Research Guides: Preemption Checking for Law Students: Preemption Checking

Preemption Checking

Preemption checking is a research process to determine whether your chosen paper topic is original. It involves researching widely to make sure no one has already written the paper you plan to write. The following guide lists starting points for preemption checking. A typical process might follow the following steps:

Start with searches in HOLLIS to find books and articles on your subject area. For foreign jurisdiction research, identify relevant library catalogs to search.
Delve into academic articles by using Harvard-provided sources as well as Google Scholar using increasingly specific phrases and keywords. Think broadly about where scholars might publish on this topic. Try to identify specialized databases for your subject or jurisdiction.
Search for prior theses and dissertations.
Check working paper/preprint databases to find the most current academic discussions.

For assistance with creating a customized preemption checking plan, please ask a librarian.

Books

Library Catalogs & EBook Collections

HOLLIS
HOLLIS includes books owned by Harvard either in print or available through our extensive ebook collections from publishers.
WorldCat
Combined catalog of 41,000 libraries across the U.S. and 80 other countries. Harvard collections are included.
University Press Scholarship Online
Books from many U.S. university publishers as well as a few major foreign academic presses such as Oxford. Recent books may appear here before being included in HOLLIS.

Books from Foreign Jurisdictions

For topics on foreign jurisdictions, you may need to explore beyond Hollis and Worldcat to libraries or sources that will best reflect the academic literature of the jurisdiction. These might include national library catalogs, national bibliographies and regional studies databases.

LibDex
A directory of libraries around the world.
IFLA National Bibliographic Register
Links to the national bibliography for many countries.
Harvard Databases: Books
List of Harvard databases with book collections, including regional studies databases. Limit the list by language or add a country name to the search.

Dissertations and Theses

Proquest Dissertations and Theses
Graduate papers from many institutions. Has historical coverage; not all papers are available in full text. HLS student papers are not included.
Global ETD Search (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations)
Global in scope. Collectively search academic repositories of theses and dissertations.
HLS Disserations, Theses and Student Papers
The library holds HLS student papers in print format. This guide describes our collection and how to find them using HOLLIS.

Articles

Legal Academic Articles

In addition to the following sources, HLS Library provides other indexes to the legal literature as well as many foreign legal databases with academic papers. Please ask a librarian to help you identify appropriate article finding sources for your specific topic and/or jurisdiction.

Law Journal Library (HeinOnline)
Access via HarvardKey.
Full-text, page image access to law reviews and journals. Coverage begins with a journal’s first volume but does not usually include its most recent issues. Use the HeinOnline ScholarCheck citator to locate bar journals and law reviews that cite an article.

Foreign & International Legal Articles

HLS Foreign & Comparative Databases
HLS Library provides legal databases for many non-U.S. jurisdictions.

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (HeinOnline)
Access via Harvard Key.
The Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) provides citations to articles about foreign, comparative and international law. Materials in all languages are included. Greek, Cyrillic, and East Asian vernacular are Romanized and Arabic and Hebrew titles are translated into English or French.
Jurisdictions: Global

Harvard Databases
Harvard University offers many regional studies and foreign academic databases. Search by country or language.

Academic Articles from Other Subject Disciplines

HOLLIS
HOLLIS used in the default mode includes articles incorporates article content from all subject disciplines.
Proquest Academic Search Premier (Harvard Key)
One of Harvard's main multi-disciplinary academic article databases. Content is included in HOLLIS results.
(Harvard) Google Scholar
Google Scholar limits search results to scholarly content. Edit your settings to affiliate yourself with Harvard so you can more easily link through to Harvard-subscribed content from search results.
Web of Science
Multi-disciplinary database for scientific disciplines.

Working papers

Working Papers

Working papers are academic papers that are not yet in final form, or published solely in these less formal settings than full journal publications. Searching for working papers is an important part of preemption checking. You can tap into the current academic conversation and learn whether anyone is working on a paper similar to the one you plan to write.

SSRN (Social Science Research Network)
Open but HarvardKey required to subscribe to alerts.
SSRN provides access to new scholarship including working papers in accounting, economics, financial economics, law, and management. Search by author and by title and abstract keywords. Most papers are available for download in pdf format.

National Bureau of Economic Research Working Papers
Focus is economics, finance and banking topics.
Digital Commons Network: Law Commons
Working papers and other scholarship from law schools in many countries.
OSF Preprints
Aggregates preprints and other scholarly works from institutions around the world.

Research Guides

Starting with a research guide on your topic will help you identify specialized databases. Google: research guide your general topic to locate them, or browse the sources below.

Foreign Law Guide
Access via HarvardKey.
Foreign Law Guide (FLG) is an essential database offering relevant information on sources of foreign law, including complete bibliographic citations to legislation, the existence of English translations and selected references to secondary sources in one place.. Approximately 190 jurisdictions are systemically covered and updated by a global team of experts.
Jurisdiction: Global

Overviews & Bibliographies

Oxford Bibliographies Online
Oxford bibliographies are annotated, selective lists of scholarly publications. If there is one on your topic, it can help focus your research.
Oxford Scholarly Authorities on International Law
Includes encyclopedias and reference works on international law.

Getting Help

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