LexisNexis Academic
Grace Library Research Guide LexisNexisAcademicisadatabasethatiswell‐knowninternationallybylawprofessionalsasoneofthebest
sourcesforbusinessandlegalresearch.Withmorethan10,000academicsources,itisalsousefulwhen
youneedtofindinformationonissuesinthenews.Mostofthesourcesareavailablefulltext.
Easy Search
Youmayfindthatsearchesavailableonthemainscreen,calledtheEasySearch,areaquickwaytoget
information.Thepageisdividedintosixdifferentsections,fourofwhich(news,legalinformation,
companyinformation,andpeoplesearch)havesearchboxes. The Combined Search can include cross
listings from the different categories, and the Hot Topic Links are intended to help a browsing researcher
peruse recent issues in the world headlines.
Search results are listed in a concise format. They are returned in reverse chronological order with the
most recently published articles at the top of the page, but you can change the order with the drop box at
the top left side of the page called Sort. You may find that a relevance sort works better. The blue text
indicates the title of the document. Shown below is a newspaper article. The line after the title begins
with the name of the publication, place and date of publication, type of document, page number, and the
number of words in the document. The author, if included, is last.
Click on the document title to see the full text. The full text can be printed,
emailed, downloaded (which will be saved in a Word document) exported to
RefWorks, or the persistent link can be copied through the tool bar on the right.
Advanced Search Once researchers become more familiar with Lexis Nexis they are more inclined to use the Advanced
Search and other subject-specific tools. The link to the Advanced Search is located at the far top left
corner of the main page and the navigation bar on the left side serves specialized information needs.
When using the Advanced Search, an unusually large search box is available for keyword searching.
Researchers are encouraged to think of narrow terms so that the results list is not too large to look
though. Researchers may key in Boolean operators (and, or, or not) between keywords. Some other
operators unique to Lexis Nexis include:




Asaconnectorbetweentwokeyworks,“w/#”indicatesthatthetwowordsmustoccurwithinthree
wordsofeachotherinthedocument.Youcanuseanynumberyoulike(“hearingw/3Clinton”
meansthathearingandClintonappearwithinthreewordsofeachother);
“atleast#”followedbyanumberindicatesthatthekeywordappearsthatmanynumberoftimes
“atleast10(Clinton)”;
Keywordscanalsobemanipulatedwiththetruncationcharacter“!”thatturnsyourcharactersinto
arootword.Forinstance,“trunc!”couldbesearchedas“truncated,”or“truncation,”;
ThewildcardcharacterinLexisNexisisthe“*”andyoucanreplaceletterswithinawordwithit
likeablanktileinScrabble:“wild**”couldbe“wildly”or“wilder.”
ClickontheradiobuttonforNaturalLanguageifyouprefernot
toemploytheseoperatorsandconnectors.Specifyingthedate
canbehelpfulinsomesearches.Searchingbytheindextermcan
beamoredirectwaytoaccessalloftheinformationneededona
certaintopic.Toaccessthese,justclickontheunderlinedindex
words.Theycovervariantnames(suchashandgunorrevolver),
geographicalplaces,andalsowordswithmultiplemeanings.For
instance,usingtheCompanyIndex,searchfor“BurgerKing”to
findtheindextermsshownintheexamplebelow.Checkoffthe
termsyouwouldliketoincludeinthesearch.Youmayfindthat
theindextermscanhelpeitherbroadenornarrowyoursearchorimproveresultsbyprovidingvariants
thatyoumaynothavethoughtof.
SelectSourceisagoodwayto
qualifywhattypeof
informationyouwouldliketo
find.Clickonthedropboxfor
youroptionstoappear.The
searchboxByNameisaway
tosearchbyapublication
name,suchasNewsweekor
TheNewYorkTimes.
