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Law Journals: Source Pulling and Cite-Checking Resources for Staff Members

Journal Articles

Articles published in law journals, law reviews, or other academic journals are often available as PDFs online or from a database. Follow Bluebook Rule 16 for citation formats. 

When searching for a law-related article:

  • Search for the article in the HeinOnline Law Journal Library
    • Law-specific; PDF downloadable; includes over 3,000 law and law-related periodicals dating back to the first issue for each title.
    • If title or author search does not work, use the journal title.
  • Search for the article in Google Scholar 
  • Search for the article in Index to Legal Periodicals and Books
    •  Includes an index of US and international materials from the 1980's on, with some full text coverage.

When searching for an interdisciplinary or non-law article:  

  • Use Articles+ on Clio
    • Luckily, through Columbia, you have access to the vast majority of scholarly articles across various disciplines 
    • If cannot find by the article title, search for the journal.  This will allow to see the various holdings and what database to use. 

Newspaper articles (and other similar periodicals)

Follow the citation rules in Bluebook Rule 16.

Articles published in newspapers or magazines are sometimes available as PDFs (online or from a database) but are sometimes only available in html online or in print.  

When searching for an article, first search the article title in the catalog Articles+. If the article does not appear in the results list, try searching Clio for the name of the periodical.  There are some large databases that have historical and current newspapers.  

Articles in news publications or magazines are often available as PDFs online or from a database.  Often articles are published both in print or online (or just one or the other- with changes possible).  Make sure you're sourcing the version that the author actually used.