by John P. Joergensen, Reference Librarian Rutgers-Camden School of Law Library

[Note: only currently enrolled Rutgers law students and Rutgers law faculty are allowed to use WESTLAW and LEXIS.]

Is the volume of a recent law review that you want missing from the shelf? Did you know that there are several hundred law review titles available full-text on WESTLAW and LEXIS?

WESTLAW:

The database to access is called Journals & Law Reviews. The identifier is JLR. WESTLAW currently makes available 582 periodical titles and 86 reference texts. Searches can be limited by the following Fields:

FIELD NAME SEARCH ABBREVIATION

Author AU

Date DA or DATE

Title TI

Citation CI

LEXIS:

Law reviews and journals are available in the LAWREV library. The LEXIS collection currently consists of over 220 law reviews, several ABA publications, publications from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, an Environmental Law Institute publication, ALR and L.Ed.2d articles, two leading, legal indices and a number of Warren Gorham & Lamont tax journals. Searches can be limited by the following Segments: Author, Date, Name, Publication, Text, Title.

NOTE:

Although the scope of material available on both services is very wide, including many journals, the depth of the collection varies widely from journal to journal. While many journals are available back to the early to mid-1980's, many others are only available back to 1993 or 1994. In addition, WESTLAW has only selected coverage of many journals, particularly for earlier dates. If you are interested in a particular journal, use the SCOPE command in WESTLAW or the GUIDE command in LEXIS to find out how far back it is available.

Because of the above limitations, a search of the Legal Resources Index on LEXIS is recommended. This index is searchable by Topic, Title, Journal, Author, and Date. The Legal Resources Index contains citations from 1980 to present. For citations prior to 1980, you must still use the paper indicies. (See RESEARCH NOTES # 4 for a more complete guide to the use of the on-line Legal Resources Index.)

If you still have questions, ask at the reference desk. We are happy to help.

Rev. 10/1/96 JPJ