University Library > Guides > Using Lexis-Nexis

How to Use Lexis-Nexis Academic®

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LexisNexis Academic (UWW access only) is a searchable database with several focus areas: news, business, legal research, medical, and reference sections. This guide concentrates on the news section, comprised of sources in both general and mainstream publications as well as trade and legal periodicals. It includes both national & international newspapers, ethnic & regional news sources, magazines, and wire services, all of which are full text.

 

Logging On/Off

To log on, begin at the University Library home page. Click on the Databases link under the Find rollover menu. Then click on the L under Databases in Alphabetical Order to jump down the list. Scroll down and click on LexisNexis Academic.

To log off, close the Lexis-Nexis window in your browser.

 

Searching

The first search screen that opens is the General Search: Easy Search. Type the search terms (words or phrases) into the search box. Then select the sources to search. The default searches the major US and world publications. To see a list of those publications, click on the information icon box to the right of the check box. Set the dates to be searched as needed (within the last six month, year, all available dates). Then click on Search.

The General Search: Power Search offers more control in determining the search results. Click on the tab next to Quick News Search to access this search function. The difference between the Easy and Power Searches is that you can use either enter terms with search connectors (AND, OR, w/n, etc.) or natural language (e.g. a question, descriptive terms, or a sentence). Check out the techniques section below for tips on how to use the connectors.

 

Techniques

To Retrieve Listings With: Search For:
various forms of a word, such as
bank, banks, banker or banking		 bank!
a two-word phrase endangered species
a phrase of three or more words "attention deficit disorder"
more than one word, adjacent or not endangered and species
synonyms or other related words england or britain or united kingdom
multiple words, including synonyms or
other related words		 crim! and violen! and (juvenile! or teen!)
two words that appear within 3 words
of one another		 outsourcing w/3 overseas
two words that appear in the same sentence steroids w/s sports
two words that appear in the same paragraph immigration w/p election!
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Displaying Search Results

 

Search Results

Four options to view the search results are given. Switch the view by using the View drop-down menu. The first two pertain to the entire list of results, and the second two come into play when viewing the articles. These options appear as tabs at the top of the results page. The articles are sorted by date (newest first) as the default, but it is possible to sort by relevance by using the Sort drop-down menu.

The Document List is the standard display of the search results, with 25 citations showing per result screen. Each citation includes information about the article: the headline, the periodical in which the article appeared, the date of publication, page number, the author (if credited), and the number of words.

The Expanded List gives the same information as the Document List, but it also displays the search terms from the articles with partial surrounding text as part of the results list. This can be helpful to quickly determine an article's relevance to your research without opening each individual document.

 

Article Display

If you click on the headline from the Document List, you will be taken to the Full View – the full text – of the article, including all necessary citation information. The search terms used will be highlighted in bold throughout the article.

After accessing the full text of an article, you may choose to click on the KWIC option, which stands for Keyword in Context. This is especially useful when viewing longer articles. It provides the ability to scan an article to easily see your search terms in the context of the surrounding text.

To return to the brief list of search results, click on the Results tab in the top right corner.

 

Full Text

All of the articles in LexisNexis are full text. Any non-text portions of the articles, such as photos, will not be included in the full text. A number of newspapers are available in print and microfilm on the first floor of the Library if it is necessary to view the article as it was originally published in print.

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Printing & E-mailing

Printing

To print an individual article, open the full text and then click on the Print icon in the right corner of the screen. This brings up a window with several printing options. After selecting the desired options, click on Print in the right hand corner, which opens your printer's menu and allows you to print.

You may also print citations for multiple articles at the same time. From the list of search results, check the boxes to the left of the citations. After selecting the citations, click on the Print icon in the upper right corner of the page. Select List from the Document View drop-down menu in the Print Documents window. After selecting any other desired options, click on Print in the right hand corner, which opens your printer's menu and allows you to print.

E-mailing

LexisNexis does provide the ability to e-mail the text of the articles to yourself or to others. When viewing the full text of the document, click on the E-mail icon in the upper right corner of the page. Enter an e-mail address to which the article will be sent as well as a subject line if desired. Then click on the E-mail button.

The e-mail function also allows you to e-mail the citations of the selected articles to yourself or someone else for future reference. To do this, check the boxes to the left of the citations on the Document List screen and then click on the E-Mail icon in the upper right corner of the page. On the following screen, enter your e-mail address and a brief note if desired. Then click on the E-mail button.

 

Help

For context sensitive help with LexisNexis, click on the Help link at the top of the screen.

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