Source Collection Information for Journal Staff

A manual to assist Journal Staff with starting a source collection assignment.

Contents

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Finding Cited Newspaper Articles

As Electronic Access
  • Search Option 1: Quick links to Law Library accessible online newspapers may be found in the News Research Guide, including available options for New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and other major newspapers. For access to articles in other news publications, check Online News Database in the News Research Guide.
  • Search Option 2: Click on Journals tab on the Law Library's homepage. In the search box, enter the unabbreviated, full newspaper title (only, not article title). For example: Washington Post, not Wash. Post. The results will include the library's print newspaper holdings, e.g., microfilm reels, whose articles may not exist in electronic format.
  • Search Option 3: Select Articles in Advanced Search. Enter the article title (only, not the newspaper title).
  • Search Option 4: Click on Search by Citation tab in Advanced Search, then select Article. Enter the article title and/or the unabbreviated newspaper title.
  • Search Option 5: Click on Search by Citation tab in Advanced Search, then select Journal. Enter the unabbreviated, full newspaper title (only, not article title).
In Microfilm Check Newspaper Holdings in Microform in the News Research Guide.
In Print Check Print Newspapers in the News Research Guide.
Dot-com / Web-only Some news articles exist only on the web (dot-com or digital-edition), and do not exist in print. In such instances, you will have to resort to the online (HTML) version where pagination will not exist. Try Factiva, Lexis: News, Westlaw: News, and Bloomberg Law News for online-only news articles.

Interlibrary Loan: Newspaper Articles

If the news article is unavailable at the Law Library, submit a PDF Request form in the ILLiad (ILL) system. Check Requesting a Copy of a Journal or Newspaper Article in the Interlibrary Loan Instructions for Journal Staff guide. This ILL service can try to obtain copies of news articles that are published in a print version of the publication if the physical version (e.g., print, microfilm, etc) is available in ILL libraries. Library- or institutional licenses to online news databases may prohibit ILL libraries from sharing online news articles with us.

Web-only or dot-com news articles are typically available only through direct-to-individual-customer, or single-user pay-wall memberships, not library-licensed subscriptions, and therefore would not be obtainable through ILL services.

Interlibrary Loan: Wire Services

Some authors cite to articles that are distributed through wire services (e.g., Associated Press (AP), Bloomberg, Reuters, etc). Citations to wire services cannot be obtained via Interlibrary Loan. Wire service news may be found in Lexis, Westlaw or Bloomberg Law, however, please check Using Wire Services in the News Research Guide for alternatives for wire service citations.

Law Library Research Guide

News Research Guide provide access information for the most common major newspaper publications and also provide tips that can be applied to source collection assignments.

But Wait! Is the News Article Even Real?

Unfortunately, AI generated works are known to invent and cite to not only "hallucinated" cases, but also non-existing articles or even fabricate entire papers. The consequences of including citations to hallucinated references or citing to fabricated newspaper articles in your journal's published works are as serious as citing to fake cases in a brief and will have long-ranging impacts.

If you did not find an exact match using the described methodologies in Finding Cited Newspaper Articles,  then there may be a chance that the citation does not reflect an actual published news piece.

Please use the "Is the News Article Even Real?" Checklist before submitting an ILL service request for a questionable citation where even a browser search engine doesn't produce a similar match.

"Is the News Article Even Real?" Checklist

Google and Google News

  • Search for the news article inside quotation marks.
  • It's okay if there isn't an exact match. Find similar matches and compare the differences in the citation. Perhaps your citation reflects the article's title when it was first published and needs to be updated.
  • But if there are no similar matches, especially for citations for more recent news pieces, then there is a strong possibility that the article does not exist.

Google

  • Search for the newspaper publication title.
  • Does such a newspaper even exist? A resulting match should lead you to the publisher's website which you should search.

Newspapers' Websites

  • Search for your news article title (or headline) or major keywords of the cited news title however...
    • It may not be possible to verify that an article that appears to have been posted on the newspaper's website was published in printed form. The headlines found on their websites often do not match headlines for articles that they print.
    • Unfortunately, news publishers do not provide the kind of extensive indexing that journal publishers offer on their websites.
    • They also have varying lengths of web content retention policies, especially if the newspaper changes ownership. It may be challenging to find a match to your news citation, especially for articles more than 10 years old.
  • Search by article's author. Has the author written any articles for that newspaper?

FirstSearch (OCLC) or WorldCat.org

  • Search by newspaper publication title to verify that the publication exists.
  • Library catalogs and ILL services only work with the formally cataloged title of a publication found in FirstSearch (OCLC).
  • If you cannot find a formal bibliographic record for the news publication then there is a strong possibility that it does not exist.

Professional Profile Webpages

  • While scholarly authors have profile web pages hosted on their employers' (i.e, university, law firm, etc.) websites, most news writers use social media accounts to serve as their profile pages.
  • Verify if the citation you're trying to locate is mentioned on the news writer's social media accounts.

Law Library Reference Services

  • Ask for help if you have searched in several resources but are not able to find exact matches to your citation.

Need More Help?

Ask for assistance from Reference Services or your Journal Liaison.

Need Help Submitting an ILL Request?

If you're unsure how best to fill out an ILLiad form, please contact ILL Services at law-ill@georgetown.edu.