Limiting by publication or broadcast date:
It is possible to focus your Nexis Uni news searches to a specific date or range of dates.
First conduct a search (Nexis Uni is set to search for news by default).
Once you get your search results – you can limit your search to a particular time period by choosing the Timeline option on the left-hand side of the page.
Limiting by publication type:
It is possible to focus your Nexis Uni news searches to a specific type of publication such as newspapers or radio/television transcripts (News Transcripts)
First conduct a search (Nexis Uni is set to search for news by default).
Once you get your search results – you can limit your search to a particular type of publication by choosing the Publication Type option on the left-hand side of the page.
Limiting by source before you search
It is possible to focus your Nexis Uni news searches by searching within a specific publication or source such as the newspaper New York Times or the transcripts from the radio news program NPR All Things Considered.
To limit to a specific source before you search:
Click on the box labeled “A Publication”
Type in the name of a high-quality source in the “Find publication” box and then choose from the options presented.
Type in your topic in the “Search for something specific?” box. You can use LexisNexis commands like atleast5(your topic) and length>1000
Click on the blue Search box.
Limiting by source after you search
It is also possible to focus your Nexis Uni news searches by choosing specific publications or sources after you get your search results.
First conduct a search (Nexis Uni is set to search for news by default).
Once you get your search results – you can limit your search to a particular type of publication by choosing the Publication Type option on the left-hand side of the page.
Nexis Uni - The “atleast” and ! commands
Nexis Uni contains billions of news articles - so finding exactly what you want requires some special commands.
atleast is a specialized Nexis Uni command that is designed to find articles that contain the word or phrase you are looking for as much as or more than a specified number of times.
atleast5(economics)
This search asks that the word economics shows up at least 5 or more times in the article.
atleast7(“freedom of speech”)
This search asks that the phrase “freedom of speech” shows up at least 7 or more times in the article (at least seven times).
The exclamation mark ! in Nexis Uni works like the asterisk * in other databases.
The search: educat! … looks for educate, educated, educates, education, educational, educating etc.
atleast6(financ!)
This search asks that some combination of the words finance, financing, financial, financed, finances, etc. show up 6 or more times in the article (at least six times).
atleast14(Internet OR online)
This search asks that either the word “Internet” or the word “online” appear 14 or more times in the article.
atleast4(Iowa!) AND atleast7(agricultur! OR farm!)
This search asks that some combination of the words Iowa, Iowa’s, Iowan, and Iowans appear 4 or more times in the article and at the same time either the words agriculture, agricultural, etc. or the words farm, farms, farming, farmer, farmers, farmed, etc. show up 7 or more times.
Note - in Nexis Uni the command:
atleast5(diamonds OR sapphires OR pearls) = (atleast5(diamonds) OR atleast5(sapphires) OR atleast5(pearls))
Very important … no spaces in between (except …)
When you use the Nexis Uni atleast command there should be no space between “atleast”, the number you choose, the first parentheses “(“, and either the first letter of the word or the first quotation mark “ of the phrase you are searching for.
Examples
There should be no spaces in the search: atleast4(Iowa!)
The only spaces in the following search
should be between the words in the phrase: atleast7(“freedom of speech”)
The only spaces in the following search
should be between the words
and the Boolean command “OR” atleast14(Internet OR online)
Also …
The atleast command only works in Nexis Uni.
What number should I use with atleast ?
Hard to tell in advance. Think of these numbers as an experiment.
If you get too many results – back up - make the number larger – and search again.
If you get too few results – or no results – back up – make the number smaller – and search again.
atleast3(nanotechnology) finds over 10000 results back up and make the number larger
atleast6(nanotechnology) finds over 10000 results back up and make the number larger
atleast12(nanotechnology) finds over 2000 results back up and make the number larger
atleast60(nanotechnology) finds only 61 results back up and make the number smaller
atleast30(nanotechnology) finds 220 results now take a look.
