How to use HeinOnline for criminology research

There is a section of HeinOnline which focuses on criminology and criminal justice. It is particularly useful for American material. This step-by-step guide is designed for criminology students, who want to use HeinOnline in their research. It will show you: how to search, how to narrow your results down, how to download articles, and how to use one article as a useful stepping stone to other useful articles.

Charlie Brampton
17 steps
3 minutes

Heinonline

Go to <https://heinonline-org.oxfordbrookes.idm.oclc.org/HOL/Index?collection=agopinions>

Check that the top left corner of HeinOnline says "Criminal Justice & Criminology"

If it doesn't, click on the drop down arrow and choose "Criminal Justice & Criminology"

Click in the "Search Criminal Justice & Criminology..." box and enter your search words.

As you start to type your search words, a drop down list will appear below the search box. When you have finished typing, select "just search for" to run your search.

If you wish, you can change the order your results are sorted in. For example, you could have the newest articles at the top of your list. To do this, click on the 'sort by' drop down above your results.

If you want, you can narrow down your results list to a particular period of time. To do this, click on "Date" down the left.

Either choose a time period from the list provided or use the 'from' and 'to' boxes to enter your own time period.

Click "Apply" at the bottom of the date pop-up wndow.

You can also narrow your results list down, by clicking on "Subjects" down the left hand side.

Select as many subjects as you wish. The numbers in brackets show how many of your current results are tagged with each subject. Remember, a result can have more than one subject. Click 'apply' in the subjects pop-up when you've finished selecting subjects.

To open an article, click on its title

You will see the first page of the article. Use the left/right arrows at the top to move through the article. You can use the page number drop down to jump to a particular page.

You can download the article by clicking on the PDF icon at the top

Down the left of your article, you'll see the titles of the other articles published in the same journal in that year. If anything looks interesting, click on its title to open it up.

If you want to find more, click on the "More like this" button above your article. This is the one with the circular plus icon. HeinOnline will pick out six "interesting words" from your article, weight them according to how frequently they occur in your article, then give you a curated results list of other articles containing the same words in a similar ratio.

Stuck? Looking for more ideas? From anywhere in HeinOnline, choose "Help" then "Knowledge Base"