What Is Academic Universe? Academic Universe provides Web-based access to the Lexis-Nexis database in a special package developed specifically for universities and colleges. The system provides access to nearly 5,000 publications and covers news, financial data, and medical and legal information. Included in the legal database are complete laws for all 50 states, the United States, and the European Union, as well as case law for state courts and the federal court system. The news section of the database covers newspapers worldwide as well as national and regional U.S. newspapers. The news search also draws on wire services worldwide, and even lets the user search for transcripts of television and radio news shows and news from college newspapers. Researchers will also find a generous selection of magazines, journals, and trade publications in a variety of disciplines. What's more, the vast majority of the publications covered in Academic Universe are available full text. In short, not only can you identify articles by topic, you can retrieve the entire articles online.

Highlights Publications Covered:        Nearly 60 Major Newspapers   More than 300 Magazines and Journals   Over 700 Newsletters   Over 70 Abstracting Services   Transcripts for Over 30 Television and Radio News Broadcasts   Over 100 International News Sources including the World's Major Wire Services Legal Research:   Statutes and Regulations of all 50 States   Court Decisions at the State and Federal Levels   United States Code and Federal Regulations   Tax Law and Court Decisions   European Union Law Business and Medical Research:   Annual Reports and Forms 10-K   Industry Analyses and Reports from a Variety of Sources   Medline Database Searching with Access to Some Full Text Medical Journals Reference Materials to Answer Questions Quickly * Academic Universe is updated daily with some sources being updated several times daily.

The Academic Universe User Interface

The user interface to Academic Universe uses the point and click approach that is so familiar to Internet users. From the opening screen, a user selects a topic area (News, Legal, Medical, etc.) and is then taken into a search screen designed specifically for that area.

Begin an Academic Universe search session by selecting a research area from the main database selection panel (the white section of the page). The default screen gives a choice from among all of Academic Universe's "News" sources, which include newspapers, magazines, journals, abstracts, wire services, transcripts, arts & sports publications, campus newspapers, and foreign language news sources. To change the focus of the search session, choose from one of the broad source areas in the blue navagation panel to the left of the screen. Your choices are News, Business, Legal Research, Medical, and Reference. A good starting place for any current topic is the General News area. This will provide you with access to U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and journals.

The News options for Academic Universe are pictured above. General News will cover major news publications and magazines worldwide. If the topic you wish to track is covered more extensively at the state or regional level, you will want to begin searching in the U.S. News area instead. For example, news coverage of the controversy over using school vouchers in the state of Florida will be much more extensive in the Florida newspapers collection available from the U.S. News menu.

The search screen is divided into several parts. The "Keyword" portion of the screen by default searches headlines (article titles) and opening paragraphs of articles in the database. The "Narrow search" window allows the user to add additional topics that might appear deeper in the article but may not appear in the headline or opening paragraphs. The "Keyword" box MUST contain at least one search term. Entering terms only in the "Narrow" search box will not work. Be sure to also select the "Source" publications that you wish to search by choosing from the pull-down menu that is activated by clicking the arrow included in the source box. The default source publications are "Major Newspapers," but you may also choose Magazines and Journals, Wire Services, or Abstracts. You should also choose a range of dates either from the pull down menu or by filling in the From and To ranges. Click "Search" to proceed. The sample search topic above searches for articles on the rap musician known as Eminem and violence. Note that both search concepts have been placed in the "keyword" entry box using the Boolean operator "AND" to make the association between the two topics.

The results listing returned from a search provides very brief information about the articles retrieved, including the title of the publication where the article appeared (underlined and highlighted), the date of the article, the page where the article appeared, the length of the article in words, the article headline or title, and the byline (if available). This gives the user a quick browsing list with full articles just a click away. Notice that our search on Eminem and violence returned a results listing of 66 items for the current six months.

Clicking the "Expanded List" tab at the top of the results list provides article excerpts that highlight where the key search words were retrieved. This view is also useful in helping a researcher scan for most relevant materials in a lengthy retrieval list. The search pictured above, for instance, uncovered 66 articles in the current six month period. Having excerpts with terms highlighted is a great time-saver since the researcher can preview the entire list without having to read each and every article in detail. In the above listing, notice that the search terms we entered are in bold type.

Another quick way to review all articles retrieved without actually reading the full article is to choose the "KWIC" view of the results listing. KWIC (key word in context) view provides one article at the time with excerpts of all occurrences of the key search words. A researcher can tell at a glance if the article is worth pursuing in its entirety by taking note of how many times the key words appear in the article and in what contexts.

Once a researcher has discovered relevant content, he or she can print, save, or email the full articles. To print, choose the "Print" option from the small blue toolbar that appears just above the view options file folder tabs. The result is a clean, plain text copy of the full article that is easy to print. To save, follow the "Print" option, and then choose the browser's "Save As" option from the File pull-down menu. Once the choice is made to save the document, the researcher must choose where to save. This can be to a floppy disk, to a zip disk, or to the user's hard disk drive. The resulting saved file is readable in any word processor. To leave the print function, use the "Return to Full" option at the top of the document.

A researcher can also email articles. An "E-Mail" option is available in the same toolbar that provides printing and file saving capabilities. Clicking the "E-Mail" link takes the user into a dialog screen where he or she can enter an email address and comments as needed. The emailed copy of the article is embedded in the body of the message and is in plain text format, so that it is readable in any word processor.

Keeping in mind that the "keyword" input box in Academic Universe limits the search to headline and opening paragraph words, a researcher might want to toy with other strategies for getting more information if the initial search retrieval is limited. For example, in the above search, we've moved the topic "violence" into the "Narrow search" area of the form. This will result in a listing of items that deal with Eminem in the headline or top paragraphs and with violence anywhere in the text of the article, which could conceivably provide a larger number of items for review.

This strategy results in an increase in the number of items retrieved. Limiting a search to the headlines and first paragraphs may cut out articles that could be potentially useful. By opening the strategy to also include the full text of the articles in the search, we were able to gain an additional 95 articles in the same time period that could provide useful information.

Quick Overview The foregoing examples provide a brief overview of the basic user interface for Academic Universe. Each research area may have additional input boxes or pull-down menus customized to the publications being covered, but the overall search approach will be much the same. In each area of Academic Universe always look for the following features to find navigation clues.   Key Parts of the Interface:        Left Blue Panel – This is the navigation panel, which let's the user choose different parts of the service.   Search Window – The window may have slight differences in different sections of the system. The overall approach will be the same.   Results Tabs – Appearing at the top of a search display, the results tabs let the researcher shift from a quick title list, to an "Expanded" list, to a "KWIC" list, and finally to the full document.   Toolbar – Appearing above the Result Tabs, the toolbar provides the user with output options (print/save, email), with an option to edit the current search, and with an option of further focussing the search.   Help – Help is always available from the top panel/title bar.