to Sheets, databases, BI tools, or internal pipelines.

Why use this W&L law journal rankings exporter?

The source exposes one ranking measure at a time. This Actor joins all five public measures by stable W&L journal ID.

Each output row also records the selected scope and source timestamp, making scheduled exports easier to interpret.

The implementation uses the site's public HTML form and JSON detail route directly. That keeps runs lighter than browser automation while preserving the source's own ranking logic.

Null values are retained honestly. Journals displayed as NR by W&L have rank: null or a null metric rather than an invented number.

Quick start

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. Leave the default combined-score ranking or choose another metric.
3. Optionally enter an exact W&L subject or country filter.
4. Choose the maximum number of journals.
5. Run the Actor.
6. Download the default dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or another Apify-supported format.

A useful first run is:

{
  "rankingMetric": "combinedScore",
  "includeJournalDetails": true,
  "maxItems": 10
}

Input parameters

Field	Type	Default	Description
subject	string	blank	Exact W&L subject category, for example Intellectual Property or Taxation.
country	string	blank	Exact W&L country value, for example US, Non-US, Canada, or United Kingdom.
journalName	string	blank	Source-supported journal-name search text.
rankingMetric	string	combinedScore	Metric that controls rank and order.
includeJournalDetails	boolean	true	Include public ISSN, journal URL, and alternate name.
maxItems	integer	10	Number of rows to save, from 1 to 2,000.

Supported rankingMetric values are:

• combinedScore
• impactFactor
• journalCitations
• currencyFactor
• caseCitations

Filters use values recognized by the W&L form. An unsupported exact filter fails with a clear missing-results-table error instead of returning misleading unfiltered data.

Subject-specific comparison example

Compare intellectual property journals by impact factor:

{
  "subject": "Intellectual Property",
  "rankingMetric": "impactFactor",
  "includeJournalDetails": true,
  "maxItems": 5
}

This exercises a real W&L subject category and still includes combined score and all citation measures.

Case-citation shortlist example

Build a U.S. shortlist ordered by case citations:

{
  "country": "US",
  "rankingMetric": "caseCitations",
  "includeJournalDetails": false,
  "maxItems": 10
}

Disable details when ISSNs and journal homepages are not needed. This reduces source requests while leaving ranking metrics unchanged.

Output fields

Field	Meaning
journalId	Stable numeric journal identifier exposed by W&L.
journalName	Journal name displayed by W&L.
rank	Numeric rank under the selected metric, or null for NR.
rankDisplay	Exact source rank text, including NR when applicable.
combinedScore	W&L combined score, or null.
impactFactor	W&L impact factor, or null.
journalCitations	Journal citation count, or null.
currencyFactor	W&L currency factor, or null.
caseCitations	Case citation count, or null.
issn	Public ISSN from the journal detail route, or null.
journalUrl	Public journal homepage from W&L, or null.
alternateName	Alternate journal name when supplied, or null.
rankingYear	Ranking year parsed from the source table.
rankingWindow	Full citation window, such as 2021-2025.
rankingMetric	Metric used to rank and order this run.
selectedSubject	Subject filter supplied to the source, or null.
selectedCountry	Country filter supplied to the source, or null.
sourceUrl	Public W&L rankings page.
sourceTimestamp	UTC collection timestamp.

Example output

A current combined-score run returns records shaped like this:

{
  "journalId": 1974,
  "journalName": "Columbia Law Review",
  "rank": 1,
  "rankDisplay": "1",
  "combinedScore": 100,
  "impactFactor": 3.3,
  "journalCitations": 2316,
  "currencyFactor": 6.03,
  "caseCitations": 55,
  "issn": "0010-1958",
  "journalUrl": "http://columbialawreview.org/",
  "alternateName": null,
  "rankingYear": 2025,
  "rankingWindow": "2021-2025",
  "rankingMetric": "combinedScore",
  "selectedSubject": null,
  "selectedCountry": null,
  "sourceUrl": "https://managementtools4.wlu.edu/LawJournals/",
  "sourceTimestamp": "2026-09-09T20:14:05.901Z"
}

Values can change when W&L releases or corrects rankings. Treat the run dataset as a source snapshot, not a permanent claim about a journal.

How much does it cost to export W&L law journal rankings?

Pricing uses one start event per run and one item event for each useful journal row saved.

At the BRONZE tier, the price is a $0.01 start fee plus $0.0069056 per journal row.

Examples at that tier:

• 10 journals: about $0.0791
• 100 journals: about $0.7006
• 400 journals: about $2.7722

Higher account tiers receive the active tier discount shown in Apify Console. Failed or rejected rows are not charged as items. ISSN enrichment is included in the item event and has no separate charge.

