Locating Articles

The Research section of the Law Library’s web site includes guides to help Find Articles in Legal Journals and Find Articles in Other Journals. A research portal for BU law journal staff members provides links to sources the provide indexes and/or full-text access to many law and non-law journals.

This page provides additional information that may be helpful to journal staff members.

Indexes

If you need to identify, or verify a citation to, a legal periodical article, check the Index to Legal Periodicals and Books or Legal Trac, each of which indexes articles from hundreds of law reviews and legal journals dating from the early 1980s. For articles published very recently (last 2-3 months), which may be too new to be included in other indexes, see the Current Index to Legal Periodicals. (Note: generally, these electronic indexes do not provide access to the full text of articles.)
For earlier articles, consult the print edition of Index to Legal Periodicals (located in Pappas reading room, Law Indexes KF8 .I53), which indexes articles from the late 1800s up to the past year. From the same site as Index to Legal Periodicals, choose "Legal Periodicals Retro" for online searching for legal articles prior to 1980.

Hein Online provides a basic search engine that can search by author and title for articles published in the volumes included in that database. (Hein Online also provides access to the full text of articles, as noted below.)

The guides mentioned above (for articles in Legal Journals and Other Journals) link to several electronic databases and article aggregators that provide access to articles in portable document format (PDF). PDF files provide exact duplicates of pages in the print edition, including pagination and graphics. (Note: Some databases provide index information only, not the full text of articles.)

See the searchable list of Law Journals A-Z, which provides links to electronic sources for legal journals; and the more comprehensive list of BU eJournals.

The BU Library catalog record provides a link for electronic access to many legal journals through Hein Online, which provides access to articles in PDF format.
Many legal periodicals are available through Lexis and Westlaw, but such access is usually not indicated in the BU Library Catalog.
Mugar Library provides a comprehensive guide to Electronic Journals, Magazines and Newspapers, which includes a complete list of available titles, a search engine to locate electronic journal titles by keyword, and links to various databases and article aggregators.
Among the resources provided through Mugar Library, PDF files are available in JSTOR (all articles, social sciences); Science Direct (all articles, health, physical and social sciences); and such databases as ABI/Inform Global and Project MUSE (some publications). Some of these databases provide the full text, but not PDF, for articles in some publications; for those publications, pinpoint pagination and graphics may not be available.
Some publications provide access to articles in PDF via their own web sites. These include, for example, JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association and Science magazine.

To find journals in print format, consult the BU Library Catalog by running a Title search for the title of the journal, magazine or other publication. (The catalog provides holdings information for journals, but it does not index individual articles or authors.) Note both the Location and the Call Number (if any) for the publication. In the catalog record for the periodical, boxes below the title should indicate the library’s holdings (indicating a range of volumes and dates to the right of "LIB. HAS") for that publication in print or microform.
The catalog record also may provide a link for electronic access through Hein Online, if available. Many legal periodicals are available electronically through other database providers, including Lexis and Westlaw, but such access is usually not indicated in the BU Library Catalog.

In the Pappas Law Library, most legal and other journals are shelved alphabetically by title in one of several locations: Pappas (main reading room), Tax (lower level of Pappas), and Annex (adjacent to the circulation desk at the Law Annex, in the Mugar Library building). For details, see the complete guide to Law Library Periodicals.
Some law library periodicals may be shelved partially in off-site storage, and individual volumes may be checked out to a journal, faculty member, or other patron. For help locating journals, contact the circulation desk at the Pappas library or the Law Annex, or the reference desk in the Pappas reading room.
Information on journals owned by other BU libraries are also indicated in the library catalog. Note the library/location, call number, and holdings before visiting that library.

The Pappas Library provides access to many periodical publications in microfiche or microfilm, which provide a photographic duplicate of each page from the print original, including pagination and graphics. To read these publications, or to scan or print pages, use the reader/printer machines provided in the library's reading room.
Periodicals provided in microform include many legal news publications (such as the National Law Journal), state bar journals, and other publications. For some titles, microform provides backup of a title that the library holds in print; for others, the microform may be the only version available through the Pappas library. Please check the Library Catalog record for that title for holdings information.
The library catalog identifies periodical titles for which the library has holdings in microform. Generally, the catalog record identifies the “location” of these titles as “Law Micro,” and the range of volumes (and dates) for which microform is available is stated to the right of the notation “LIB. HAS.” These items in micro format are housed in the beige cabinets, located in several areas: the Pappas reading room, the lower level of Pappas (near the windows facing Bay State Road or the rooms along the courtyard), and the lower level of the Law Annex.
For maps and more detailed information, see the Law Library Microforms Guide.

If you have any questions about library holdings or locations, or how to use the microform reader/printers, please ask at one of the circulation desks, or at the reference desk in the Pappas reading room.

A request to obtain a photocopy of an article may be submitted to the library's Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service, if you are unable to obtain the article in an acceptable format some other way. Please consult with your editor about your journal's process for coordinating and submitting ILL requests. ILL requests can be submitted online.
Please note: If you cannot wait at least 7-10 days, ILL may not meet your needs. We cannot guarantee the processing time for an ILL transaction, and some items may not be available via ILL. (Additional information on how the interlibrary loan service works and some types of items that may be difficult or impossible to obtain via ILL are available in this guide.)
If you have questions about likely turnaround time using this service, please contact Meagan Carr in the circulation department, send your question by e-mail, or call 617-353-8412.

Page maintained by David Bachman
Last updated: July 2009