Finding Articles
Law and Non-law Journals
[last updated: Feb. 11, 2008]

Related:
Course Guides page: go to Research Tools--Research Guides
Finding Full Text Books

Content:  Alternative approaches to finding relevant law journal articles, non-law journal articles, working papers, pre-prints, and general news/magazine articles.  Emphasis is on electronic formats.  Commercial services cited here, and subscribed to by the Underwood Law Library, are accessible from the law school network through VPN, or require a personal password (such as Westlaw and LexisNexis).  Most commercial services noted are accessed through the Research Tools-Find Articles & Databases link on the Underwood Law Library's web page.  Sources for legal abbreviations are listed at the bottom of this page.

Law Journals & Working Papers

• Westlaw & LexisNexis (require password):  The most common sources used for finding full-text law journal articles are LexisNexis and Westlaw.  These are excellent resources, but they are limited to articles published no earlier than 1980, some volumes in Westlaw did not include all articles, and individual titles may begin at a much more recent date. Note also that not every American law journal is included.  To determine if journals are in these databases: search PONI and look for "electronic resource" records.  Or better yet,  search the Law Library's A-Z Electronic Journals list.  An advantage of the A-Z list is that it is updated daily. While the web page says "e-journals," there are also a significant number of newspapers and other non-law periodicals on the list.  Unfortunately, the A-Z list is not comprehensive with respect to all online titles in these databases.  If a title is not in PONI nor on the A-Z list, go to the Westlaw Database Directory or the LexisNexis Directory of Online Sources to search for titles without logging into either database.

• HeinOnline (Click <subscribers click here to enter> button.) (restricted SMU access):  The best source for full-text law journal articles before and after 1980 is HeinOnline.  It contains the full text (PDF files) of 1051 law journals, including ALL of the major American academic law reviews starting at volume one of each title.  The database may not contain the most recent years of a specific title depending on licensing restrictions.  See the "Law Journal Library" in HeinOnline for detailed contents of all titles.  [For example, the Harvard Law Review currently covers v. 1-120 (1887-2007).]  HeinOnline journal titles also appear in PONI and the A-Z Electronic Journals list.
  
  HeinOnline is expected to expand to at least 1,200 titles and includes international law journals, A.B.A. journals, and journals from other jurisdictions including the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya, Netherlands, Israel, Korea, Mexico, and more.  The database may be browsed by volume and page or searched by author, title, citation, or keywords.  There are also special libraries that can be searched separately from the complete list, including "International & Non-US Law Journals," "Most-Cited Law Journals," "American Bar Association Journals" and others.

• Underwood E-Journal Subscriptions (outside Westlaw, LexisNexis, or HeinOnline):  See links to electronic journals at the library's Research Tools-Find Articles & Databases page. 

• Use the Law Library's A-Z Electronic Journals List to find hyperlinks to journals in LexisNexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline, and Cambridge Journals Online.

• Law Library of Congress Law Reviews Online: Links to electronic U.S. law journals and other publications.

• SSRN Legal Scholarship Network:  Browse or search abstracts and selected full text preprints, articles, working papers, and studies.  Use the Search or browse buttons on the top menu line to retrieve papers.  Download free PDF files when available.

• Berkeley Press Legal Repository:  Searchable database of preprints, articles, conference papers, working papers, and other scholarly research.  Includes all NELLCO institutions, plus another 16 law schools and several associations, including Michigan, U.C.L.A., Berkeley, Northwestern, U. of Southern California, Illinois, and more.  Browse by subject or search by keyword.  Download PDF files.

• NELLCO Legal Scholarship Repository:  Searchable database of preprints, articles, and working papers from New England Law Library Consortium member schools.  SMU Law is an affiliate member of NELLCO. Current depositing law schools are: Boston College, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Fordham, NYU, Roger Williams, Suffolk, U. of Connecticut, U. of Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Yale.  Browse or search by keyword.  Download PDF files.

• SMU Dedman School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series: Papers prepared by SMU law faculty.

• Duke Law Faculty Scholarship Repository:  Selected faculty publications going back as far as 1951.  Browse, keyword, or subject search.

• Litilaw: Published Articles for Litigators. (Lexbe)  Collection of full text articles reprinted from CLE programs, law journals, and other sources.  Keyword search or browse by topics. Articles may be on substantive law topics as well as procedure or litigation matters.  To some extent it overlaps with above sources, i.e. reprints of existing mainstream journal articles.  Unfortunately, you can't identify the source of a particular article until you open the file.  Authors are encouraged to submit new articles to the database.  PDF format.

• Directory of Open Access Journals.  Index to free scholarly and scientific full-text journals from around the world.  The index, as of February 2008, covers more than 3,150 journals with just over 1,010 journals searchable at the article level.  Includes the topic "Law and Political Science."  To see the full breadth of topics, click on the page's Expand Subject Tree button.

Law Periodical Indexes

• LegalTrac: (Law Library's Research Tools--Find Articles & Databases page):  Online version of the Current Law Index (3rd floor Periodical Indexes counter) but it adds legal news and selected full text in HTML format.  Indexes articles back to 1980.  This index is also accessible in Westlaw and LexisNexis but titled as Legal Resources Index.  The index covers more journal titles than are found full text in either of those databases and is a useful supplement to searching the full text databases in either service.  Subject, author, and keyword searching.

• Wilson Index to Legal Periodicals and Books Online (Law Library's Research Tools--Find Articles & Databases page):   Online version of Wilson's Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (3rd floor Periodical Indexes counter).  Hyperlinks to selected full text articles in PDF or HTML format from 1995 forward, including all titles accessible in HeinOnline!  Subject, author, and keyword searching.  Note that there are selected law treatises covered in this index.  Searches can be restricted to retrieve only works with full text accessible.

• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (Law Library's Research Tools--Find Articles & Databases page):  Online version of the print index (3rd floor Periodical Indexes counter) that covers foreign journals except those from the U.K. and British Commonwealth countries.  Indexed articles are not limited to English language.

Finding Non-law Journals 

• SMU Online Catalog (PONI):  Southern Methodist University subscribes to a very large number electronic services and e-journals beyond the law school.  Look for catalog records that say [electronic resource] after the title.  Open the record and you will find hyperlinks under "Electronic Access" to one or more services containing the full text.  Click on a link to open the source.  The hyperlinks in PONI to LexisNexis Academic do not work for law students.  Law students should look for links that say "Law School Students/Faculty/Staff Only."  Or, for LexisNexis e-journals, go to LexisNexis with your regular password.  [NOTE: Journal abbreviations are very UNLIKELY to work as search terms in the online catalog.]

Example where Underwood owns print and another library provides some electronic access

• An alternate approach is the A-Z alphabetical list of non-law e-journals and selected law e-journals available through SMU that can be found at the SMU Online Resources page; browse by title, keyword search, or search for "title starts with..."  All of these titles can also be found through the SMU Online Catalog (PONI).   The hyperlinks in the A-Z list to LexisNexis Academic do not work for law students.  For LexisNexis e-journals, go to LexisNexis with your regular password.

• SMU Online Resources page:  (Sponsored by the Central University Libraries.)  Find indexes and databases on a wide range of academic subjects, including law and law-related topics, plus a practical list of electronic journals and magazines.  Off-campus access through VPN is strongly recommended. Otherwise, off-campus access to some databases may require using the bar code of your SMU ID.   The following databases may be particularly useful.

  • Academic Search Complete (SMU Online Resources page; click on link to Acad. Search Premier (EBSCO)):  Index to abstracts and selected full text for nearly 3,200 scholarly publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, law, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. Keyword searches can be restricted to retrieve only full-text articles.  Format of full text materials varies from journal to journal, PDF and/or plain text.

  • JSTOR (SMU Online Resources page):   Full text, PDF format, searchable archive of more than 100 journals in the humanities, political science, social sciences and sciences.  Being an "archive," journal contents generally exclude the most recent few years.  Coverage, however, usually extends back to volume one of each journal.

  • InfoTrac OneFile (SMU Online Resources page):  Non-law periodicals index.  Some full text. Updated daily.

• Google Scholar.  Google Scholar covers papers, articles, theses, and some books.  Recommend using the "advanced search" links for most effective search options and restrictions.  For details on coverage and how Google Scholar search results are ranked, see http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/about.html.

• Directory of Open Access Journals.  Index to free scholarly and scientific full-text journals from around the world.  Index, as of Aug. 2007, covers more than 2,800 journals with just over 850 journals searchable at the article level.  To see the full breadth of topics, click on the page's Expand Subject Tree button.

• Index to Periodical Articles Related to Law.  The full text of this index to non-law journals is listed in HeinOnline in the "Law Journal Library."  The print version of this index is on the library's Periodical Indexes counter (3rd fl.)

Sources of Legal Abbreviations

• Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations. Available on LexisNexis (Direct Link requires Lexis ID) (4th ed. with updates.)  Print copies of Bieber’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations (5th ed. 2001). [KF246 B46 2001] in Reference Office and at Circulation Desk.

• Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.  "This web-based service allows you to search for the meaning of abbreviations for English language legal publications, from the British Isles, the Commonwealth and the United States, including those covering international and comparative law. A wide selection of major foreign language law publications is also included. Publications from over 280 jurisdictions are featured in the Index. The database mainly covers law reports and law periodicals, but some legislative publications and major textbooks are also included." (Quoted from the web site's own explanation.)  This U.K. web site is searchable by title or by abbreviation.  It asks whether you want exact matches or close matches which can be helpful.  (Have not used this source enough to determine whether or not it should be a highlighted resource.  Try it out.  The interface is easy to use.)

• Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed. (2004)  Available also on Westlaw.  To get to the beginning of Appendix A: Table of Legal Abbreviations, do a keyword search in the dictionary's database for "aals" (without the quotation marks).  Can then scroll the whole alphabetical table. 

• Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations by Raistrick, (2d ed. 1993).   [KD400 .R33 1993]. (Reference Office).  Great for European and U.K. law sources.

• Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations Reversed: Terms and Titles to Abbreviations (1994). If you know the name of the journal and need the Bluebook abbreviation, you might want to check.
  [Reference Collection: K89 .K37 1994]

• The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (18th ed. 2005). Tables 2-5 on foreign and international law sources.

• World Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations (1994– ). (4 volume loose-leaf)  Particularly strong Spanish language section and substantial coverage of sources in common law jurisdictions.
  [Reference Collection: K85 .W67] 

• Abbreviations and Acronyms of the U.S. Government (IUPUI).

• Latin American Legal Abbreviations: a Comprehensive Spanish/Portuguese Dictionary with English Translations by Torres & Avalos (1989). 
  [Reference Collection: KG25 T67 1989]

• Noble’s International Guide to the Law Reports.  2d ed. (2002).  Covers court reporters in both the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions.  Organized alphabetically by citation abbreviation. 
  [Reference Collection: K 38 .N63 2002]

Other Abbreviations and Acronyms

• All-acronyms.com. Good for law-related organizations.  Search box for abbreviations; browse by category; or, browse by alphabetical entries.

For information on how SMU law students may obtain copies of articles from journals NOT available at SMU, see interlibrary loan instructions.  If unsure, talk to the reference staff at the Underwood Law Library or send an email to lawref@smu.edu.

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