Sandbox:Library:Law - Locating Law Journal Articles (Legal Periodicals)

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Locating Law Journal Articles (Legal Periodicals): What information do periodicals provide? When to use them?

  • Legal periodicals include law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association periodicals and interdisciplinary journals. They can be general in scope (such as the U.B.C. Law Review) or focused on a specific subject (e.g., the Canadian Business Law Journal).
  • Locating law journal articles on a topic that you are researching can be invaluable and can save you hours of research time. Journal articles tend to focus on narrower legal issues and the authors, usually academics and practitioners in a field, provide informed analysis of the law and references to relevant case law and legislation.
  • Articles often provide a good introduction to the law in emerging areas and in areas of the law undergoing change.
  • ’Case comments’ discussing the background and effect of significant cases are also published in legal periodicals.
  • Because policy analysis is often a focus of many law periodical articles, the articles also help in understanding the law and in developing persuasive arguments.
  • Conclusion: when the topic that you are researching is current, fairly specific, too new or too narrow to be the subject of a book, consider looking for relevant journal articles.
  • Caveat: There are different types of articles, and an article’s type will affect its ‘authoritative value’. For example, an article written by a judge or law professor would have more ‘weight’ than a note or comment written by a student, or a brief article in a legal newspaper. Always evaluate the sources that you want to rely on.

Legal Periodical Indexes and Full-text Searching: There are two methods of searching for legal periodical articles: using periodical indexes and full-text searching.

  • Index searching involves looking for relevant articles using the subject, author, title, keyword, or other fields that have been ‘indexed’ by subject specialists.
  • Articles found using indexes tend to be more relevant, because the retrieved articles are connected to the indexed search terms. In contrast, a full-text search will return any articles in the database that mention the search words used, regardless of the topic of the article. In other words, a full-text search results in a greater number of irrelevant hits.
  • Periodical indexes provide the most thorough coverage of articles published in law journals. To give you just one example: full-text searching of Canadian law journals on LexisNexis Quicklaw Ubclaw.jpg covers approximately 30 law journals, and does not include a number of key Canadian law reviews, such as the Supreme Court Law Review, the Canadian Business Law Journal and the Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal.
  • The most thorough resource to use for comprehensive coverage of law journal articles published in Canadian law journals is the Index to Canadian Legal Literature (ICLL), which covers more than 200 Canadian legal and law-related periodicals. The index is accessible to you via Westlaw Canada Ubclaw.jpg or LexisNexis Quicklaw Ubclaw.jpg, and in print at KE1.I532 Law Reference.
  • Caveat: the online versions of this index cover materials published after 1985. Use the print version to find earlier articles.
  • Periodical indexes allow you to focus your research by looking for journal articles from a particular jurisdiction or jurisdictions e.g. Canada, the U.S., the U.K., European Union, and foreign jurisdictions.
  • Full-text searching can be useful when you want to locate articles about a narrowly-defined topic or you have unique keywords to use.
  • All online legal periodical indexes can be accessed via the Law Library homepage by clicking on Indexes to Legal Periodicals (for comprehensive journal coverage by jurisdiction, including Canada, U.S., U.K. & EU coverage, Australia & N.Z. coverage, foreign law journals, etc.)

Finding Full Text Journals (Online Or In Print) If you are not in a database that provides full text, it is relatively straightforward to find a copy of the article (online or in print). Follow these steps:

  • Make a note of the citation.
  • Decipher unfamiliar abbreviations.
  • Enter the journal title in the “Print & Electronic Journals” search box.
    • From UBC Library menu bar: Use the "Journals" pull-down menu on the menu bar to select "Print & Electronic Journal" and enter title
    • OR From UBC Library catalogue: In the catalogue's default Simple Search tab, enter the journal title in the Journal/Ejournal Title search: box.
  • Example with full text available:
    • Enter UBC Law Review in the “Print & Electronic Journals” search box.
    • Choose HeinOnline Law Journal Library.
    • Click on 2008.
    • Select first article, starting on page 1.
  • How to print or save a pdf:
    • Ensure the full screen is open so the printer icon on the top far-right is visible.
    • Click on the printer icon.
    • You can choose to download the whole article, or select pages - click the print/download button.
    • It takes just a few seconds to download an article and then it can be read online, saved, or printed.
  • Example with print version only:
    • Enter Canadian Tax Journal in the “Print & Electronic Journals” search box.
    • Click on UBC Print Holdings.
    • Carefully note the locations.
      • Many journals are in several locations (e.g., Law Journals, Law Storage, Law Reserve, Pre-bindery, Bindery).
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