Paper versus Electronic Sources for Law Review Cite Checking: Should Paper Be the Gold Standard?*

¶1 Citation checking has long formed an integral part of the law review publication process. Traditionally students have used print publications found in their library for this activity, but the increasing availability of legal sources in electronic formats, particularly image-based formats, has raised questions about this approach. To find out how these electronic versions fit into current law review practice, we conducted a survey of law review editors. ¶2 Despite the convenience of electronic versions, our survey found that law review editors continue to strongly prefer paper sources. This preference conflicts with libraries’ need to cancel duplicate print subscriptions to reporters and law reviews, and to avoid large interlibrary loan costs. The advent of image-based electronic versions of cases and law review articles, however, has begun to affect some cite-checking practices. ¶3 In this article, we report the results of this survey of law review practice and suggest that image-based documents should lead to changes in law review policy.