For students who are moving beyond legal research, here are some pointers based on recent Law Library presentations to students enrolled in Writing for Publication in the Law Review:
- Develop a research plan and keep detailed notes about your search terms. See a sample research checklist, but note that you will need to customize the plan to fit your topic.
- For help selecting databases particular to your topic, consult the Law Library’s Databases page, the “Databases To Get You Started Guide,” and subject-specific legal and non-legal research guides.
- Expect to see different screens in different databases, and for searches to behave differently as well. Whenever you are in a new database or catalog, use the Advanced Search function and read the Help or Search Tips pages before beginning to search.
- Zotero may be a helpful tool for managing your research. It allows you to save, annotate, and organize references to books, articles, and more. Zotero can also export those references into a bibliography using the Bluebook citation style. For additional information, see Georgetown Law Library’s Guide, “Citation Tools for Legal Scholarship.”
- Remember that you can always come to the Reference Desk for help and suggestions!