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Law: Articles

Getting Full Text Articles

Get it at UC 

The full text of an article within a database is provided in multiple formats. Look for:

  • An HTML link
  • PDF link
  • Link to Get it at UC

The Get it at UC link will provide you options for how to access the full text of the article. If there are no online links available, this means you need to request the item through Interlibrary Loan if a print version is not available at UC San Diego. The Library will deliver the full text of an article to you free of charge. When requesting you will need your Library ID number.

Your library card/account number begins with "21822" and can be found on the back of your UCSD ID card or within the UCSD app. Enter the 14-digit number without spaces.

Law Reviews are the scholarly publication of the legal world. They are a fantastic resource for finding scholarly legal information about a topic, including legal citations. It is often easier to begin legal research with these sources rather with in the primary sources like cases and legislation.

Scholarly articles are written by academics who are experts in their field and published in scholarly journals. Peer-reviewed articles are scholarly articles that have been read and vetted by other experts in the field (e.g., the author's peers) before the journal accepts them for publication.

Find citations to scholarly articles searching by keyword in the following databases. 

Search tip: Use the yellow Get it at UC button to link to the online full text (if available), find the print version of the publication (by searching the UC Library Search) or order a copy from another library (when not available from the UC San Diego Library).

News sources can be particularly useful as primary sources that describe events as they unfold. They may cover sitautions or events that are newer or more specific than than one might find in scholarly articles. The Library subscribe to a number of online sources for international news.

Google Scholar

Bonus search tip: Google Scholar is a useful tool because it searches within the full text of articles. It's most useful when your topic is so narrow that you don't find much using the subject-specific databases.

Google Scholar Search

Is it scholarly?

A quick checklist:

1. Where did you find the source? Did you use a scholarly database? The Library catalog (UC Library Search)?

2. Who's responsible for the work? Is it published by a university press or another known scholarly publisher?  What are the author's credentials? Is the author a professor or other known academic or scholar?

3. Does it look like a scholarly work? Does it have footnotes and/or endnotes and/or a bibliography? What kinds of sources it it citing? Where did the author get their information? What research methodology are they using?