Journal Orientation 2025

Before diving in to the research for your Journal Note, it is important to conduct some preliminary research, called a "preemption check." A preemption check is a thorough search of the legal literature and analysis of resulting scholarship to determine if another author has already published on your topic, using the same analysis as yours (i.e., preempted your topic). 

Here are the steps to a thorough preemption check:

1. Compile a List of Search Terms: Start by compiling a list of search terms that will retrieve any articles similar to your proposed comment.
2. Search Law Journal Articles: Search for recent law review articles on your topic in the law journal databases on Westlaw and Lexis. If your proposed comment is based on a case or statute, you should also use Keycite on Westlaw and Shepards on Lexis to find articles analyzing the case or statute.
3. Search Article Indexes: Search in Legal Research Index on Westlaw, using the index headings to find articles on your topic, and in the Current Index to Legal Periodicals on Hein Online, a weekly index service arranged by subject area. Both are good for finding the most recent law journal articles in a subject area.  For additional information for searching for articles, see the Finding Artilces page in our Summer RA Workshop - 2025 research guide. 
4. Search For Interdisciplinary Articles (if applicable): Try JSTOR, Academic Search Complete, and Social Sciences Full Text. 
5. Search for Books/Chapters: You should also check for books and book chapters that might have been published on your topic, using the Emory University Libraries catalog, and WorldCat, a catalog of the holdings of U.S. and international libraries. 
6. Search for Unpublished Materials: To find working papers and pending law review articles, search the abstracts in the Legal Scholarship Network, a division of SSRN, and the articles in the bepress Legal Repository. Academic legal blogs, such as those in the Law Professor Blogs Network, sometimes post announcements of new legal scholarship.

Be sure to keep checking for new articles on your topic, and other developments that might affect your research, using alerts on Westlaw and Lexis, and by following topical legal blogs and newsletters. 

Legal research guides on preemption include:

• University of Washington Gallagher Law Library: Preemption Checking
• University of Chicago Law Library: Preemption Check Checklist
• Yale Lillian Goldman Law Library: Preemption Checking
• American University Pence Law Library: Running a Preemption Check

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Student Research Question?
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