Library guides: Legal Research Skills: Journal articles

What are journal articles?

Journal articles are written by experts and provide scholarly analysis of legal issues based on research and review of the literature. They are a good source to use to support your analysis and discussion of a legal topic.

The databases listed below index different journals in different subject areas. Search across a range of databases to make sure you are finding all the relevant articles on your topic.

Scroll down to view instructions (and some screenshots) for searching each of the databases.

Tip: Articles found via index databases may not be available in full-text in the same database. To find the full-text article, search for the journal title in the SCU Library search to check whether SCU has access to the journal in a different database. You can then browse to the relevant volume and issue of the journal to find the article you are looking for.

Key databases for journal articles

Subscription databases

Westlaw Australia This link opens in a new window
Includes journals published by Thomson Reuters across many subject areas, with particular strengths in administrative, banking & finance, insolvency, commercial, competition & consumer, corporations, criminal, health, IP, local government & planning, practice & procedure, property, and torts law. Also includes the comprehensive Australian Legal Journals Index.
Lexis+ (Australia) This link opens in a new window
To be used exclusively for academic research only.

Provides Australian case law (including the CaseBase case citator), legislation, journals, commentary (including a comprehensive legal dictionary & the Halsbury's legal encyclopaedia), and practical guidance modules. Some international content (NZ, UK, US, Canada & Hong Kong) is also included.

View the Lexis+ (Australia) Help pages to get started.
View list of all sources or follow the instructions in the Legal Research Skills guide to access content from the different jurisdictions.
InfoRMIT This link opens in a new window
Search across all full-text and abstract/index databases, or select AGIS Plus Text and Australian Public Affairs Full Text for a more focused search.
AGIS includes over 140 law journals in all subject areas, indexed from 1975.

HeinOnline: Law Journal Library
An extensive international (mainly U.S.) law journal collection covering all subject areas.

Free databases

AustLII This link opens in a new window
Includes approximately 200 freely available Australian journals in all subject areas.
Select Journals and scholarship
Google scholar This link opens in a new window
Set up so that Find it @ SCU links automatically appear within Google Scholar in your search results:
1. Click the three horizontal lines (top left) then go to Settings (the cog at the bottom of the list)
2. Click Library links
3. Type in Southern Cross University and click the search button
4. Tick Southern Cross University - Find it @ SCU

SSRN (Social Sciences Research Network)
Provides more than 1 million research papers from more than 1 million researchers in more than 70 disciplines. See in particular the Legal Scholarship Network.

Westlaw AU

To search for journal articles through Westlaw AU:

Under Content Type, click Law Reviews & Journals
Click Advanced next to the search box
Use the advanced search form to search by keyword, citation or legislation cited
On the results page, expand the Publication Type filter on the left-hand side to limit to Law Reviews & Journals

Lexis+

To search for journal articles through Lexis+:

Click Advanced Search below the main search box > select Secondary Materials from the drop-down menu
Search for articles using keywords, or use the relevant fields to find articles citing legislation or cases
On the results page, expand the Filters panel on the left-hand side. Under AU Secondary Materials heading, tick Journals (for full-text articles published by LexisNexis), Journal Citators (for abstracts of articles indexed in Lexis+) and/or Newsletters and Bulletins (for shorter practitioner articles published by LexisNexis).

Informit

To search for journal articles through Informit databases (including AGIS):

Click Advanced Search
Use the drop-down menu on the right-hand side of each search box to search using keywords, legislation, legal cases, or treaty
On the results page, limit to Resource type > Journal
Other relevant limits include Legal cases, Legislation, and Treaty

HeinOnline

To find journal articles through HeinOnline:

Click Advanced Search under the search box
Search using keywords, legislation titles or case names
- Selecting the Text field is recommended (for full-text searching)
Optional: choose a topic from the Pathfinder Subject list to help narrow results.

AustLII

To find journal articles through AustLII:

Click the drop-down arrow to the left of the main search bar > select Advanced Search
Click Boolean Query and search using keywords and search operators
Tick the box to select All Law Journals Databases