Guide to Lexis-Nexis Academic

Westfield State College Ely Library

Lexis-Nexis Academic Searching Journals, Magazines and News Sources

This guide covers basic searching of periodical sources in Lexis-Nexis. For an in depth guide to Legal Research using Lexis-Nexis see the guide Legal Research on Lexis-Nexis Academic.

Access: from the Ely Library Homepage (http://www.lib.wsc.ma.edu) choose Quicklinks to Databases, then Lexis-Nexis Academic. If you are off-campus, you will prompted for a username and password. Enter your WSC email ID and password at this prompt.

Easy Search (default)

Enter Search Terms in the text box (adjacent words are searched as a phrase.

Choose to Search Within a collection of sources:

Major U.S. and World Publications

News Wire Services

TV and Radio Broadcast Transcripts

Blogs

Web Publications

etc.

Specify a date or date range.

Use Search Commands to narrow your searches:

and
between terms, requires both terms to appear in the search results. Example: doctor and malpractice

or
between terms, requires either term to appear in the search results. Example: doctor or physician

w/p
between terms, requires terms to appear in the same paragraph.

w/s
between terms, requires terms to appear within the same sentence.

w/n
between terms, requires a maximum number of words to appear between terms. (w/5, w/10)

!
at the end of a word, allows an unlimited string of letters to follow. Example: surg! retrieves surgical, surgery

*
within a word, allows any one letter to appear. Example wom*n retrieves women or woman.

Power Search

Choose Power Search to quickly select a variety of sources.

From the dropdown men Select Sources, choose to search sources such as U.S. Newspapers & Wires, The New York Times, All Transcripts (includes NPR, CNN), University Newswire (searches college newspapers), and more.

Result List

Sort results by Relevance or by Date.
Enter extra keywords in the Narrow Search textbox to focus your search and find more relevant results.
View All Results or select types of results such Newspapers, Magazines and Journals, News Transcripts.
Switch Results Groups to Subject and view results by topic area.

Printing, Saving and Emailing

To print one or more records, select the print icon .
To save one or more records, select the save icon.
To email one or more records, select the email icon.

Sources

To locate and search specific periodicals, select the Sources tab, and then the Find Sources tab.

To Find Sources, leave the search option as Keyword in step 1 and enter the title of a periodical in the textbox at step 2. This is the fastest way to locate and search a document (choosing the Source Name search requires you to browse periodicals alphabetically page by page).

Check the box next to your periodical and click the button to continue to the search screen for the periodical.

Browse Sources will allow you to browse individual, multiple, and aggregate sources to search. Browse by Publication Type, Industry, and Area of Law, and filter your results by Country and Topic area. Examples of multiple and agregate sources: Massachusetts News Sources, Legal News, Telecommunications Stories, Asia/Pacific Rim News.

http://www.lib.wsc.ma.edu/lexisnex.htm
Page maintained by Oliver Zeff, last updated October 9, 2007

Easy Search (default)
Enter Search Terms in the text box (adjacent words are searched as a phrase.
Choose to Search Within a collection of sources: Major U.S. and World Publications News Wire Services TV and Radio Broadcast Transcripts Blogs Web Publications etc.
Specify a date or date range.

Use Search Commands to narrow your searches:
and	between terms, requires both terms to appear in the search results. Example: doctor and malpractice
or	between terms, requires either term to appear in the search results. Example: doctor or physician
w/p	between terms, requires terms to appear in the same paragraph.
w/s	between terms, requires terms to appear within the same sentence.
w/n	between terms, requires a maximum number of words to appear between terms. (w/5, w/10)
!	at the end of a word, allows an unlimited string of letters to follow. Example: surg! retrieves surgical, surgery
*	within a word, allows any one letter to appear. Example wom*n retrieves women or woman.

Power Search
Choose Power Search to quickly select a variety of sources.
From the dropdown men Select Sources, choose to search sources such as U.S. Newspapers & Wires, The New York Times, All Transcripts (includes NPR, CNN), University Newswire (searches college newspapers), and more.

Sources
To locate and search specific periodicals, select the Sources tab, and then the Find Sources tab.
To Find Sources, leave the search option as Keyword in step 1 and enter the title of a periodical in the textbox at step 2. This is the fastest way to locate and search a document (choosing the Source Name search requires you to browse periodicals alphabetically page by page).
Check the box next to your periodical and click the button to continue to the search screen for the periodical.
Browse Sources will allow you to browse individual, multiple, and aggregate sources to search. Browse by Publication Type, Industry, and Area of Law, and filter your results by Country and Topic area. Examples of multiple and agregate sources: Massachusetts News Sources, Legal News, Telecommunications Stories, Asia/Pacific Rim News.