This section of the guide is a short introduction to journal article research. A more thorough how-to guide on journal research is available here.
Should you run into questions or concerns with your research, feel free to reach out to the librarian assigned to your faculty member for specialized advice. Please check this list to determine which librarian you should contact.
Law review, or law journal, articles are a great research tool. These articles can be used both to expand your own research and analysis and to find links to primary authority governing your issue. There are several ways to find law review articles; below, you will learn how to find articles both by topic and by citation.
1. Select your database. There are several databases that are excellent for journal research. Use more than Westlaw & Lexis to search for articles. HeinOnline's Law Journal Library is a great resource that provides PDFs of articles, which may be easier to read. Google Scholar may also provide offerings beyond NYU's subscribed databases. Think: are there interdisciplinary or subject-focused databases that might offer on-point articles? You can find databases by subject here (Law Library) and here (Bobst).
2. Generate your search string. We suggest creating a list of search terms and synonyms for those search terms before you begin typing anything into a database. Consider using Terms & Connectors and filtering your results to better hone your search.
Once you have found an on-point article, you can use that article to expand your research:
1. Use the primary and secondary sources cited in the article's footnotes to find other relevant sources.
2. Use the cited by tools (on Westlaw, Lexis, HeinOnline, Google Scholar, and more) to read subsequent articles that cite the on-point article.
3. Look for other publications by the same author(s).
4. Rinse and repeat with the new authorities you've found until you feel comfortable with your body of research!
If you find, or are steered to, a citation to an on-point article, use the Julius Online Catalog to obtain a list of where you can find that article. In the middle part of the box on the catalog home page (Find Journals & Articles), type in the name of the journal the article was published in. If the law library has access to the article, your results will be a list of all of the places you can access that article, along with coverage dates. Select the database that has the date the article was published in, and then use the tools on the database to find the article itself.
If you have trouble deciphering the legal abbreviations in the citation, refer to the Bluebook's Tables or decipher them via the Cardiff Index.
For links to databases, click here. Click here for legal databases and here for interdisciplinary databases.
To get strategies on how to find articles on a topic, click here.
To learn how to find articles in image format (PDF), click here.
To find a specific journal, click here.
For instructions on finding print materials in the Library, click here.
To learn more about the Law Library's interlibrary loan service including lending periods, items not generally available and so on, click here.