Skip to content

Research Databases — Where the Evidence Lives

The Highway's pointer list for primary-source PA research and case law. Free / low-cost / open where possible. Last reviewed 2026-05.

Academic & Clinical Research

PubMed (NIH/NLM) — free

  • URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
  • Coverage: 35M+ biomedical & clinical citations
  • PA-relevant queries: "parental alienation", "alienating behaviors", "resist-refuse dynamics"
  • API: E-utilities (eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) — no auth, generous rate limits
  • Best for: psychiatry, child psychology, custody-evaluation methodology

CrossRef — free

  • URL: https://search.crossref.org/
  • Coverage: 130M+ DOIs across publishers
  • API: https://api.crossref.org/ — no auth
  • Best for: catching PA papers PubMed misses (law journals, social work, family-studies)

Google Scholar — free (browser only)

  • URL: https://scholar.google.com/
  • Use the "Cited by" graph to map influence forward from foundational papers (Gardner 1985, Warshak 2001, Bernet 2010)
  • Set up alerts on "parental alienation" for weekly digests
  • Limitation: no API; respect rate limits

SSRN (Social Science Research Network) — free

  • URL: https://www.ssrn.com/index.cfm/en/lps/family-juvenile-law/
  • Family & Juvenile Law eJournal: working papers and pre-prints from family-law academics
  • Best for: catching legal-academic arguments before they hit law-review print

PsycNet (APA) — paywalled, abstracts free

  • URL: https://psycnet.apa.org/
  • Gold standard for clinical psychology citations. Most law libraries provide access.

US Case Law

CourtListener (Free Law Project) — free, generous API

  • URL: https://www.courtlistener.com/
  • Coverage: federal + state appellate opinions, oral arguments, financial-disclosure data
  • API: https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/ — Basic Auth or token
  • Best for: full-text search of "parental alienation" across US opinions
  • Bulk: https://www.courtlistener.com/api/bulk-info/ — opinion JSONs by court

Google Scholar Case Law — free

  • URL: https://scholar.google.com/ (select "Case law")
  • Coverage: US federal + state, with cite-by graph
  • Best for: quick lookup; build forward-citation maps

Justia — free

  • URL: https://law.justia.com/cases/
  • US Supreme Court + state supreme + federal appellate
  • Best for: clean reading view of full opinions

Caselaw Access Project (Harvard) — free

  • URL: https://case.law/
  • 6.4M cases, 1658–2018, full text & structured metadata
  • Best for: historical research, doctrinal evolution

UK / Ireland Case Law

BAILII — free

  • URL: https://www.bailii.org/
  • Coverage: UK + Ireland court decisions, Family Court (EWFC), Court of Appeal (EWCA Civ), High Court (EWHC)
  • Recent decisions feed: https://www.bailii.org/recent-decisions.html
  • Best for: family-court rulings, especially Re-named anonymised cases

Family Law Week — paywalled summaries free

  • URL: https://www.familylawweek.co.uk/
  • Curated case digests with practitioner commentary
  • Best for: practitioner perspective on emerging trends

Transparency Project — free

  • URL: https://www.transparencyproject.org.uk/
  • Family-court reform commentary + reported judgments
  • Best for: public-interest analysis of contentious rulings

EU / International

HUDOC (European Court of Human Rights) — free

  • URL: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/
  • Article 8 (right to family life) jurisprudence
  • Best for: regional cross-border PA arguments

Council of Europe — free

  • URL: https://www.coe.int/en/web/children/
  • Children's rights instruments and committee reports

CURIA (Court of Justice of the EU) — free

  • URL: https://curia.europa.eu/
  • Brussels IIa / IIb regulation interpretations on jurisdiction in custody disputes

Australia & New Zealand

AustLII — free

  • URL: https://www.austlii.edu.au/
  • Sister site to BAILII covering AU + NZ + Pacific

Federal Circuit & Family Court of Australia — free

  • URL: https://www.fcfcoa.gov.au/

Canada

CanLII — free

  • URL: https://www.canlii.org/
  • Federal + provincial; strong family-law coverage

Practical Tools

Zotero — free, open source

  • URL: https://www.zotero.org/
  • Reference manager with one-click capture from any database above
  • Build a shared group library: "Parental Alienation — Core Sources"

Connected Papers — free tier

  • URL: https://www.connectedpapers.com/
  • Visual citation graph from any seed paper. Start with Bernet 2010 or Warshak 2015.

Litmaps — free tier

  • URL: https://www.litmaps.com/
  • Auto-monitor citation networks; alerts when new work cites your seeds

How to use this list

You are a parent: Start with the Influencers section to find clinicians whose work matches your situation, then use Google Scholar to read what they've published.

You are a lawyer: CourtListener + Google Scholar Case Law + BAILII (or CanLII / AustLII regionally) — search "parental alienation" filtered to the last 24 months for fresh authority.

You are an evaluator or researcher: PubMed + CrossRef + SSRN, with Zotero for capture and Connected Papers for graph navigation.

You are a journalist: Transparency Project + Family Law Week for UK; CourtListener oral arguments + financial disclosures for US. SSRN for academics willing to talk on record.

Maintained by the AntiAlienate.com knowledge collective. Missing a database? Open a PR.