The librarians are happy to meet with students to help with research ideas for their Capstone. Often, we will consult these checklists for potentially useful source recommendations:
For more information on specific research topics such as Intellectual Property, Foreign and International Law, and Legislative History, consult the George Mason Law Library Research Guides.
When meeting with a member of the Reference team, it helps if the student is able to provide their thesis statement, draft, or what they have so far in terms of a research log or details from a preemption check. Having information about the focus of the student's Capstone project a day or two in advance is helpful for planning research strategies.
If you have questions or to set up an appointment, email lawref@gmu.edu.
Lexis and Westlaw – Note that coverage on Lexis & Westlaw generally begins around 1980. Many law reviews are not included at all, and others have only selected coverage. Do not rely solely on Lexis/Westlaw for your preemption check!
HeinOnline - HeinOnline offers full-text, PDF versions of law reviews and journals going back to volume one for most American law reviews and journals. Use a field search in the Law Journal Library, and put all Boolean connectors in capital letters, e.g. AND.
Google Scholar - Searches the scholarly literature across many disciplines to help you find law and non-law articles. You can use the Library Links tool in the Settings menu to tell Google Scholar that you are affiliated with George Mason University. Then, articles retrieved by your search and available in one of library databases will be available to you after you sign in with your Mason credentials.
Other Periodical Indices – Indexes for periodicals covering many other areas of scholarship are available at the main Mason library. The most popular are: EconLit for economics articles; Business Source Complete for news and articles about business; Academic Search Complete as a catch-all for many subjects; and Factiva for newspapers. For others, browse the Mason Database Portal.
International and Foreign Law - Use the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals via HeinOnline and PAIS Index to search for foreign periodicals covering foreign and international law topics.
Remember to check the class materials on TWEN for more information and ideas!
