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Law and Legal Studies

This guide lists American University Library databases, print sources, and free Web sites of use to research in Legal Studies.

Have a newspaper citation?

What do you do when you know which newspaper you need, but not which database has the full text?

The Find Journals link will tell you which AU database has the full text of the newspaper.

Search Tips

Boolean operators:

AND - use to narrow a search and get fewer and more relevant results.
elections and voters

OR - use to broaden a search and get more results. Good for synonyms and words with variant spellings. Add parentheses when using OR.
("latin america" or argentina or colombia)
(organization or organisation)

NOT - use to narrow a search to get more relevant results
mexico not "new mexico"


Truncation:

Use to find words with different word endings. Most databases use an asterisk (*)
e.g. immigrant* yields immigrant, immigrants
e.g. immigra* yields immigrant, immigrants, immigrate, immigration, immigrating, etc.

Proximity search:

Use to find words that are close to each other on a page.
It is one way to find more relevant results.

Each family of databases has its own command words.

EBSCO:
n= words near another word in any order, within a certain number
fundamental* n3 islam*

Factiva:
near= words near another word in any order, within a certain number
president* near3 speech

HeinOnline
~
= words near each other in any order, within a certain number
"watershed planning"~10

Nexis Uni:
w/#=words within a specified number of words, in any order
"human rights" w/2 violations

w/s = words within the same sentence
crime w/s (dc or "district of columbia")

w/p = words within the same paragraph
gays w/p military

Ovid:

adj# = words near another word in any order, within a certain number

ProQuest:
near/= words near another word in any order, within a certain number
"renewable energy" near/5 viable

Scopus
w/# 
= words near another word in any order, within a certain number

Web of Science:
near/= words near another word in any order, within a certain number
government near/3 fund*

 

CURRENT U.S. - Multiple News Sources

Current news stories from U.S. newspapers, news magazines, news broadcasts, and other news sources.

HISTORICAL U.S. - Multiple News Sources

U.S. news sources that do not have the latest news.

Individual U.S. News Sources (ProQuest)

To save time one can search the following ProQuest databases simultaneously. Directions: Click on one of these databases; click on "News & Newspapers" on the right-hand column; and then select the appropriate databases.

Individual U.S. News Sources

CURRENT INTERNATIONAL - Multiple News Sources

Current news stories from non-U.S. newspapers, news magazines, news broadcasts, and other news sources.

HISTORICAL INTERNATIONAL - Multiple News Sources

Non-U.S. news sources that do not have the latest news.

Individual News Sources - from Americas

Individual News Sources - from Asia

Individual News Sources - from Europe