Law review indexes are used to approach research questions by subject. Indexes lead the researcher to articles that have been characterized as treating a subject based on analysis by an editor. Use law review indexes for the most comprehensive searches. Law review indexes provide access to articles in hundreds of journals. Print indexes can provide access to historical materials not contained in computer indexes, which generally contain citations to articles written after 1980 only.
Indexes also vary in the selection of index terms to be used.
The most common of these, the Library of Congress subject headings, attempt to use terms that specifically describe the article's contents. If you need to do a comprehensive search, use more than one index. While you may be led to the same reference more than once, you minimize the chance of missing something very important. Use subject heading lists or thesauri to make sure that you have found the preferred subject headings. Many appear in the indexes themselves.