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Federal Regulatory Research Methodology

The most basic task of regulatory research is locating regulations as codified and updating them to be sure that they are completely up to date. After updating the text of your regulation, you will need to locate any agency decisions that have interpreted your regulation. Finally, you should check whether any federal courts have ruled on the regulation at hand.

Depending on your resources, you may conduct this research using the books, LexisNexis, Westlaw, the Internet, or a looseleaf service. Regulatory research is usually easiest using the books or a looseleaf service, unless you already have a citation. However, there are ways to use the electronic resources in a cost-effective manner.

Federal regulatory research may involve not only locating current regulations, but also finding regulations in force at an earlier date, finding regulations that were proposed but never finalized, or even finding industry comments that were made during the consideration of a proposed regulation. Review our Federal Regulatory Research Task List for a summary of the various research methods.

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Print Research Methodology

• Start by using a CFR index to search by topic. All indexes are shelved near the CFR
  • Code of Federal Regulations Index & Finding Aids (official one-volume index)
  • West's Code of Federal Regulations. General Index
• If the index does not provide a specific section, go to the beginning of the cited part to see an outline of the regulations in that part.
• Find appropriate section and read the text.
  • Note the cover date of the CFR volume.
• Update section using List of Sections Affected (LSA).
  • Find the LSA cumulation that covers the most extensive range of dates AFTER the cover date of the CFR.
  • This may be a monthly issue or the annual for that title.
  • If there is an LSA after the annual volume for your title, make sure to check that as well. Sometimes one or more LSA issues will be issued before the new CFR volume is issued.
  • The LSA not only provides the Federal Register citation to final regulations, by section number, but also the citation to proposed regulations that may affect the regulation you are researching, by part number.
  • Note the dates covered by the LSA.
• Check the CFR Parts Affected section of the Federal Register to bring the text completely up to date.
  • Check this section in the last issue of the Federal Register for each month AFTER the date of the latest LSA you checked.
    • Note that the CFR Parts Affected in the Federal Register provides the page number but not the issue of the Federal Register where the page is found. Use Federal Register Pages and Date chart to determine the date of the issue where a page number appears.
  • In most libraries outside of the D.C. Metro area, the Federal Register can be several days behind. Online, check the Current month's list of CFR parts affected and, if necessary, Last month's list of CFR parts affected to bridge the gap between what the library currently has and the latest issue of the Federal Register that has been published.
• Look for agency decisions that interpret section.
• Use Shepard's Code of Federal Regulations Citations, in print or via LexisNexis, to locate any federal decisions that have ruled on your regulation.

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LexisNexis Regulatory Research Tips

The full text of CFR is updated generally every 2 weeks by integrating new regulations as published in the Federal Register.

• Although you can conduct a full text search of the CFR, a better way of searching on LexisNexis is to limit your search to a specific title:
  • From the Code of Federal Regulations source, click on the link to "Browse TOC".
  • At the next screen, you will see all 50 titles of the CFR.
  • Click on the + signs to expand the titles and select more limited sections of the CFR to search.
  • Once you have selected those sections, click on the "Advanced" link to return to the full search screen with your selections.
  • You will then be able to add additional terms to your search.
• Note that even when limiting your search this way, you may still need to browse sections of the CFR to locate the appropriate regulation.
  • Use the "Book Browse" link under any section you locate that is close to your topic.
  • You may also browse the entire Table of Contents for a particular title or part of the CFR by expanding your selections under "Browse TOC".
• Once you have found the pertinent section of the CFR, note the currency date: "THIS SECTION IS CURRENT THROUGH..." You will need this to verify whether the text of your regulation is still current.
• Go to the FR - Federal Register source .
  • Construct a search using the "cfr" segment and a date restriction after the currency date given in the CFR source.
  • TIP: The "cfr" segment uses the title of the CFR and the part number, not a specific section number. Thus, 37 CFR 404.4 becomes cfr (37 cfr part 404)
• Look for agency decisions that interpret section.
• Shepardize the regulation to locate any federal cases that have ruled on the regulation. Shepardizing only retrieves selective citing references.

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Westlaw Regulatory Research Methodology & Tips

The full text of the CFR is updated on a regular basis by integrating the text of new regulations as published in the Federal Register.

• Although you can conduct a full text search of the CFR, a better way to search on Westlaw is to limit your search to a specific title:
  • From the Code of Federal Regulations database, click on the "Table of Contents" link.
  • Click on the + signs to expand the titles and select more limited sections of the CFR to search.
  • Once you have selected those sections, click on the "Search" link to add additional terms for your search.
• Note that even when limiting your search this way, you may still need to browse sections of the CFR to locate the appropriate regulation.
  • Use the "Tools" link under any section you locate that is close to your topic. Then, select "Documents in Sequence" to browse documents before or after the section you locate.
  • You may also browse the entire Table of Contents for a particular title or part of the CFR by expanding your selections under "Table of Contents"
• Once you have found the pertinent section of the CFR, click on the "Currentness" link and note the currency date "Current through"
• Westlaw’s Regulations Plus provides updates on the text of your regulation, alerting on proposed regulatory action, and information about cases that have interpreted your regulation.  Keycite also provides citing references from a variety of sources including agency documents, secondary sources, etc.

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Internet Research Methodology

Although there are multiple Internet sources for the Code of Federal Regulations, the best source is GPO Access, which contains the CFR, the Federal Register, and the List of Sections Affected, as published by the government in both HTML and PDF formats.

• Start with the Code of Federal Regulations. Although you can conduct a full text search of the CFR, a better way to search GPO Access is to limit your search to a specific title by using the the Browse and/or Search the CFR page.
  • Select the most recent version of your title available.
  • You can expand the title to view more specific sections by clicking on the links to parts.
  • Remember that the CFR is updated quarterly. Even then, sometimes a title may not come out in its entirety at the same time. If a link to a specific part is not available, you will need to look at the next most current version.
  • Before you enter a search, review the CFR Search Tips document to learn the appropriate search methods. GPO Access databases use a much simpler search engine than those provided by LexisNexis or Westlaw.
  • Note the date of the CFR that you searched, as you only need to check updating tools AFTER that date.
• Next, check the List of Sections Affected
  • Although the List of Sections Affected is searchable, the search tips provided by GPO Access are based on the 1998 issues of the LSA and do not appear to work in current issues.
  • Instead, use the browse feature to examine all pertinent issues AFTER the cover date of the CFR that you used. This may be a monthly issue or the annual for that title.
  • If there is an LSA after the annual volume for your title, make sure to check that as well. Sometimes one or more LSA issues will be issued before the new CFR volume is issued.
  • Note the dates covered by the LSA.
• You will still need to further update your research by going to the cumulative lists of CFR Parts Affected to bring you completely up to date. The LSA for the previous month is published at the conclusion of the current month, so you will always be at least a month behind if you only update using the LSA.
  • Last Month's List of CFR Parts Affected
  • Current List of CFR Parts Affected
• Once you have the Federal Register citation for any changes to your regulation, go to Retrieve an FR page to view the text of the changes.
• Look for agency decisions that interpret section.
• Remember to update your research by using Keycite or Shepard's to locate any federal cases on your regulation.

Page maintained by Raquel Ortiz
Last updated: March 2009