Company Information ReallyinterestingbusinessinformationcanbeaccessedexclusivelythroughLexisNexis.Startattheleft
navigationbaronthemainpage—youcanreturntothemainpagebyclickingonthebanneratthetop
left—andclickonCompaniestoseethesubcategories.ClickinganyoftheDossiersubcategorieswillchange
thesearchscreencompletely;onlybusinessinformationwillbelocated.Anewglobalnavigationbar
(shownatright)offersinformation
forcompanies,executives,industry
profiles,andthepossibilityto
compareandkeeplistsofcompanies.
Thedossierforacompanyprovideskeybusinessandfinancialdataaswellascurrentevents,intellectual
property,orlitigation.Dossiersforanindustryindicategrowthormarketdata,anddossiersforan
executiveprovidebiographicalandcompensationdata.CompareCompaniesallowsausertocompareupto
fivedifferentcompanies’balancesheets.CompareCompaniesisalsothebestsearchwhenyouneedtofind
anunknowncompanywhenyouhaveasetofcriteria,suchastheNAICScodeoranestimationofsales
revenue.
BackattheLexisNexishomepage,theCompaniesbuttonalsohasSECFilingsforcorporationsandCompany
Profiles.TheCompanyProfilesisanexcellentwaytounderstandifacorporationissuccessful.Ifyoukeep
AllCompanyInformationselected,youwillgetareportwithover70differentsourcespooledtogether.SEC
FilingsaretheformsregisteredfromthecompanywiththeSecuritiesandExchangeCommission,including
the10‐Q(quarterlyreports),8‐K(importantevents),andannualreports.
Legal Information FromtheLexisNexismainpage,clickonthebuttonintheleftnavigationbarcalledUSLegal.Tendifferent
subcategoriesserveresearchers’informationneedsforlaw.YoucanfindtheactuallitigationunderFederal
andStateCases,orunderLandmarkCases,whichisagoodplacetobrowseforalegaltopic.
Shepard’scitations,anotheroneofthesubcategories,isaservicethatresearchersshouldlookattobesure
thatthecourtdecisiontheyareinterestedinis“goodlaw”(badlawmayhavebeenoverruled,reversedor
diminishedandisnolongercitedasalegal
precedent).Alsoincludedisjudicialhistoryso
thatresearcherslearnaboutwhenthatcasehas
beenreferencedandaboutlatercasesthatcitethe
original.Thecitationformatmustbeentered
correctlyinordertogetaresult;forexample“349
U.S.294”isBrownvs.TheBoardofEducation.
Youmustentertheexactlegalcitation,including
theperiodsforavalidcitation.
Tofindcourtopinions,searchFederalandStateCases.TheSupremeCourtBriefssubcateogryiswhere
researchersfindtheargumentsofthepartieswhoarepursuing/defendingtheircase;itoutlinesthefacts
andpointofviewofeachparty.
SearchingtheFederal/StateStatutes,Codes&Regulationswillcoverthelawswrittenbystate
congresses/Congress,thestateconstitution/Constitution,andthestateregisters/FederalRegister.It
answersthequestion,whatisthelawandhowisitenforcedbystate/federalagenciesinstatutes?
Forsecondarysourcesonlegalmatters,useLawReviewstosearchbycitation,authorortopic.Searching
hereisindispensiblesothatresearchersunderstandthelaworlitigationmoreclearlyandwhatissues
surroundit.
Accessing Lexis Nexis from Outside the Carlow Network IfyouwouldliketoaccessLexisNexisfromacomputernotconnectedtotheCarlownetwork,connectto
http://library.carlow.eduandclickontheOffCampusAccesslinklocatedontherighthandsideofthe
page.LogintothesystemusingyourCarlowActiveDirectoryusernameandpassword(thesameusername
andpasswordthatyouusetologintolabcomputers).Additionalinstructionsareavailableontheoff
campuswebpagetohelpyouaccesslibrarydatabasesfromoffcampus.
1/13
Questions? Contact Grace Library 412‐578‐6139 [email protected] http://library.carlow.edu Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/carlowlibrary