LexisNexis Academic - Searching Tips for Journalists
The web version of LexisNexis available at Columbia University is
known as
LexisNexis Academic. Even if you have searched
LexisNexis before, it helps to know the differences between the
version you may have used and the one available to you now. This
guide will take you through your initial searches in LexisNexis
Academic, with a focus on finding stories on your beat
neighborhood from New York newspapers.
You can connect to LexisNexis Academic from anywhere, on campus or
off. When connecting from off campus, just enter your Columbia
e-mail ID and password for access. If you wish to bookmark the
link to LexisNexis on your home computer, please use the following
link:
http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?AND3603
Starting a search
When you connect to LexisNexis Academic, you will always find the
Quick News Search screen. The Quick News Search is
NOT a good option for you, since it does not let
you select which sources you would like to search, and it also
does not allow for searching beyond the most recent two years of
stories. For the greatest flexibility, always click on the
Guided News Search.
Once you click on Guided News Search, there are two choices to
make before typing in your search terms. The first is which
category to search:
Categories are divided among different types of news content (e.g.
transcripts are searched separately from newspapers). The most
appropriate category for searching New York City newspapers is
U.S. News.
Once you've selected a category you select a source within
that category. If you have selected U.S. News, for example, the
Source drop-down list will include both regional as well as state
options for searching. Choosing New York News
Sources will include both papers from New York City as
well as others papers from New York State.
To view a list of sources included within a section, click on the
red link to Source list next to the source
selection box.
Entering search terms
After selecting a news category and source for searching, you are
ready to enter search terms. Remember that LexisNexis searches the
full text of newspapers, magazines, and transcripts,
meaning that words you type in will be searched throughout the
text of the millions of stories contained in the database.
It's important to be aware of the various types of searches
available to you and to use them judiciously.
Note that the default setting for the search is to look in the
Headline and Lead Paragraph ONLY. This means the full text of the
story is not being searched. If you do wish to search the
full text (a more comprehensive search), make sure to select
Full text for each term you type in.
If you are looking to search for a byline, replace the
Full text selection with Author.
Make sure you have the correct spelling of the name of the person
whose byline you are searching.
Now it's time to enter some search terms in the boxes.
There are a number of different connectors available for
your search terms. And is the most common one,
and is the default. However, and is not always
the best choice -- two terms appearing in the same story are not
always related to each other.
Using the w/s connector puts the terms in the
first box and the terms in the second within the same sentence in
the story. The closer together the terms are in the story, the
more likely they are related. W/p works
similarly, but puts terms within the same paragraph. You can also
search for words within 5, 10, or 25 words of each other
(w/5, w/10, w/25).
Other ways of searching will be discussed at the training session.
In the meantime, for further help on search strategy, click on the
link to Tips from the Guided News Search screen
for more information.
Limiting a search by date
One last thing you may wish to do before submitting your
LexisNexis search is to limit your search to a specific date or
range of dates. Here is one example:
You may also enter a specific date (in a variety of formats,
including month/day/year, month/year, or year).
Looking at your search results
Once you have submitted your search, it's time to look at the
results. The search done here was for:
red hook [full text] w/s crime [full text], Previous two
years
There were 15 results to this search. Here is a portion of the
initial results screen.
Results are sorted by date, with the most recent stories at the
top. Click on each story individually to read it. Note that your
search terms are highlighted in the text. To e-mail or print the
story, use the buttons on the upper right of the screen.
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