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Legal journal indexes and articles: Introduction

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Introduction

When you're researching a topic, a few good journal articles can save you a lot of work.

They can:

  • Give you a good overview of your topic and present different points of view
  • Provide references to relevant primary law (cases and legislation)
  • Provide case commentaries
  • Provide bibliographies that refer you to additional useful resources on your topic

Journal indexes are excellent tools to identify relevant articles. Subject headings assigned  to articles by professional indexers are very useful for fine-tuning your search. An added benefit of using journal indexes is that you can often link directly to the full text of the article.

No single journal index covers everything.  The index you use depends on what you’re looking for, the jurisdiction and how comprehensive you need to be.

This guide will help you:

  • choose the right journal index
  • search journal indexes effectively
  • retrieve the full text of journal articles

Related guides

Guide to Finding Law Journals and Journal Articles – Bora Laskin Law Library

Journal articles and Indexes Workshop Recording and PowerPoint Presentation (Oct. 27, 2021)

Acknowledgement

A special thank you to Sharona Brookman, former Reference Librarian, who created and contributed to this guide.