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Law: Finding content using Library Search

How to find law reports, journal articles and other sources of legal information

Finding content for your course: getting started

Types of academic content

Academic content has been peer-reviewed before publication. This means that academic experts in the subject area have reviewed and checked it for quality. So you can trust it is high quality and acceptable to use in your assignments.

Here are three examples of academic content: a books, a chapter in a book and a journal article. Find all of these using Library Search. 

 

1. Books 
Finch, E and Fafinski, S, Legal skills (8th edn, OUP, 2021)  ​

To find a book type a few words from the title of the book into Library Search.  Library Search will show the locations of all print copies of books that you can borrow. It will also include links to any books are available for you read on-line in e-book format.

 

2. Chapter in books 
Connors, J and Schmidt, M, 'United Nations' in Moeckli, D, Shah, S and Sivakumaran, S (eds) International human rights law (3rd edn, OUP 2018) pp 369-424 ​

This chapter, called 'United Nations', was published as a book called International human rights law. To find this chapter, search for the book in Library Search using the book title. When you have the book, check the the contents page to find the chapter you need. 

 

Book not available?
  • Is the the print book you need on loan? You may request it's return. Simply sign in to Library Search as prompted from the results page and place a request. The book will be recalled from the current reader who will have seven days to return it. When the book is returned you will receive a notification to your Queen's email address.
  • If the book you need does not appear in our catalogue, please email your Subject Librarian, who will investigate purchasing.

 

3. Journal articles 
David Nelken, 'Using the Concept of Legal Culture' (2004) 29 Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 1

Note the year, 2004, the volume number 29 and first page of the article here: 1. Journals are usually published several times a year, so there could be several volumes for the same year. There are two ways to find this:

  • First, copy and paste the title into Library Search. Tip: if you know the exact title, search for it using "double quotation marks" around the words you are using.
  • If this doesn't work, find out if this is an ejournal by checking Journal Search, located just above your results in Library Search. Then locate the Year and Volume number. 

 

Understanding Journals

A journal is a specific type of academic publication. Like magazines they are published regularly throughout the year. This may be monthly, biannually or quarterly and each part is referred to as a journal issue.

Each journal issue contains a collection of articles (short pieces of written work). Articles are written by scholars and academics.

Many journals are now published electronically, but the convention is to reference them using the print details (i.e., volume, issue and page numbers).  For literature and languages some articles you need will only be available in print. Depending on the referencing style you are using, they will look something like this:

References to journal articles never include the name of the publisher or the place of publication.

 

Recommend a book



Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash

If the library doesn't hold a book or e-book, which you would like to read - or there are not enough copies - please let your subject librarian know. 

Fill in the online book suggestion form or email Diarmuid Kennedy (email: d.g.kennedy@qub.ac.uk).

Your subject librarian will consider every book / e-book purchase suggestion and, if appropriate, the book will be ordered for the library. We will keep you informed about the outcome of your book suggestion.