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Lexis Search Mechanismsand capital gain and fraud!

As long as both concepts appear in the same article, the and connector will retrieve them.

When two or more words are entered for searching, LEXIS understands that a phrase is requested. It is not necessary to enter the words in quotes. The search example above will work. However, the LEXIS system will retrieve many false hits because one is searching a full-text database. In a 30 page document, capital gain may appear in the first paragraph and fraud! may appear in the last paragraph. There is no conceptual relationship between the two. A better search would be capital gain w/15 fraud! This request would retrieve the desired concepts only if they are in the same sentence or paragraph - a close proximity. One is more likely to find a relationship between the concepts.

[keyword1 AND keyword2]

capital gain and fraud!

result ▼

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or stock or share [must be in parentheses (stock or share)]

– As long as either the word stock or the word share appear in the same article (even both words), the or connector will retrieve the article. When using the or connector, it is important to "nest" the concepts in parentheses ( ). In other words, one should have entered (stock or share). "Nesting" is very important, otherwise the logic of the LEXIS computer system may override your request. For example, if you had entered capital gain and stock or share, the computer's logic would have looked for (capital gain and stock) or share. This would have retrieved articles that had both the phrase capital gain and the word stock as well as any article that had the word share by itself. This is not what one would have requested. Consequently, it is important to "nest" the concepts you want to keep together with parentheses. Parentheses can be used when using any of the connectors -and, or, w/, pre/

w/n john w/3 doe

 

This is proximity word searching. The first word is within 3 words of the second. The proximity connector w/ can be used with up to 250 words. Consequently, one can enter w/1 (within 1 word) up to w/250 (within 250 words). It does not matter which word comes first. The example above is good when looking for a person (perhaps an author or a background check on some one). If a person has a middle name or initials, they will not be missed in the search. One may get many false hits. But if the person is listed, they will be retrieved. Normally one enters a first name within 1 or 2 words of the last name.

 

Proximity word searching is the real power in LEXIS search software. When used creatively it can compensate for many irregularities in language. For example, at the ILR School one often looks for the Department of Labor, which is also known as the Labor Department. To compensate for this irregularity, one simply enters the following search - labor w/1 department. Since the word labor can come before or after the word department but not more than one word apart, both phrases are retrieved. Another example for creative use would be the multiple variations on references to the Cornell Medical School (the School of Medicine at Cornell University; the Medical College at Cornell; the Cornell School of Medicine, etc.). To compensate for the varying phrases, one simply enters - medic! w/5 cornell. This construction retrieves both the words medicine and medical within five words of Cornell regardless of whether Cornell is listed before or after the words medical or medicine.

pre/n cable pre/3 television 

This is a proximity word search in which the first word must precede the second by a designated number of words (up to 250 words). This can be important. In the example above, a cable television is much different than a television cable. They are not the same thing. In law, this distinction can be very important. If you seek cases where IBM is suing some other entity. IBM will always be listed first. In legal citation, the plaintiff always comes first. Hence, ibm pre/6 [some entity] will always retrieve cases in which IBM is the plaintiff.

! litigat!

! replaces any number of characters at the end of a word root. In this case, litgat! = litigate, litigates, litigating, litigator, litigation, etc.

* wom*n 

* replaces any single character. In this case the "a" or "e" in woman or women. Another example would be bank*** = bank, banks, banker, bankers, banking or any variation up to three characters after the word bank. However, the word bankruptcy would not be retrieved - a very useful search limitation device. Please note that the * must replace a character. For example, judg*ment will not find judgment.

DATE LIMITATIONS used for limiting the number of hits. In Lexis, one must retrieve less than 3,000 hits in order to look at results.

[Example: capital gain w/15 fraud! and date aft June 30, 1999 - This will retrieve results based on the search strategy from July 1, 1999 to the present. When coupled with a search strategy, one must always add and date with the time indicator is, aft, bef, (or =,>,<) and the actual date wanted].

 

To find documents "on" a specific date, one should enter

 

and date is June 18, 1999 or date is 6/18/99 or date is 6-18-99 or date = June 18, 1999, or date = 6/18/99, etc.

 

Don't forget to place the word and before the date limitation when used in conjunction with a search stragegy. For example, Milkovich and date aft 1998 which will retrieve all articles with the name Milkovich from 1999 on.

 

To find documents "before" a specific date, one should enter 

and date bef June 1999 or date bef 6/99 or date bef 6-99 or date < June 1999 or date < 6/99, etc.

 

To find documents "after" a specific date, one should enter 

and date aft March 1996 or date aft 3/96 or date aft 3-96 or date > March 1996 or date > 3/96, etc.

 

To find document "between" two dates, one should enter

and date aft 6/18/99 and bef 7/30/99 or any variation using the aft or bef equivalents seen above.

 

Please note that one can enter a year by itself as well. For example, South Africa! w/5 strike and date is 1999.

To retrieve today's issue of the New York Times, go to the New York Times file and enter

and date is [listing today's date]