Journals are professional or academic serials (magazines) that are published at regular intervals. Some law journals focus on a particular subject area. For example, the Journal of Contract Law is an Australian publication that publishes articles on the subject of contract law. Other journals, such as the Australian Bar Review, publish articles on a wide range of topics, including torts. Articles in law journals provide the researcher with analysis and discussion of legal issues. They offer expert opinions and interpretations of the law.
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Legal journals databases are useful tools that allow users to locate articles quickly by searching the contents of many journals simultaneously. Some journals databases contain the full-text of the articles, some are only indexes and others, like AGIS, are a combination of the two.
AGIS Plus Text (Attorney Generals Information Service) - is the leading legal journals database in Australia.
CaseBase - Primarily a citator, CaseBase can also be used as a journal index. It is especially useful for locating journal articles that refer to cases.
Australian Public Affairs (APA-FT) - A broader database than AGIS, it indexes articles on current affairs, economics, humanities, literature, politics and social sciences as well as law.
Hein Online - The Law Journal Library on Hein contains more than 2,000 law reviews of which more than 100 are Australian.
Westlaw World Journals - Over 1,000 full-text journals and law reviews. Most titles are from the United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada. Some titles from other jurisdictions.
AGIS (Attorney Generals Information Service) is the leading legal journals database in Australia. It contains articles published on all aspects of law. Most articles include the full text. If the full text is not available click the 'check for full text' option to locate it. AGIS allows the user to search across hundreds of different journals and locate articles in a number of ways including by:
Once the record of an article is found, AGIS provides the user with information about the article including:
Most records will have the full text of the article attached. Where it is not, click the check for full text option to find the full-text elsewhere.
To locate a journal article by author name
At least to begin with, it is good practice when searching by name to only search by surname. The way the first name of an author is used may vary over time and from one database to another. For example, an author with the name John Devereux might appear as J Devereux or John Devereux.
1. Choose Advanced Search
2. Enter the Surname of the author in the Search Query box
3. Choose Author from the drop-down menu immediately to the right of the Search Query box
4. Click on Search
To locate a journal article by title
Unlike a library catalogue, AGIS contains both the titles of the journals and the titles of the articles that are published within journals. Devereux.
1. Choose Advanced Search
2. Enter the title of the article into the Search Query box. If you are confident that you know the exact title, enter it within double quote marks. If not, or if the title is long, enter the main words from the title with the Boolean operator AND between each word or a combination of the two.
3. Choose Title from the drop-down menu immediately to the right of the Search Query box
4. Click on Search
To locate journal articles by subject
Compared to the journal articles that they index, the records in AGIS are very concise. While the records in AGIS do contain a subject field, in most instances it is better to search across all the fields. That way a search will benefit from information held in the title, subject, abstract and other fields.
1. Choose Advanced Search
2. Enter the search terms into the Search Query box. It is essential to use Boolean operators. Note the Boolean operators must be entered in UPPER CASE Remember that you are searching an index. Try to think of what words and phrases might appear in records describing the articles being sought.
3. Click on Search
Example: "gratuitous care" AND (award OR damages)
Note that the Boolean operator OR is used in connection with round brackets to group alternative terms together.
Using AGIS to find Peer Reviewed articles
To find just peer reviewed articles in AGIS you can refine your results. From the menu on the left hand side of the results page scroll to the section titled Limit To, and then select Peer Reviewed.
HeinOnline is an excellent resource for both international and Australian law journal articles.
A peer reviewed article has been read, reviewed, and approved by subject experts. This adds an additional level of quality control. Peer reviewed journals may also be called refereed or scholarly journals.
The video below explains more detail about the peer review process.
Some databases, such as AGIS allow you to refine your results to just peer reviewed articles.
Other databases, such as Hein do not mention if the article is peer reviewed. Therefore if you need to check if an article is peer reviewed you can use the database Ulrichsweb. Type the name of the journal (not the name of the article). If the black and white referees jumper icon is next to the name of the journal this means that it is peer reviewed.
Alternatively you can also search for the journal's web page. If the journal is peer reviewed their web page will usually mention this.
PRINT JOURNAL
The details required in order are: Author of the article (as shown in source); Article Title (in single quotation marks); Publication Year (in round brackets); Volume number; Issue number (in round brackets); Journal Title (in italics and capitalised, omitting words such as ‘The’ and ‘An’ from the beginning); Starting Page number, Pinpoint reference to a specific page(s) (if applicable).
Example: Mark Leibler, 'Tax and the Rule of Law' (2023) 46(2) Melbourne University Law Review 547, 552.
| FOOTNOTE CITATION EXAMPLE | BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFERENCE LIST EXAMPLE | |
| Single Author | 14 Robert French, 'The Role of the High Court in the Recognition of Native Title' (2002) 30(2) University of Western Australian Law Review 129, 131. | French, Robert, 'The Role of the High Court in the Recognition of Native Title' (2002) 30(2) University of Western Australian Law Review 129 |
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Two Authors |
15 Kathy Bowrey and Natalie Fowell, 'Digging Up Fragments and Building IP Franchises' (2009) 31 Sydney Law Review 185. | Bowrey, Kathy and Natalie Fowell, 'Digging Up Fragments and Building IP Franchises' (2009) 31 Sydney Law Review 185 |
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Three Authors |
16 Matthew Alderton, Michael Granziera and Martin Smith, 'Judicial Review and Jurisdictional Errors: The Recent Migration Jurisprudence of the High Court of Australia' (2011) 18(3) Australian Journal of Administraive Law 138. | Alderton, Matthew, Michael Granziera and Martin Smith, 'Judicial Review and Jurisdictional Errors: The Recent Migration Jurisprudence of the High Court of Australia' (2011) 18(3) Australian Journal of Administraive Law 138 |
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Three + Authors |
17 Darren Bick et al, 'A Gold Mine for Environmental Class Actions in Australia?' (2010) 25(9-10) Australian Environment Review 8. | Bick, Darren et al, 'A Gold Mine for Environmental Class Actions in Australia?' (2010) 25(9-10) Australian Environment Review 8 |
Tip: If a journal is organised by year (it does not have a volume number, but may have a numbered issue) the publication date should be shown in square brackets. For example -
...[2009] (46) Australian Rationalist 20.
...[2018] (Autumn) Bar News: Journal of the NSW Bar Association 52.
ONLINE JOURNAL
Articles appearing in journals that are only available online (no print version published), should where possible, be cited in the same manner as articles in printed journals. However, it will often not be possible to include a volume number, issue number or starting page. Where an article has an article number or some other identifier, this would be used instead of a starting page number. If an article appears as a PDF (portable document format) or equivalent, include the page range of the PDF version, after the article identifier.
| FOOTNOTE CITATION EXAMPLE | BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFERENCE LIST EXAMPLE | |
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Electronic Journal
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19 Lyndon Griggs, 'Torrens Title in a Digital World' (2001) 8(3) E-Law Journal: Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law 3: 1-7, 2. (3 and 1-17 and 2 refers to article number 3, pages 1-7 of the PDF version, pinpoint to page 2 respectively)
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Griggs, Lyndon, 'Torrens Title in a Digital World' (2001) 8(3) E-Law Journal: Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law 3, 1-7
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