Non-law databases for law students

Legal research is becoming more and more interdisciplinary, including “Law and…”, human rights, international relations, and other law-related topics in other disciplines. Therefore, when you begin your research, you will find yourself seeking non-law databases more often than not.  If you are new to interdisciplinary research at the University, check out D’Angelo Law Library’s Finding Non-Law Journal Articles guide. These include some of the non-law databases more frequently used here at Law.

For journal articles and books from disciplines other than law, start with Articles Plus, which contains articles drawn from hundreds of databases and over 40,000 journals.

While Articles Plus seems all encompassing, it does not include ProQuest databases such as Dissertation Abstracts, ProQuest Newsstand, ABI INFORM, Early English Books Online, and Legislative Insight. Nor Factiva. So make sure to also check these if the information for which you are looking might be located in these other databases.

Articles Plus, because it covers so many disciplines, can generate overbroad search results. Therefore, for research in a particular subject, you should search databases specific to that subject.  This Research Starting Points guide provides an A to Z list of key databases arranged by subject (from African Studies to Women’s Studies). You can also locate useful databases by using topical research guides listed in our Non-Law Subjects (Subject Guides) page. You can also use Database Finder to locate Library databases in a particular subject. You can search by database title or browse by subject.

Another way to access general, non-law databases via Database Finder is to click on the “Articles, Journals & Databases” tab on the D’Angelo Law Library home page, then click on the Databases radio button to search for a database by name, platform, subject, or keyword in its description.