Westlaw and Lexis printing over the winter break

The University will be closed beginning Friday, December 25 and will reopen on Monday, January 4th, 2010.  This means that the Law Library will also be closed.  If you plan on conducting research on LexisNexis or Westlaw during that time period, please do not send your print jobs to the Westlaw or Lexis stand alone printers here in the Law Library.  You may wish to print to your attached printer or download your work to your computer instead. 

For more information about the Law Library’s Hours during winter break, follow this link -> http://www.uakron.edu/law/library/hours.dot

For questions about Westlaw or LexisNexis please contact Ms. Lenart at 330-972-6357 or e-mail her at llenart@uakron.edu

This is just a periodic reminder to protect your belongings

Please do not leave your valuables alone anywhere in the School of Law.  Your textbooks, bookbags, purses, laptops and other belongings can be easily taken in just “30 seconds.”

We welcome visitors to the School of Law and to the Law Library, both those associated with the University and those who are not.  Having open doors, however, also means anyone can come into the building.  It would be wise to always be careful and make it a habit to never leave your belongings unattended.

How to Prevent Plagiarism

Plagiarism, as defined on the University of Akron Office of General Counsel web page, “is the intentional or unintentional use of the words or ideas of another without acknowledging their source.”1 (emphasis added)  Deliberate and accidental plagiarism are treated the same by the University and the School of Law.  The University places the responsibility on the students to know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.  

Most students know to cite the source when they directly quote from another work, but did you know that the following are also examples of plagiarizing? 

  • ● Substituting synonyms for words used from another work without acknowledging the source.  This is called “Word Switch Plagiarism.”
  • ● Rearranging  words, phrases, or sentences without properly citing the work.  This is another example of “Word Switch Plagiarism.”
  • ● Summarizing or paraphrasing from another work without properly citing the source.  
  • ● Paraphrasing in a way to change the author’s meaning of the passage used.
  • ● Using the same organizational structure as another source without properly acknowledging the source.  This is called “Organization Plagiarism.”
  • ● Using another’s creative idea or solution to a problem without acknowledging the source.   This is called “Idea Plagiarism.”

Law students caught plagiarizing will be violating the Law School’s Student Disciplinary Code and will be subject to proceedings under the Code.2   The consequences can be severe and may include dismissal from the University.

 The General Rule to follow to avoid plagiarizing is “when in doubt, cite the source.”  Use the links below to familiarize yourself with plagiarism and how to avoid it.  Always remember, if you have a question about what to cite in your research, ask the instructor of your course or ask a law librarian.   It is so easy to ask for help and avoid plagiarism.

For a quick review on plagiarism, try this short CALI lesson called Plagiarism – Keeping Out of Trouble.


1.  The University of Akron Office of General Counsel – Guidelines for avoiding plagiarism – The University of Akron Office of General Counsel.  “Under University Rule 3359-41-02, plagiarism constitutes a type of student misconduct that is punishable by formal disciplinary probation, suspension, or dismissal from the University.  It is the responsibility of all University of Akron students to know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.” 

2.  Law Student Handbook.  Click on the handbook for your year of admission and then go to the Student Disciplinary Code section.

3.  Read the General Writing Requirements (GWR) or the Individual Studies & Research (ISR) instructions carefully.  They also have instructions on avoiding plagiarism. 

4.  CALI Lesson: Plagiarism – Keeping Out of Trouble   This lesson will explain what constitutes plagiarism, how to avoid plagiarizing, and will offer opportunities for students to test their understanding of plagiarism.

5.  The Law Library offers other useful links about plagiarism.

Lynn Lenart
Assistant Law Librarian for Reference Services
llenart@uakron.edu

CALI Lesson Review- Ohio Legal Materials: Primary Sources

Do you need a brush-up on researching Ohio Law?

Try the Ohio Legal Materials lesson in CALI.  The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize the learner with Ohio legal research materials. The lesson will focus on primary source materials in Ohio, including case law, statutes, administrative materials, and court rules.

This lesson is divided into three major sections. The first includes sources of Ohio case law and court rules. The second section contains information on Ohio legislative sources (including the Ohio Constitution). The final section discusses Ohio administrative materials.

Lesson Completion Time: 45 minutes

How to find this lesson: After logging into CALI, click on Legal Research.  The lessons are alphabetic at the next page.

Questions?  Contact Lynn Lenart, Assistant Law Librarian for Reference Services.  330-972-6357, llenart@uakron.edu, Law Library, second floor, office 269.

Tips, Tricks and Hints for LexisNexis- Spell-check

Check Your Spelling before Searching

For those of us who rely heavily on spell-check in our daily lives, it is nice to know that you can also use a spell-checking feature before conducting a search on LexisNexis.  This function even provides spelling suggestions for the misspelled words!

Take the following steps to use the Check Spelling feature:

  • ●  Enter your Terms and Connectors or Natural Language search in the Enter Search Terms form.
    NOTE: You cannot use Check Spelling with the LexisNexis® Easy Search™ feature or in sources containing a Table of Contents.
  • ●  Click Check Spelling to highlight misspelled words and display up to three Spelling Suggestions per misspelled word.
  • ●  Select one of the Spelling Suggestions to replace the misspelled word.
  • ●  Click Search.

NOTE: Check Spelling only checks words that are four or more letters long .

Source: LexisNexis InfoPro
Questions?  Contact Lynn Lenart, Assistant Law Librarian for Reference Services.  330-972-6357, llenart@uakron.edu, Law Library, second floor, office 269.