Legal Research - Top Article Databases
- HeinOnline Academic
HeinOnline Academic is a full-text research collection offering U.S. federal publications such as the U.S. Code, Federal Register, treaties and agreements, U.S. and state appellate court opinions, federal legislative histories, presidential documents; a collection of legal classics; and constitutions of the world
- Legal Collection This link opens in a new window
Search over 250 of the worlds most respected, scholarly law journals. Find full-text articles from this authoritative source for information on current issues, studies, thoughts and trends of the legal world.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR contains the complete digitized backfile of core scholarly journals from a broad range of academic disciplines.
- govinfoGovinfo provides free online access to official federal government publications and securely controls digital content throughout its life cycle to ensure content integrity and authenticity.
Welcome to the Legal Information Research Guide
Researching a legal question often involves working with several types of law:
- Statutory law consists of laws, or statutes, passed by a legislature, for example, the United States Congress.
- Administrative law refers to the regulations made by administrative agencies which specify how legislation will be carried out. An example of an administrative agency is the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Case law consists of court decisions. Depending on the level of the court involved, a court decision may set precedent which becomes part of the law. For example, decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court set precedent for all lower courts.
Legal research is complicated by the fact that all these types of law may function at various governmental levels. For example, an activity may be subject to regulations from both federal and state administrative agencies.
See the tabs above for more information on each type of law, for municipal and local law, and other special topics.
Learn more about legal research: Fundamentals of Legal Research, located in the reference collection, second floor Dunbar library; Ref KF240.M469 2002
You can also search for "legal research" in the University Libraries catalog.
The University Libraries does not possess a comprehensive law library. If you need assistance in finding legal information, contact the government and legal information coordinator - contact information on the right side of this page.
Interpreting Legal Citations
Legal citations follow this format:
- numerical designation of the major part of a set
- abbreviation for the source
- secondary numerical designation.
Examples:
| Citation | What it means |
| 40 CFR 87.1 | Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 87.1 |
| 197 F.3d 1178 | Volume 197 of the Federal Reporter, 3rd Series, page 1178 |
Where to find more information
Reading Legal Citations (from Boston College Law Library) is a guide to legal citations and includes a list of common abbreviations
Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations (Ref KF246 .P73 2001) provides a comprehensive list of abbreviations. Located in the reference collection, second floor, Dunbar Library
Citation Management
The University Libraries does not offer support for these online reference managers. They are listed as a convenience for our student, faculty, and staff. Many of the University Libraries' article databases will export bibliographic records to reference management software.
- ZoteroZotero is a free and open-source reference management software to manage bibliographic data and related research materials (such as PDF files). It is produced by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.
- EndNote - ClarivateEndNote is a commercial reference management software package, used to manage bibliographies and references when writing essays and articles. It is produced by Clarivate Analytics (Web of Science publishers).
- MendeleyMendeley is a reference manager which is used to manage and share research papers and generate bibliographies for scholarly articles.
- Citation MachineAutomatically generates citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian after you type in the information needed.
Note
This guide was prepared for use by Wright State University students, faculty, and staff. Print resources are titles held in Dunbar Library. Subscription databases are available to all library users in Dunbar Library. Remote access from these pages is available to Wright State faculty, staff, and students.
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