203 Locating Law Journal Articles
Legal periodicals include publications such as academic law reviews, commercially published journals, newsletters, journals of bar associations, and legal newspapers. As secondary legal sources, legal periodicals are excellent tools for locating primary source materials, including cases, statutes, administrative regulations, and constitutional provisions. Legal periodicals usually are the best sources for researching recent developments in the law because periodicals are published more frequently than other law publications and often focus on matters of current legal interest.
The most efficient means of locating relevant legal periodical articles is a print or electronic index. Major legal periodical indexes are discussed below. The majority of the library’s periodicals are located on the third floor, arranged alphabetically by title. Some very current issues may be on "Reserve" at the Circulation Desk. Other periodicals are in the library’s microform collection or may be classified by Library of Congress call number.
Consult SMU's online catalog (http://libcat.smu.edu) to determine whether a SMU library owns a specific periodical.
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Legal Resource Index/LegalTrac
LRI is available through Lexis (Access limited to SMU students), Westlaw (LRI database /Access limited to SMU students), and LegalTrac. LegalTrac is available to the general public on two public database computers next to S-205 on the second floor of the library. LRI indexes approximately 850 legal periodicals published in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other major English speaking countries. Coverage dates from 1980 for most periodicals indexed.
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HeinOnline (Access limited to SMU students.)
HeinOnline is a rapidly growing full text database of law journals, both historical and current. Particularly useful when searching for pre-1980 articles because these are not covered by Legal Resource Index and are generally not included in Westlaw or Lexis. You may display articles as html or pdf documents.
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Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
- In Paper: (1960-present) Periodical Indexes (3rd floor north)
- Online: See Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals on the library's Research Databases webpage. (Access limited to SMU law students.)
IFLP indexes journal articles, festschrifts, book reviews, and collections of essays on international law, comparative law, and foreign law. It does not include materials related to U.S. domestic law, the law of the United Kingdom, or the domestic of law of countries in the British Commonwealth. There is overlap with some of the indexes listed above because appropriate materials from selected Anglo-American periodicals are included. In addition to the usual subject and author indexes, there is a geographical index that groups index entries by the subject country or region. Many foreign legal periodicals published in a non-English speaking country include some articles in English. Indexes approximately 470 publications.
Specialty Indexes
(Available in print only. Location: Periodical Indexes, 3rd Floor North)
- Jones-Chipman Index to Legal Periodical Literature (1803-1937)
This six-volume index represents the first systematic attempt to index English-language legal periodicals. This publication is most frequently consulted for materials which pre-date 1908.
- Index to Canadian Legal Literature (1956-2002
- Federal Tax Articles (1954-2003)
This index includes brief abstracts of the publications. Arrangement is by Internal Revenue Code section. Updated monthly.
- Index to Federal Tax Articles (1913-present)
Business Periodicals Index (1965-2003)
This index covers periodical literature from a wide range of fields, including accounting, advertising and marketing, agriculture, banking, construction, the chemical industry, communications, computer technology, economics, electronics.
Free, Internet-Accessible Databases of Law Reviews
Last Updated: 5/2011.