Availability of Works Cited in Recent Law Review Articles on LEXIS, Westlaw, the Internet, and Other Databases

SUMMARY In this study, a group of recent law articles was examined to determine the proportion of cited resources that are easily findable online. Searches were conducted in databases such as LEXIS and Westlaw, and on the Internet, for full-text versions of every source cited in seven articles. The results have been broken down into 13 categories, including “federal cases,” “books,” “foreign law,” and “legal periodicals pre-1990.” Not surprisingly, coverage differs widely between the categories. Overall, the study found that 77% of the 1,984 citations in the articles reviewed are available online. The article concludes with a general discussion of why the percentage is likely to increase in the future.