Research Guides: Source Pulling for Law Journals: Identifying Sources

Overview

Sometimes the hardest part of source pulling is figuring out what type of source the citation is referencing. There are various tools that can be used to figure out the abbreviations used in a citation.

Citation Abbreviation Tools

Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
This useful database is a great place to search for the meaning of legal abbreviations. It covers the United States and major law publications in over 295 other jurisdictions.

Prince's dictionary of legal abbreviations by Prince, Mary Miles
Call Number: John E. Jaqua Law Library Reference KF246 .B46 2025

ISBN: 9780837743219

Publication Date: 2025

This legal abbreviation dictionary, commonly called Bieber's, helps users identify the meanings of nearly 36,000 acronyms and abbreviations found in primary and secondary sources of American legal literature.
The Bluebook by Harvard Law Review Association (Compiled by)
ISBN: 9798218574574

Publication Date: 2025-05-15

The Bluebook provides the comprehensive standardized citation for the legal profession in the United States.

The tables in the back of the Bluebook provide abbreviations for various terms and publications. Unfortunately, the tables are not organized by abbreviation, so it is not as useful as the above sources for figuring the meaning of an abbreviation. They are useful for figuring out the correct abbreviation for various publications and sources, however.
Use the Quick Reference in the inner cover of the Bluebook for examples of citations to common source types (cases, statutes, books, periodicals, etc.).