Skip to Main Content

People on the move: legal & HR responses: Journals

Subjects: Law, Refugee Studies

Law journals & finding articles on migration and related topics

A journal is a regular publication (monthly, yearly, etc.) in which you will find academic and research articles. The articles present current research and quick (but thoughtful) responses to legal developments, such as Case Comments..
Journals which are peer-reviewed submit potential articles to evaluation by other experts before publication, so you can be confident of the quality of those finally included in the volume. 
The majority of journals held by the Bodleian Libraries in both physical and electronic formats can be searched via SOLO, however you may find the Law Library's own database easier to use.

Use the other tabs in this box to find recommended journals and guidance on the special online tools to help you find articles in law journals

Holders of an Oxford SSO have access to many English language law journals via the following databases.

But there will be other journals which are (at least for part of their run) available via other providers - such as the example below.It is worth searching SOLO: we recommend using the Advanced Search screen, and changing the Resource type to Journals before doing a search. SOLO will not understand the abbreviations used in citations of law journals. Use the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations to expand the abbreviation to the full - title. In other words to find our holdings (in print and onlline) for an MLR citation you need to ask SOLO to find Modern Law Review. Please ask at the Enquiry Desk if you are having any problems.

Open Access journals, articles, pre-prints and working papers: 

Some of the specialist journals available in the law library On Level 2 Immigration, asylum and nationality law aka [Tolley's ] Journal of immigration IANL/JIANL Cw UK 300 I5 On Level 3 are volumes 2000 and later of European journal of migration & law EJML Euro Comm 300 E97 International journal of refugee law IJRL Internat 300 I167 Yearbook of international humanitarian law YIHL Internat 300 Y60 On the Ground Floor are volumes 1999 and older of European journal of migration & law EJML Euro Comm 300 E97 International journal of refugee law IJRL Internat 300 I167 Yearbook of international humanitarian law YIHL Internat 300 Y60

The Social Science Library will have other potentially useful titles - SOLO search results will lead you to them.

Legal databases and ejournal platforms offer ways for you to set up customised alerts and/or an RSS feed. Look out for "Current Awareness,"  "Stay up to Date," "Create Alert" or the bell icon: instructions are usually clear. If you do encounter difficulties please contact us.
Note that Westlaw Edge UK also includes the formerly separate LawTel service
An ETOC or TOC option provides the entire table of contents of each new journal issue.
If you come to the Law Library, check out the Just In Corner on Level 2 (the entrance level) which has a display of the most recent issues of those law journals still received in print. (This display is updated weekiy.)

In addition (especially if you have inter disciplinary interests) 

Some researchers may remember ZETOC. In its place we recommend  the open access service JournalsTOCs - "the largest, free collection of scholarly journal Tables of Contents (TOCs): 32,312 journals including 15,741 selected Open Access journals and 11,834 Hybrid journals, from 3333 publishers."
Please note this requires you to register as an individual - it is not an Oxford SSO related eresource.

Remember: legal developments may well be the subject of articles in law journals published in other jurisdictions.
There are special tools - not just SOLO's article search and google scholar! - to help you locate articles published in scholarly journals. Do make use of them!

Indexing tools on the free web

There are too many for any list to be comprehensive. If you are studying a particular legal topic, or a foreign jurisdiction, it may well be worth considering which law firms have gained a distinguished reputation in the same topic/jurisdiction, they may well have partners/practitioners posting news and comment.

Journal/Article related terms you may encounter in your research

Abstracting (service):
Used to refer to a bibliographic database, the service provides abstracts of publications.

(Academic) Journal:
A regular publication of academic and research articles.

Bibliographic database:
A searchable platform that contains descriptive records of articles, books, conference proceedings, audio-visual material, maps, newspapers, and more.

Conference proceedings:
The published record of a conference.

Citation:
A quotation from or reference to a book, paper, or author, especially in a scholarly work.

Full-text:
This means you can read the item in full from beginning to end, not just the abstract or summary.

Indexing (service):
Used to refer to a bibliographic database, the service provides descriptors to help organise and navigate publications.

Periodical:
A regular publication that includes articles, stories and other text. Magazines and newspapers are examples of these.

Platform:
This refers to the site on which you can find and access the journal.

Preprints:
Pre-publication version of articles. cf Version of Record.

Serial:
A broad term that refers to items published in a series but the items are separate and standalone. Examples include indexes, yearbooks and some journals.

Version of Record (VoR) :
The fully published version, the most authoritative source of the text. 

Working (research, discussion) papers:
Pre-publication not peer-reviewed versions of academic articles, book chapters, or reviews which are are in progress, under submission, or in press and forthcoming elsewhere.

Related Bodleian guides

Inter-library requests

If the Bodleian Libraries don't have the journal you are looking for, we may be able to source it through Oxford's inter-library request service.

Recommend a journal

If the Bodleian Libraries don't have the journal or article you are looking for, you can make a recommendation by completing the form below (Oxford Single-Sign On required).