Back in July, an analysis was released on the HeinOnline blog which compared the depth of HeinOnline’s journal content with five other legal research databases. Shortly after the post was published, a customer emailed to ask if a comparison was available between HeinOnline and the EBSCO Index to Legal Periodicals (H.W. Wilson). This database was not included in the original comparison, so the same process was used to compare its content with that of HeinOnline.

Washington and Lee University’s Law Journal Ranking Project was used to determine the list of the top 100 law journals, according to the Ranking Project’s combined score. Journal rankings on this list are determined by this ranking methodology. Next, lists were compiled of both indexing and full-text coverage for these 100 journals for HeinOnline and EBSCO Index to Legal Periodicals (H.W. Wilson).

A full list of content for this additional database was obtained from EBSCOhost.

Findings

Cumulative Number of Full-Text Volumes Available

The total number of available full-text volumes was counted for each database. HeinOnline has a total of 6,408 volumes which contain the full text of all material within each volume, while the EBSCO Index has 753.

Cumulative Number of Indexed Volumes Available

The total number of available indexed volumes was counted for each database. HeinOnline has a total of 6,421 volumes which contain indexed material, and most of these volumes also contain the full text. Most databases will have a greater number of indexed volumes than full text volumes due to embargoes requested by individual publishers. The EBSCO Index contains 3,230 volumes.

Number of Most-Cited Articles Available in Full Text

The most-cited article in each journal was determined using HeinOnline. The following chart shows how many of these articles are available in full text within HeinOnline and the EBSCO Index.

Compared to HeinOnline, the EBSCO Index had the following percentage of full-text content:

Compared to HeinOnline, the EBSCO Index had the following percentages of indexed content:

The conclusion of the original study remains unchanged: HeinOnline’s law journal coverage, both indexing and full text, is the most comprehensive of all databases included in this review.

Thank you to our customer for asking for this additional comparison. HeinOnline is incredibly receptive to customer feedback and users are encouraged to submit feedback anytime. If you have questions about the content of this database comparison, please contact the HeinOnline marketing team at (800) 828-7571 or via email.