Research Strategy for Academic Writing

How does one go about choosing a topic and making sure it hasn’t already been written on?  One strategy is to look for circuit splits and other “hot topics” in legal news, and then do a preemption check to make sure your topic hasn’t already been used. 

Legal newsletters are published in online and looseleaf formats.  They report on judicial and legislative activity, as well as new cases and legislation by subject area, and often include or link to full-text.  Newsletters also track recent developments, often with authoritative commentary.  When online, there are usually daily or weekly updates which can often be set up to automatically be sent to your email.  Many online legal newsletters can be accessed in the MacMillan Law Library’s Electronic Resources – By Subject.

Bloomberg Law News:  Provides highlights of new cases and regulations.  Use the sidebar to see News & Analysis by practice area.  You can also register to receive updates by email.  Bloomberg BNA Reports are also available on Bloomberg Law.  

Cheetah: You can subscribe to newsletters on various topics of interest and practice areas under the News tab at the top right. Newsletters can be emailed to you or they can be accessed through your RSS Reader.  You may subscribe to as many newsletters as you like – topics include: Federal, State and International Tax, Bankruptcy, Corporation Law, and Intellectual Property.  

Lexis: 

• Select “Legal News” located under the All Content Type tab
• Select a Practice Area or Topic, perform a search, then narrow by Legal News
• Go to “Law 360” located under the product mosaic in the top left, then select a Practice Area

Westlaw: 

• Select “Secondary Sources,” then Legal Newspapers & Newsletters
• Select a Practice Area, then select News located under Tools 

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

Georgetown Law Library Guide: Research Strategies for Seminar Papers

University of Minnesota Law Library Guide: Choosing a Topic for Your Journal Article

University of Washington Law Library Guide: Writing For and Publishing in Law Reviews

Bloomberg Law: Resources for Law Reviews and Journals

Eugene Volokh: Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review (5th ed., 2016, located in Law Library Course Reserves, Service Desk 2nd Floor (KF250 .V6 2016)).  See the chapter on The Initial Step for suggestions on choosing a topic.

MacMillan Library Hybrid Research Services:

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Emory Law Archives:
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Digital archives: More information available here. 
Limited remote services are available on a case-by-case basis. 
Questions?  Email Anna Sturgill, Law Librarian for Archives and Assessment Services