Laura K. Justiss of Southern Methodist University School of Law Library has posted a working paper entitled A Survey of Electronic Research Alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw in Law Firms, on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Mrs. Justiss conducted a survey of law firm librarians in 2010 that identified electronic research database alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw and ranked them by subscription frequency. The survey included research databases for primary source alternatives; court docket and case information services; secondary sources for topical legal research and legal periodicals; financial, business and news sources; public records; and non-legal and legal-related sources, including intellectual property databases. The survey also generated information regarding suggested or mandated legal research policies in law firms for the use of alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw and examined their applicability to billable and non-billable research. Lastly, it examined the prevalence in firms of flat rate pricing agreements with Lexis, Westlaw or both.
HT Martha Sperry and @uMCLE.
Tags: Computer assisted legal research, Empirical methods in legal communication studies, Empirical methods in legal informatics, Laura K. Justiss, Legal information behavior, Legal information retrieval, Legal research, Legal research in law firms, Legal research information systems, Lexis.com, Survey methods in legal communication studies, Survey methods in legal informatics, Westlaw
