Research Guides: Online Resources List: Frequently Used

Frequently Used Resources

For a list of all resources, click the Law Library A to Z List of Databases.

The following are the legal research platforms most frequently used by law faculty and students.

Bloomberg Law This link opens in a new window
Containing primary legal materials (cases, statutes, and regulations) for U.S. federal and state jurisdictions, this resource is particularly popular for conducting federal docket research and for access editorial content from the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA).
Lexis+ This link opens in a new window
Formerly Lexis Advance, Lexis+ is one of the premier legal research platforms, containing cases, statutes, regulations, constitutions, forms, treatises, law reviews, leading newspapers and magazines, reference items, and select international content.
Westlaw This link opens in a new window
Westlaw is one of the premier legal research platforms, containing cases, statutes, regulations, constitutions, forms, treatises, law reviews, leading newspapers and magazines, reference items, and select international content. Westlaw accounts are available for law school faculty, staff, and students only. See a reference librarian for details.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
(Formerly LexisNexis Academic) For non-law users, NexisUni provides a campus-wide legal research platform, with content and features very similar to Lexis+.

Three additional legal research platforms frequently sought by our faculty and students for their depth of coverage and their editorial content are:

VitalLaw (formerly Cheetah) This link opens in a new window
VitalLaw (formerly Cheetah) provides access to in-depth knowledge and expertise from WK attorney specialists and experts including deep, rich, analytical content and explanations; curated primary source (laws, regulations, and cases) with history lines and notes; a variety of CCH and Aspen Publishers titles; and practical tools, news, webinars, white papers, and blogs.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is a legal research collection that features a broad collection of digitized primary and secondary sources in law, known especially for their extensive law journal collection, and their historical collections of U.S. legal materials, and select foreign and international law collections.
ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive resource for U.S. Congressional publications providing indexing, abstracts, and full text (PDFs and html) for legislative documents from 1789 forward. Documents include committee reports, House and Senate documents, committee prints, bills, hearings, Public Laws, Statutes at Large, the Congressional Record, and more.

LexisNexis Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Access LexisNexis e-books, including many state statutory codes, prominent treatises, and study aids, including the Mastering and Q&A series. Authentication with IU credentials to access.
West Academic Study Aids This link opens in a new window
Online access to West Academic’s popular hornbooks and nutshells.

These databases and websites are frequently used by our faculty and students for research across other disciplines.

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
This is a special version of Google's index to scholarly content on the web that connects to full-text resources available to IU users. (Includes HeinOnline and JSTOR content.) Requires sign-on for off-campus use.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Contains full text of many scholarly journals, largely in the fields of ecology, economics, education, finance, history, mathematics, political science, and population studies.
SSRN (Social Science Research Network) This link opens in a new window
Pre-print service and institutional archives of academic journal articles.

For additional research platforms the IU Libraries subscribe to:

IU Libraries A-Z List This link opens in a new window
A-Z list of databases made available campus-wide by the IU Libraries, covering a wide array of disciplines.

To search for books and other library content:

IUCAT This link opens in a new window
IUCAT is the online catalog for the Indiana University library system.
WorldCat This link opens in a new window
Catalog of more than 100 million records from libraries around the world.

IU Bloomington: access restricted to Indiana University users or on on campus.

Universal: open access to anyone

Password Protected: requires an individual password; for assistance contact a reference librarian.

Law School Community: access restricted to law school users or on-site at the Law Library.

US Government: open access to anyone

Indiana: open access to anyone