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PS 445/545: Comparative Legal Systems

Course Instructor: Bob Moog
Librarian: Matt Sumner

Finding Periodical Articles in the Library

It takes time for information to find its way into books. If you are doing research on a topic that is happening how, you will probably want to begin your search with indexes to periodical literature.

Think of a recent news event: first reports of it appeared on the Internet, TV and radio, then in the daily newspaper, and next in weekly news magazines. Over time more lengthy articles on the event will appear in more scholarly journals, and next books on the topic might be published.

For recent years many journal articles are available electronically, either through links in the records found in indexes or databases like those listed below, or within electronic resource collections to which the library subscribes. When using these indexes, you really have two goals in mind:

      1) you want to locate good articles on your topic, and then
      2) you next want to locate their complete texts.

Also, your professor will be more impressed with your work if you write papers using "scholarly" or "peer-reviewed" articles. There's a difference between articles in scholarly journals and those in popular magazines. Compare scholarly vs. popular journals.

First locate scholarly articles you want to read, and then determine where you need to go to find their texts. The articles will be in a variety of locations - on the web, in paper in our book stacks, in a microformat, or available only in another library. The records in these indexes offer clues that help you locate articles, and you'll be following different paths to get your hands on the articles you need.

PAIS International , 1972 to present

NCSU's Information System, NCSU Library's World Wide Web (with a Unity ID)

Public Affairs Information Service offers worldwide literature in public and social policy, law, finance, international relations, political science, law, public administration, and government. Indexes journals, reports, government documents, directories, books, statistical yearbooks, and conference proceedings. Coverage: 1976-present. Updated quarterly.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts , 1975 to present

NCSU's Information System, NCSU Library's World Wide Web (with a Unity ID)

WPSA is building on the merged backfiles of Political Science Abstracts (1975-2000), and ABC POL SCI, (1984-2000). The database provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy. Coverage 1974 to present.

Social Sciences Citation Index , 1956 to present

NCSU's Information System, NCSU Library's World Wide Web (with a Unity ID)

Social Sciences Citation Index is one of three databases in the Web of Science. You may search all three together, two at once, or limit to only one of the database.

The strength of the databases lie in their ability to link from an article to ones written more recently that cite the original reference in their bibliographies.

LexisNexis Academic Links

Use these links into LexisNexis Academic to open specific search screens for different resources offered via that product:

Country & Region Reports (requires navigation; see notes)

NCSU's Information System, NCSU Library's World Wide Web (with a Unity ID)

Take this path from the initial LexisNexis Academic Screen: Click "Sources" tab -> click "Country & Region Reports" folder -> select one or more available sources -> click "OK - Continue" at right margin.

News, All (English, Full-Text)

NCSU's Information System, NCSU Library's World Wide Web (with a Unity ID)

You may use the "Select Sources" dropdown box to select more specific news sources.

US & Canadian Law Reviews, Combined

NCSU's Information System, NCSU Library's World Wide Web (with a Unity ID)

You may use the dropdown box to select United Kingdom legal journals, or to select legal journals categorized by broad subject.

Index to Legal Periodicals & Books, v. 21-v. 39, 1981 to 2000

D. H. Hill Reference K9 .N32 (6th floor, Reference Stacks)

Begun in 1908, this title indexes the most important legal periodicals in a format similar to the Readers' Guide. Articles are indexed by subject and author. Each volume includes a Table of Cases and a Table of Statutes indicating articles which include a substantial discussion of a particular decision or statute.

Government Periodicals Index, 1988 -

NCSU's Information System, NCSU Library's World Wide Web (with a Unity ID)

This product indexes the contents of 250+ periodical titles published by departments and agencies of the U.S. government. Many of the titles included here are available in the U.S. government documents collection on the second floor of the D.H. Hill Library. For the years 1970-1987, an annual paper index is available in the 6th floor Reference stacks (Ref. Z1223.Z7 I55)

Academic Search FullTEXT Premier

NCSU's Information System, NCSU Library's World Wide Web (with a Unity ID).

Academic Search Elite provides full text for over 1,530 academic, social sciences, humanities, general science, education and multi-cultural journals. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for nearly 2,720 journals. Over 1,700 journals are peer reviewed. Full text is available from 1990, and indexing and abstract backfiles begin with 1984.

INGENTA

NCSU's Information System, NCSU Library's World Wide Web (with a Unity ID).

This is a Table of Contents database. Ingenta's integrated service offers free searching and browsing of more than 26,000 publications, and full-texts to some titles.

The Ingenta service offers full-text articles on a pay-per-view basis, but you may request article texts through the library's Interlibrary Loan process.

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