Introduction to the basics

Citation is a powerful bibliographic database manager, designed especially for research writers who need to organize and document their sources. LegalCitation has been enhanced to include forms for many sources used principally in legal studies, and citation styles that are peculiar to legal publications. Citation’s primary function for research writers in law and legal studies is quite simple: it lets writers organize, search, and then format, citations for authorities. Here's a basic description of how LegalCitation can help you with your work. Enter citations in a uniform style for law review articles, court documents, cross-disciplinary journals, ALWD or Bluebook, using database forms. Organize, categorize. and search authorities with ease. Organize, categorize, and search notes efficiently. Document sources in manuscripts for publication quickly, in any citation style. . Enter citations in a uniform style. Right now, you are used to entering citations for authorities and sources already formatted, as defined in a style manual. Usually, for legal research and writing, this style manual is A Uniform System of Citation, commonly referred to as Bluebook. If you are preparing a legal document, for instance, citations are formatted according to rules outlined in your legal citation manual: These same authorities, formatted for inclusion in a brief, need to be reformatted: If you are working with the ALWD format, or local court rules, the citations may need to be formatted again, differently, sometimes with added information (ALWD style, for instance, requires the name of the publisher for citations of books and treatises). With LegalCitation, the "style" you will use is indeed uniform: rather than entering information on authorities as citations, you will use notecard-like forms to enter pertinent information on your sources in a database that you can use (and re-use). Information is always entered in the same manner, in convenient forms. A LegalCitation record for the Menominee case, for instance, would look like this in the database:

LegalCitation provides you with different forms for different types of authorities. Once the information is in the database, LegalCitation will format citations for you, automatically, in the style you need for your work. As you type information into the record, it is formatted in the style you've selected in the Preview box: Citations can be copied from the preview box and pasted directly to your document as you are writing, or you can have LegalCitation format and write all your citations at once, when you have completed writing your document. Information on all your authorities will be in a single file, with keywords, notes, and other reference information that will help authorities you need to cite on an issue you've researched. You can enter up to ten pages of notes for each record, describing the importance of the decision or source work to your research.

Field labels on the different forms prompt you to enter all the pieces of information necessary for a proper citation. In many instances, these forms come in quite handy. Differing legal citation styles, for instance, often differ in the requirements for information to be included in the citation. ALWD style, for instance, requires that the name of the publisher be included in citations of treatises, while this information is not required for Bluebook citations. When your records are in LegalCitation, you can simply include the information as you are reading and entering information in your database. The publisher's name is excluded from citations formatted in Bluebook style, and included in citations formatted in ALWD style. Changing the style of the citation requires only a click on the style menu.

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Organize and categorize authorities Keeping information on your sources in a database provides you with a number of benefits. On the one hand, of course, you can cite any of the authorities in your database with a simple click. But you'll also be able to organize information on critical authorities much more effectively.

As illustrated in the above examples, you can enter as many keywords in your records as you need for your research, allowing you to group source works coverning particular issues of concern to your work. A convenient browse feature lets you view a popup list of all the keywords in your datafile. You can then highlight any of the terms in the list, click Search, and browse through all the records containing that keyword. You can also use the List box to ensure uniformity in the use of keywords in the database. You can also use the Select feature to generate a printed list of all the sources and notes on an issue for review, or distribution to colleagues. This feature is particularly usesful for faculty generating lists of critical source works for students. LegalCitation provides you with a list of keywords traditionally used in legal resource databases. One of the many benefits of organizing your research in a personal database, though, is that you will also be able to use keywords specifically relating to your own projects and concerns.

A Short List View of your entire database lists a quick reference to the authorities in your datafile, which you can sort instantly by case name, title, date, or primary keyword. . . .

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You can also enter information on the date the authority was last checked for the currency of the decision, the name of the prevailing party for cases, and related authorities you might want to check later in your research process. This information can be critical to building compelling, well-researched positions, which are the cornerstone of good legal writing. In some instances, you won't even have to type the basic information for the source into the form. BookWhere, a companion product for Citation and LegalCitation, will search library systems for you and let you add works relevant to your research directly to your Citation database. And you will be able to search CarlWeb's Uncover database for law review articles on a topic and import bibliographic information on relevant materials into your datafile. You'll only have to enter the keywords, and perhaps your notes on the source.

.	Organize and categorize notes Research notes, too, often end up on papers and notecards (which are easily misplaced), or in word processing documents that are difficult to manage. Citation provides you with forms for easily entering, categorizing, sorting, and searching your notes:

You can enter as many keywords as you like in your note records, and up to 10 pages of text. LegalCitation also provides you with a feature to print all your notes on an issue. If you are researching a topic on the internet, Citation makes it very easy to compile a comprehensive set of notes on any topic that you will be able to search, sort, and review, with ease. . . . . . .

.	These slight alterations in the methods you use to enter information on your research sources can make the process of organizing your notes and documenting sources easier and more efficient.

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Preparing manuscripts for publication becomes a breeze. With LegalCitation, you will enter and proofread the information on authorities only once. You will appreciate this when you are preparing documents for submission to the courts, and you can simply cite authorities stored in your database. LegalCitation is also very helpful when you are preparing manuscipts or treatises for publication, whether in law journals or through a publishing house. Publishers often have requirements for citation styles that vary. With LegalCitation, you’ll be able to concentrate on your work, entering information on your sources as you research the issue. When you get ready to submit the manuscript, a click or two will write the footnotes for you, automatically. If the publisher uses roman type for titles rather than small/large caps, you can regenerate the citations with the proper style with another click. If you sometimes work with publishers other than law journals, you find it very useful to enter the full name of the journal or law review in your record, publisher names and locations, and other information not required by Bluebook style but required by other publishing styles. LegalCitation will find proper abbreviations for you, and include publisher names, pages, and so forth, as required by the publishing style you select.

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When you get ready to write your document, you can use Citation to automatically format citations for the authorities. You can copy the citations from the preview box to your paper, or enter "keys" in your paper and have Citation write all the footnotes and intext cites at the same time. Copying citations from the preview box is simple. You simply use the preview box to display the current record formatted in the appropriate Bluebook style:

.	You can then copy the formatted citation and paste it into your document. Entering keys in your paper requires a few more steps, but it is just as easy:

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