LibGuides: Legal Research: Find Articles and Journals

Key Databases

HeinOnline provides access to over 1500 legal and social science journal articles, plus statutes and regulations of the U.S. and other countries.

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is a premier online research platform that provides more than 201 million pages of multidisciplinary periodicals, essential government documents, international resources, case law, and much more. Composed of fully searchable image-based PDFs and available at an affordable price, the wealth of material allows academic institutions, government agencies, law firms, court systems, corporations, and other organizations access to authoritative, true-to-print digital material without the hassle or cost of using multiple research databases.
Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars, researchers, and students at the college and university level. A multi-disciplinary resource, collections cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history. Particular strengths include U.S. foreign policy; U.S. civil rights; global affairs and colonial studies; and modern history. Collections are chosen based on requests from scholars, archivists, and students.

General Research Databases

These general databases cover a wide range of topics. These databases can be a great starting point to find some general information on your research topic.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Complete supports high-level research in the key areas of academic study by providing journals, periodicals, reports, books and more.
Article First This link opens in a new window
Index of articles from the contents pages of 16,000+ journals in all fields.
Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Criminal Justice Abstracts is a bibliographic database for criminal justice and criminology research. It provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for hundreds of journals covering forensic sciences, corrections, policing, criminal law and investigation.
Gale Legal Forms This link opens in a new window
A collection of freely available legal forms from Gale. Official, State Specific, Federal, Business, Personal, Real Estate and General forms covering hundreds of legal subjects and issues are available here.

Note: In all serious legal matters patron's should consult legal council.

Google Scholar

With the search engine Google Scholar, you can find full-text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state districts, the Appellate Courts and the Supreme Court. You can also search in Google Scholar for articles in law reviews and scholarly journals. Google Scholar is connected to Whittemore Library's databases, so an article from your search results that has the link, "Find it @ Framingham State", to the right of the article will be available in full text from our library. If you find an article or citation that we do not have access to at FSU, you can request the article via interlibrary loan.

Additional Databases of Interest

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
CQ Researcher provides comprehensive reporting and analysis on issues in the news. CQ Researcher reports date back ten years. PDF files are available for reports from January 1996; color PDFs are available for reports published after January 2001.

E Journals & Print Journals at FSU

E-Journals:
Enter the title of the journal you need
in the Full Text Journal Finder
to link to the journal if it is available online
through a database and/or the publisher.

Full-Text Journal Finder

Print Journals (paper, microfilm and microfiche):

To find a listing of where a print journal, magazine, or newspaper is located (either upstairs in the Periodicals Area
on the Upper Mezzanine (UM) or downstairs in the Lower Reading Room [LRR] one flight down from the main floor in the Lower Mezzanine).

1. Enter the title of the journal you need
in the Full Text Journal Finder (see link above)

2. For a list of F.S.U.'s print periodical holdings (paper or microforms), look for the F.S.U Periodical Holdings List, in the red binders
You can find those red binders in the Periodicals Area and at the Reference desk.

3. Search the MLN Online Catalog for individual periodical titles.

MLN Online Catalog