Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

Chapter 13
Magazines
Searching magazines is a good way to find timely articles with extensive discussion and
references to other sources.
To search an assortment of the nation’s top news and business magazines, including Business
Week, Forbes, Fortune, and U.S. News and World Report, access the Major Magazines
database (MAGSMJ). Because it allows you to focus on just a few of the best-known
publications, it is a good place to research issues that have been widely discussed in the media.
The Magazines, Journals, and Newsletters database (MAGSPLUS) contains hundreds of news
and business periodicals, press releases from U.S. government agencies, and a wide variety of
niche publications that can be a gold mine of facts on a diverse range of topics.
Magazines that cover politics and current affairs can help bolster a public policy argument. To
find out the pundits’ views on your issue, consider searching periodicals such as the National
Review (in NATREVIEW), Harper’s Magazine (in HMAGAZINE), and Foreign Affairs (in
FORGNAFF).
And keep in mind that when you are in practice, it will be crucial to be familiar with what other
attorneys who practice in an area read, as well as with what your clients read. Specialized
publications such as Telecom Policy Report (in TELECOMPOLRPT), Implement and Tractor
(in IMPTRAC), and Tea and Coffee Trade Journal (in TEACFTJ) may not be best sellers, but
they could be a must-read for you.
Radio and Television Program Transcripts
Radio and television program transcripts frequently contain extensive discussion of matters that
may be directly related to the legal issues you are confronting. News and information databases
on Westlaw make it easier than ever to use such transcripts to track the viewpoints of major
governmental and political figures, business leaders, researchers, and policy wonks by enabling
you to search every word of a transcript online.
You may have to overcome an aversion to citing authority that is not in print. But just think of
all the investigative reports you’ve seen on programs such as 60 Minutes (in CBS60MINSPCL)
and the important interviews and conversations that have aired on shows such as Face the
Nation (in CBSFACENATNSDY).
Scholarly and Technical Information
Scholarly and technical information databases are helpful not only when you need to gather
support for your argument, but also when you want to check claims made by others. Citing a
study in support of an argument is a time-honored practice. To help you locate scholarly studies,
Westlaw offers databases such as SciSearch: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCISEARCH-
EXP), which contains bibliographic information, author abstracts, and cited references from
articles found in 3,800 of the world's leading scholarly science and technical journals covering
more than 100 disciplines.
In addition, news and information databases on Westlaw include a wide variety of scholarly and
technical databases that have a topical focus in practice areas such as environmental law,
communications, health and medicine, intellectual property, and science and computer
technologies.
186 Winning Research Skills