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Contact WVU Law Library staff with seminar queries:
Phone: 304-293-5300
Email: wvulawlibrary@mail.wvu.edu
Ask A Librarian: https://www.law.wvu.edu/library/ask-a-librarian
Pre-emption checks entail searching through all law review literature to ensure that your topic is sufficiently novel (or that you have not been "pre-empted" by another author). Successful pre-emption checks often require use of a range of resources. Westlaw and Lexis provide extensive law journal coverage back until the early 1980s, but the HeinOnline database provides both contemporary and historical law review coverage and also specialized law journals not available on Westlaw and Lexis. Resources such as the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) provide working, accepted, and forthcoming law review articles not yet published or available on Westlaw, Lexis, or HeinOnline.
Westlaw – Law Reviews & Journals
Westlaw provides coverage of hundreds of law reviews and journals. Full coverage of older articles on Westlaw varies by title. Use HeinOnline for articles outside the coverage of Westlaw.
Lexis+ – Law Reviews & Journals
Lexis+ provides coverage of hundreds of law reviews and journals. Full coverage of older articles begins in 1982 and partial coverage for older articles varies by title. Use HeinOnline for articles outside the coverage of Lexis+.
HeinOnline – Law Journal Library
HeinOnline bridges an important research gap by providing comprehensive coverage from inception of more than 2,600 law-related periodicals. HeinOnline also provides original versions of law review articles in PDF format, which facilitates cite-check accuracy. In addition to its collection of academic journals, HeinOnline contains databases dedicated to treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, classic treatises, international trade, and foreign relations.
The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) 
The SSRN eLibrary consists of two parts: An Abstract Database containing abstracts on over 384,300 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers and an Electronic Paper Collection currently containing over 315,000 downloadable full text documents in PDF format. SSRN coverage includes law-related periodicals.