Scheduling recurring ranking research

Use an Apify Schedule to run the same input weekly, monthly, or after the annual W&L release period.

For change analysis:

1. keep the input stable;
2. retain each run's dataset ID;
3. join snapshots by journalId;
4. compare rank and metric fields;
5. use rankingYear and sourceTimestamp to label each snapshot.

The Actor exports snapshots. It does not send alerts or compute historical deltas itself.

Export and integration workflows

Download the default dataset directly as CSV or Excel for editorial research.

Connect Apify to Google Sheets to maintain a reviewable journal shortlist.

Use webhooks to notify an internal workflow after a scheduled run succeeds.

Load JSON rows into a warehouse and compare ranks by subject, country, or ranking measure.

Feed a focused dataset to an LLM or RAG pipeline, preserving W&L as the cited source.

Run through the Apify API with cURL

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~washington-lee-law-journal-rankings/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"subject":"Intellectual Property","rankingMetric":"impactFactor","maxItems":5}'

Poll the returned run or use the synchronous dataset-items endpoint when your client can wait.

Never embed an Apify token in public source code.

Run through the Apify API with JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/washington-lee-law-journal-rankings').call({
  country: 'US',
  rankingMetric: 'caseCitations',
  includeJournalDetails: false,
  maxItems: 10,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Run through the Apify API with Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('automation-lab/washington-lee-law-journal-rankings').call(
    run_input={
        'rankingMetric': 'combinedScore',
        'includeJournalDetails': True,
        'maxItems': 25,
    }
)
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

Use with MCP and AI agents

Claude Code setup

Add the Actor to Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/washington-lee-law-journal-rankings"

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code setup

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code clients can use:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/washington-lee-law-journal-rankings"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Export the top 10 current W&L law journal rankings by combined score."
• "Compare five Intellectual Property journals by impact factor and include ISSNs."
• "Build a U.S. journal shortlist ordered by case citations."

Reliability and retry behavior

Each ranking request uses a fresh coherent ASP.NET session and the hidden form state supplied by W&L.

Transient network failures, HTTP 429, and server-side 5xx responses are retried up to three times with backoff.

Malformed pages, invalid filters, and exhausted retries fail the run. They are not converted into an empty successful dataset.

The Actor does not automatically use paid proxies or a browser.

Limits and source behavior

The Actor exports the ranking year currently presented by W&L. It does not claim a historical year selector.

W&L currently ranks only part of the listed journal universe. The source displays other journals as NR.

Exact category and country vocabulary is controlled by W&L and may change.

maxItems limits saved rows after the selected metric determines source order.

Including journal details adds one lightweight public JSON request per accepted row.

The Actor does not scrape article contents, submission rules, acceptance rates, editorial contacts, or private data.

Responsible use and legality

This Actor accesses public Washington and Lee University ranking pages without login.

Use the data in accordance with applicable law, W&L's terms, and your organization's policies.

Do not present rankings as legal advice, an endorsement, or a guarantee of publication outcome.

Preserve source attribution when redistributing derived research. Verify important decisions against the current W&L methodology and journal information.

Troubleshooting

The run says no recognizable results table.

Check that subject and country exactly match values accepted by the W&L form. Remove filters to test the broad route.

The run fails after retries.

Inspect the log for an upstream HTTP status. Retry later if W&L is temporarily unavailable; do not add a proxy unless source behavior materially changes.

A metric or rank is null.

W&L may display NR or no value for that journal. Null is intentional and preserves source meaning.

Output has no ISSN or journal URL.

Confirm includeJournalDetails is true. Some W&L detail records may still omit a field.

FAQ

Does this Actor rank journals itself?

No. It preserves W&L's public values and selected-metric order.

Can I export every journal?

Set maxItems up to 2,000. Actual output depends on the selected filters and current W&L table.

Can I choose an older ranking year?

Not in this release. The Actor reports the current source year and citation window.

Does it require a proxy?

No. Direct public HTTP is the implemented route.

Can I search for one journal?

Yes. Set journalName to source-supported name text and use a small maxItems.

Are detail requests charged separately?

No. A complete saved row is one item event whether or not public details are requested.

Related Automation Lab Actors

For broader literature discovery rather than law-journal rankings, use PubMed Article Search Scraper.

For preprint metadata and paper discovery, use arXiv Paper Search & Export.

Those Actors return papers or articles. This Actor is purpose-built for W&L law-journal ranking rows.

Data source attribution

Ranking data comes from the public Washington and Lee University Law Journal Rankings site.

Review W&L's methodology pages before interpreting combined scores, impact factors, currency factors, or citation windows.