Geisler Library: Using Academic Universe -- Central College

Using LexisNexis Academic

What is LexisNexis Academic ?

LexisNexis Academic is an Internet-accessible database that provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information.

Connect to LexisNexis Academic through the library’s home page or Databases web page. It is can be accesses via any computer with a Central IP address.

Users will see roughly the same screen interface layout regardless of database category. However, parts of the record (fields) and pull-down menu options may differ from category to category. Read all screens carefully to ensure proper searching. Asterisks indicate that information must be entered in that box before a search can be performed. Each search produces a click-able list of results; click any entry to see its full record.

General Tips

Search SOURCES to find if a particular journal, newspaper, document, etc., is indexed, and what years and sections of each title are indexed. Look for “full-text” or “selected full-text” if you want to retrieve the text online. A quick lookup is also available from the Library's Databases web page.

Check the TIPS for each search category to see exactly what is indexed, to determine if you are searching the correct category, and for tips on searching.

Choose either Basic or More Options searches. Note that the top of the Basic search page identifies which parts of the text that Basic is searching. More Options allows you to specify which parts of the text to choose, or to choose full text searching.

The online HELP is excellent, or you may always call a Librarian with problems or questions.

Length of time covered for individual publications varies. Check SOURCES to determine the range of years covered.

Under General News, the source “Time Incorporated Publications” includes Time, Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, In Style, Life, Money, People, and Sports Illustrated. These are available for two years only.

Certain other publications, such as single issues or pamphlets, are also on a two-year rolling archive, which means that they are deleted two years after being added.

Searching Academic Universe

Capitalization

Academic Universe is not case sensitive. However, there are times when capitalization does affect the meaning of a term. To specify capitalization, use the CAPS, NOCAPS, or ALLCAPS commands as the examples illustrate:

to search the word AIDS in all capital letters:
- allcaps (AIDS)
to search Apple computers and not apple fruit:
- caps (Apple)
to eliminate words with capital letters:
- nocaps (airline)

Hyphens, Slashes, and Parentheses
are treated as spaces. To search terms or phrases that include these characters, replace them with a space.
Examples:

Term Search As

401(k) 401 k

HIV/AIDS HIV AIDS

Co-operative co operative

But:12.678 12.678

Plurals and Singulars

Academic Universe automatically searches singular, regular plural and plural possessive endings for search words. For example, a search on the term company will find company, companies, and company’s.

However, you must use an OR Boolean operator to search for both singular and plural of irregular nouns.

For example: child or children

knife or knives

You can also specify only the singular or the plural form of a word:

To find only the word “William”: singular (William)

To find only the word “Williams”: plural (Williams)

Truncation / Wildcards / Special Characters

Truncation allows a user to make his or her keywords more flexible. Academic Universe offers two types of truncation.

Use the asterisk * to replace a letter or letters in a word. You can use more than one asterisk in a word and you can use it anywhere in a word except as the first letter. Each * stands for one letter.

bernst**n finds the ei or ie spelling of the name

wom*n finds woman and women

bank*** finds banker, bankers, banking but not bankrupt or bankruptcy

Use the exclamation mark ! to replace an indefinite number of letters following a word root. You can use only one exclamation mark in a word and it must be at the end of a word root.

litigat! finds variations of the word litigate (litigator, litigated, litigation, litigating, etc.

acqui! finds acquired, acquiring, acquisition, etc.

Be careful to use unique truncations. For example, fir! will retrieve fired, firing, fires, but will give you first, firm, etc.

Limiting by Date

Dates may be limited by choosing an option from the drop-down menu or by entering a custom date range. Most date formats are supported (i.e. 6/24/98; June 24, 1998; Ju 24, 1998;6/98), but users must be careful where dates are entered:

	Enter in From:	Enter in To:
Specific day (i.e. June 23, 1998)	June 23, 1998	June 23, 1998
On or after specific day (i.e. May 1, 1998-Present)	May 1, 1998
On or before specific day (i.e. up to June 23, 1998)		June 23, 1998

Phrase Searching
Adjacent words are searched as individual words appearing in the order entered.
If the phrase you are entering contains “and” or “or”, replace that word with a space.
If the phrase contains a “noise word” (see below), replace that word with a space. (The actual texts retrieved may contain these “noise words”)

Using Boolean Operators and Connectors

Academic Universe offers many different connectors and Boolean operators that allow users to make their searches as concise as possible. These connectors are words or characters that establish logical relationships between words and concepts. Multiple connectors can be used in one search request. Possible connectors are:

No connector Words are searched as a phrase Prince Albert Sound

AND Both terms must appear somewhere in document children and television

OR Either word must appear somewhere in document, often used to link synonyms or other alternate terms Women or females

W/# Finds terms within up to # of words from each other Internet w/3 search

W/p Finds terms within same paragraph UN w/p sanctions

W/s Finds terms within same sentence Clinton W/s healthcare

PRE/# First term precedes second terms by up to given # of words cable PRE/2 television

The most common connectors are OR, W/n, AND, AND NOT.

