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Guide to Library Services for Law Review and Law Journals

This guide will serve as a fundamental resource for information on library services and policies geared toward DePaul Law Review and Specialty Journals and their specific research needs.

Bluebook guidelines that pertain to cite checking

The Bluebook Table T1: United States Jurisdictions → T1.3 States and the District of Columbia lists statutory compilations as well as whether they are published via WestLaw or Lexis.

Taken from the "Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation", 20th Edition. pp. 179-180

Bluebook Rule 18 - The internet, electronic media and other nonprint resources

Rule 18.2 - The Internet

The Bluebook requires the use and citation of traditional printed sources when available, unless there is a digital copy of the source available that is authenticated, official, or an exact copy of the printed source, as described in Rule 18.2.1.

Rule 18.2.1 - General Internet Citation Principles

A. Sources that can be cited as if to the original print source

When an authenticated, official, or exact copy of a source is available online, citation can be made as if to the original print source (without any URL information appended). Many states have begun to discontinue printed official legal resources, instead relying on online versions as the official resources for administrative or legislative documents. The federal government is also moving toward increasing access to online versions of legal documents, though it continues to publish official print versions.

i. Authenticated Documents

When citing to such materials, The Bluebook encourages citation to "authenticated" sources: those that use an encryption based authentication method, such as digital signature of public key infrastructure, to ensure the accuracy of the online source. Generally, an authenticated document will have a certificate of logo indicating that a government entity verified that the document is complete and unaltered.

ii. Official Versions

Some states have designated, either by legislation or other official mechanism, that the online source is the "official" source for a particular legal document. Some online publishers similarly make a distinction as to whether the document has been approved by, contributed by, or harvested from an official source by the content originator, designating such a document "official". Generally, The Bluebook prefers citation to an authenticated source, or, if non is available, to the "official" source.

iii. Exact Copies

An exact copy is one that is an unaltered copy of the printed source in a widely used format that preserves pagination and other attributes of the printed work (such as Adobe's portable document format, or "PDF").

Rule 18.3 - Commercial Electronic Databases

Because of the reliability and authoritativeness of LEXIS, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law, and other commercial electronic databases such as Dialog, cite such sources, if available, in preference to the other sources covered by rule 18.  Citation to these electronic databases should be consistent with this present rule regardless of whether the databases are accessed through proprietary software or through a website such as http://www.westlaw.com or http://www.lexis.com.

(citation: Harvard Law Review Association, Columbia Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, & Yale Law Journal. The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (20th ed. 2015) )