SELECTION GUIDELINES FOR INDEXING PERIODICALS
IN THE GALE GROUP LEGAL INDEXES1
The
American Association of Law Libraries Indexing
of Periodical Literature Advisory Committee
is responsible for evaluating periodical titles
as to their appropriateness for indexing in
the legal periodical indexes produced by the
Gale Group.2
The following guidelines have been developed
to assist the members of the committee. These
guidelines are based on the original contract
with Gale, supplemented by understandings reached
by the committee and Gale over the time the
indexes have been in existence. The guidelines
need to be read as a whole, since each section
can affect a decision made on the basis of another
section.
I.
SELECTION
A.
Periodicals indexed are:
1.
Substantive law school journals regardless of
the subject matter and that meet the other sections
of the guidelines.
2.
Periodicals that are not substantive law school
journals but publish articles that primarily
deal with common law and meet the other sections
of the guidelines.
The articles
found in the periodical should be predominately
legal and substantive in nature, but need not
be exclusively so.
Those periodicals
that are not law school journals and that indicate
they are international or comparative in focus
may also be indexed if they contain a substantial
number of articles dealing with common law jurisdictions.
3.
Certain categories of periodicals are automatically
indexed, regardless of content focus, unless
specifically excluded by the committee.
a.
Substantive law school journals
b.
National and state bar association periodicals
c.
National legal newspapers
4.
Certain categories of periodicals are indexed
if the committee judges that they meet special
guidelines:
a.
ABA serial publications included on the package
plan: if they contain some substantive information
and are not just newsletters of current activities.3
b.
State and local legal newspapers: only if the
committee agrees that the information in the
newspaper would be of national interest.
c.
Reprint journals: on a selective basis.
d.
Jurisdictional surveys: on a selective basis.
5.
Certain categories of periodicals are not indexed:
a.
Periodicals dealing with canon law.
b.
Periodicals that principally digest or abstract
recent cases.
c.
Law school, law student and local (municipal
or county) bar association magazines consisting
chiefly of news items about students, faculty
and members (If these periodicals contain substantive
articles, they may be indexed).
d.
Indexes.
e.
Monographic series.
B.
Place of publication.
Gale generally indexes only periodicals published
in the United States and its possessions, Canada,
the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New
Zealand. Selected English language publications
from other countries will be included if deemed
appropriate by the committee.4
C.
Language.
Gale generally indexes only English language
periodicals. Selected non-English language publications
that meet the other guidelines may be included
if deemed appropriate by the committee. French
language publications are not included.5
D.
Frequency.
The periodical may be published as infrequently
as annually. However, regular publication, with
some degree of predictability, is required.
E.
Duplication with other indexes,
Inclusion of a title in another index will not
necessarily preclude inclusion in the Gale indexes,
although duplication of indexing may be considered
by the committee when selecting titles.
F.
Time period.
Indexing of a selected title will generally
start with the first issue of the volume for
the year in which the periodical is selected.
The committee may recommend retrospective coverage
if it deems such coverage of importance.
G.
Announcement.
After the committee decides to add or delete
a title from the indexes, that information will
be submitted to the appropriate persons for
publication in the AALL Spectrum and/or
AALL website.
H.
Searching.6
One or more members of the committee will have
the responsibility to search for new titles.
Gale will be given this information and will
write to the publishers requesting sample issues
to be submitted to the committee for review.
It will be the responsibility of Gale to look
up the address of the publisher if it is not
provided by the committee.
II.
INDEXING
A.
Scope.
The periodicals included in the indexes will
be indexed from cover to cover, omitting only
abstracts or digest of cases and strictly news
event items. All articles will be indexed under
authors, title and as many subjects as is necessitated
by the content of the article.
The indexes will also include:
1.
Table of statutes. This will include references
to statutes by citation when the substance of
an article, comment or note deals with that
statute. All citations for statutes will be
in the format of the most current edition of
The Bluebook: a Uniform System of Citation.
2.
Table of cases. This will include an alphabetical
table of cases, with citation, when an article,
comment or note deals predominately with that
case. All citations for cases will be in the
format of the most current edition of The
Bluebook: a Uniform System of Citation.
B.
Entries.
Reprinted articles will have citations to the
original publication, as well as to the reprint
publication.
Gale will use the current edition of the Library
of Congress Subject Headings, with certain
additional headings and subheadings as determined
by the indexers.
Entries for articles that pertain to a jurisdiction
or jurisdictions other than the United States
will be annotated to indicate the jurisdiction(s)
involved (if not apparent from the title).
III.
ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS7
Journals that are published only in electronic format
may be indexed if they meet the following criteria:
A.
They meet the standards for print publications
as outlined in the other sections of these guidelines.
The journals exhibit a certain amount of stability
by having been in existence for more than 2
years and been published with regularity. The
Committee must approve the electronic journal
before it is sent off to the Gale Group.
B.
The publisher of the electronic journal grants
permanent archival rights to the Gale Group.
This is necessary to insure that the publication
will not cease and disappear from the World
Wide Web. Gale will contact the publisher to
negotiate a licensing agreement, so AALL will
not need to be involved in these negotiations.
If the publisher refuses an agreement, then
the journal will not be indexed.
IV.
REEXAMINATION & DESELECTION
A.
Titles needing reexamination.
1.
If an indexer at Gale determines that a periodical
being indexed seems to be primarily news items
and does not contain many substantive articles,
the indexer will bring the title to the attention
of the indexing supervisor.8 Several consecutive issues of the title
should be gathered for reexamination by the
committee at its next scheduled meeting.
2.
If an indexer at Gale determines that a periodical
being indexed does not seem to be primarily
legal in scope, the indexer will bring the title
to the attention of the indexing supervisor.
Several consecutive issues of the title should
be gathered for reexamination by the committee
at its next scheduled meeting.
3.
If an indexer at Gale determines that a periodical
being indexed has ceased publication, the committee
will be notified and will take official action
to remove the title from the list of titles
recommended for indexing. A title will be deemed
to have ceased publication if:
a.
Official notice of discontinuation has been
received;
or
b.
No issue has been received for two (2) years.
The Gale Group has attempted to contact the
publisher to determine the publication’s status
and no response has been received or the letter
has been returned.
B.
Criteria.
The criteria used for examination of a title
will be the same criteria used to determine
if a new title should be indexed.
C.
Time period.
Indexing will cease with the last issue of the
volume in which the periodical is deselected.
D.
Notification.
The publisher of a deselected title will be
notified that the title will no longer be indexed
since it no longer meets the indexing criteria.
E.
Resubmission.
Nothing in this policy prohibits a publisher
of a deselected title from resubmitting it at
a future date to have its indexing reinstituted.
At that time it will be treated as if it were
a new title.
Adopted
May 1997
Revised
July 1998 adding Section I. H.
Revised
December 2002 changing references from CLI to
Gale and minor grammatical corrections.
Revised
April 2003 adding Section III.
