Using LexisNexis — Newspapers, Transcripts,
Legal Resources, and More

What Is LexisNexis? LexisNexis provides Web-based access to the LexisNexis 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 LexisNexis 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
* LexisNexis is updated daily with some sources being updated several times daily.
 
The LexisNexis User Interface
The user interface to LexisNexis 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.


The opening screen for LexisNexis provides access to a basic search for "Quick Info", a quick search for court cases, and a quick search for company information. If you want a simple search of what's available, start at this screen. Otherwise, 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, as well as to college newspapers and radio and television transcripts
.


The News option settings for LexisNexis 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. To choose a more specific news option, use the pull-down menu selections listed under "Step One: Select a news category."

Once you have chosen a news category, you will need to go to the pull-down menu under "Step Two: Select a news source" and choose the types of news sources you want to include. The types change with each change in the major category. Under General News, you will find options that include "Major Papers," "Magazines and Journals," "Newsletters," "Abstracts," and a number of other options. Choose the type that best represents your topic.


In the search screen pictured above, we have chosen to search "General News" in Step One, "Major Papers" in Step Two, and have selected the search terms "eminem" and "violence" to be searched in the headlines, lead paragraphs, or index terms in all of the publications included in this category. You should also choose a range of dates either from the pull down menu or by filling in the From and To ranges. We have left the selection at the default "Previous six months" option, but you can also choose to search just today's news, the past week, the past month, or to the very beginning of the databases collection of news articles.

Click "Search" to proceed. The sample search topic above searches for articles on the rap musician known as Eminem and on the topic violence in the LexisNexis collection of major newspapers for the past six months.

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 45 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 results pictured above, for instance, uncovered 45 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.

Continue browsing article by article in KWIC view by clicking the "next" link toward the top right corner of the article display.


Once a researcher has discovered relevant content, he or she can print, save, or email the full articles. In the illustration above, we've switched to the "Full" view of the article, which provides the entire text of the original newspaper article.

To print, choose the "Print" tab that appears toward the top corner of the article display. You'll be redirected to a screen that asks you to choose to "Display Document" or "Return to Document." If you click the "Display" option, 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 print version of the document.

A researcher can also email articles. An "E-Mail" tab is available next to the "Print" tab toward the top of the document display.. 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 LexisNexis limits the search to headline, lead paragraph, and index terms, 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 changed the focus of the search to look for both "eminem" and "violence" in the full text of all available articles. This will result in a larger number of items, since it will pick up articles that include both words, but not necessarily just in the headlines and lead paragraphs.

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 nearly 400 additional articles in the same time period that could provide useful information.


The LexisNexis News search is only one part of the system of databases. If the focus of your research is largely business oriented, change the focus of your search by choosing the "Business" link that appears to the left of the LexisNexis interface. Notice in the sample screen above that you will have options that including searching Business News, Industry & Market information, Accounting Literature, Company information, and to view directories that provide trade show information, among other things.


LexisNexis also includes a medical research area that includes Medical News, Medical Journals, and article Abstracts from the National Library of Medicine's Medline® database.


The LexisNexis Reference collection allows a researcher to quickly find biographical information, country profiles, results of polls and surveys, quotations, state profiles, and even includes access to a world almanac.

Select any of the available areas for searching by clicking the link within the page.

Researchers needing to find information on the activities of the United States Congress will find the LexisNexis Congressional system invaluable. In one convenient database, a researcher can search the entire collection of Congressional Indexes from 1789 through 1969 and the Congressional Information Service Index from 1970 to date, find the full text of congressional reports, documents, and bills, including the Congressional Record, track Bills as they make their way from the legislative branch of government to the President's desk, and find information on members, committees, and hot topics of current interest in Washington.

Many research projects can be greatly enhanced by the inclusion of statistical data that builds support for the topic. LexisNexis Statistical provides access to thousands of statistical tables in an easy-to-search interface. The sample screen above shows the many selections that can be made when using LexisNexis Statistical.
Quick Overview
The foregoing examples provide a brief overview of the basic user interface for LexisNexis. 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 LexisNexis always look for the following features to find navigation clues.
 
Key Parts of the Interface:
       LexisNexis Service Panel – Located to the left of the LexisNexis interface, this panel lets the user choose different parts of the service (News, Legal Research, Medicine, Statistical Data, etc.).
  Search Window – The window may have slight differences in different sections of the system. The overall approach will be the same, allowing the researcher to select multiple terms for searching and choose dates and search materials.
  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.
  Output Tabs – Appearing toward the top of the document display, the output tabs provide the user with output options (print/save, email), with an option to edit the current search.
  Help – Help is always available from the top panel/title bar.
   

Page updated 04/05.

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