OR links synonyms, alternative forms of expression, acronyms, etc. – it broadens your search.
- Example: NAPM or (National Association of Purchasing Managers)
W/n links search words and phrases to create concepts. "n" stands for a number from 1-255. W/n does not specify a word order.
- Example: doctor w/5 malpractice finds doctor or doctors within 5 or fewer words of malpractice, regardless of which word appears first.
AND specifies that both words or phrases must appear anywhere in the same document.
- Examples: doctor and malpractice
  Internet and (filter or filtering)
AND NOT excludes documents that contain the word or phrase following it. Use this connector with caution. Always use this connector at the end of your search.
- Examples:
  malpractice and not doctor
  (finds articles about malpractice but not about doctors and malpractice)
  
  Mexico and not New
  Would eliminate documents about the state of New Mexico, but would also eliminate documents containing "new" or "news" and Mexico. The correct way to search this would be
  Mexico and not (New Mexico)

Alternative spellings, synonyms, abbreviations

Use “OR” to gather several related terms.

Find Search as

Articles about doctors doctor or physician or md or m.d.

Articles about email email or e mail or electronic mail

Alternative spellings Brazil or Brasil

Related terms nuclear or atomic

Reserved Words

A few words, phrases, and characters are reserved for use as connectors, such as “and”, “or”, and “not”.

To search for these words, either replace the word with a space, or enclose the word or the entire phrase in quotes.

Term Search as

Blace and white black white

Not in good faith "not" in good faith

Use parentheses to group concepts

Examples:

(Al Gore or George Bush) and (campaign finance reform)
Mexico and not (New Mexico)

Noise Words (words not searched)
Some common words are not searched. Noise words vary by source. Replace the noise word with a space when entering your search. Here are the most common ones.

are

it

the

when

his

my

there
is

of

so

In addition, “And” and “or” have specific meaning as connectors; do not include them unless you mean to do Boolean searching.

Field Searching

Academic Universe records are broken down into segments or "fields." To find a search term in a particular field, type the field name followed by the term in parentheses in the Additional Fields box: source (Korea Economic Weekly). Field searching is confined to the Additional Fields box only; using the Topics box results in a searching error message.

Printing

To print a record, simply click on the Print button of the browser in use.

Getting Help

Check the search tips available on every search screen.

Click on the help button to see advanced search tips and other information.

Ask a Reference Librarian for assistance.

Some special searches

Searching company names

Include all variations of the company name.

Company Name	Search for
Pepsi Co.	Pepsi Co or PepsiCo
International Business Machines Corp.	International Business Machines or IBM or I.B.M. or I B M

Academic Universe will automatically search for some words and abbreviations that are equivalent to each other, such as Co. and Company. Some company names are unique, such as IBM, and do not require you to search the words Company or Corp. or Corporation. “Pepsi” could refer to the drink as well as to the corporation so you do need to search “PepsiCo.”

Searching names of people

Use the W/3 connector to join a person’s first name and last name. The W/3 connector finds the first name within three or fewer words of the last name. This allows for middle initials, maiden names, etc.
Example: john w/3 doe

Some names have common alternatives, such as Cathy and Kathy, Catherine, Katherine, and Kathryn, and spacing or punctuation considerations.
        Examples:
                            john or jack w/3 kennedy
                            cath! or kath! W/3 hepburn
                            Karen w/3 o’neal or oneal or o neal

To search for multiple names in a single search, use parentheses.

Example: (John w/3 McCain) and (George w/3 Bush) and campaign finance

Accounting

All FASB and GASB publications were removed from Academic Universe at the publisher’s request. Some or all of the pre-1997 archives may be returned later this year.

The AICPA Journal of Accountancy carries coverage of FASB and GASB. You may try the following search to find information about FASB and GASB releases.

Choose Accounting from the Business section of Academic Universe.
Choose Source: AICPA Journal of Accountancy
Enter keyword: fasb
Narrow search: fasb w/5 130 and official releases (where 130 is the number of the FASB statement)
Do the same for GASB’s.

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Revised: April 23, 2004 ls and clc