LexisNexis Academic contains over 20,000 full-text periodicals such as international and U.S. newspapers; law reviews; state and federal case and statutory law, reference titles; and business and medical periodicals. Dates vary; generally coverage is from the mid-1980's to present.

Getting Started
From the UMass Amherst Digital Library, www.library.umass.edu, click Database Locator, then Display all titles, and select LexisNexis from the list. If prompted, enter your OIT username and password.

Choosing Where to Search
Finding the right area of the database is very important.

Locating a Known Source
If the library catalog links you to LexisNexis for a periodical, click Sources in the black toolbar, top right. Type the periodical name or click on its first letter and locate it on the list. Click Search This Title. At the search form, leave News Category and News Source alone and enter words from the article title, and dates. Note: some articles may be missing.

News
For quick access to two years of English-language news stories, type your term in Quick News Search box. Results are ranked by relevance. For the full news collection, including transcripts, university, U.S. and world news mid-1980's to present, use Guided News Search (upper center).

Law
For quick access to federal or state court cases, in the Get a Case box enter a citation or case name, for example, 410 U.S. 113 in the citation box or Roe v. Wade in the case name box. For more, click the Legal Research academic search form form (upper left) and choose from legal news and law reviews; case law; codes and regulations; patent research; directories of lawyers and law schools.

Business
For quick access to company information, in Company Information enter the name of a public or private company. For more, click the Business academic search form and choose from categories like industry and accounting periodicals; company financial data like SEC filings and annual reports; and trade show directories.

Medical
Select the Medical academic search form (upper left) and choose the Medline index; or medical news or journals.

Reference
Click the Reference academic search form (upper left) and choose brief biographies, polls and surveys, country and state profiles, quotations, or the World Almanac.

Quick or Basic Search Tab
Quick or basic searches are sometimes appropriate for current news, company information, laws, regulations, reference book entries, or directory listings. On the first line, enter a relevant term, for example a topic or company name. If a second line is provided, enter another relevant term.You can usually set a date range.

Guided Search Tabs
Guided searches are available for most areas of the LexisNexis database, and allow more specific searching of more material. The forms vary, but generally, you'll pick a news category and a news source, then enter terms to be found in headline, full text, or other sections of the record, then set a date (click the Example button if necessary.) Scroll down the search screen for help.

Search Tips
To find all words with the same root, use "!" as a truncator. Example: for acquired, acquisition, acquisitive, etc. type: acqui!
Broaden your search by using "or" between words, to find articles with either term. Example: internet or web
If your topic has two aspects, use one of these connectors:
and: Find articles with both words.
w/1, w/2, w/3: In Quick searches, find first word within 1, 2 or 3 words of second. (In Guided searches, up to w/255).
w/s, w/p: Find first word within the same sentence (s) or paragraph (p)as the second word.
and not: Exclude the second word. Example: basketball and not college

Viewing Search Results
Search results are displayed in a document list. Click the title to view full text, or use tabs at the top of the page to move between Document List (citations only), Expanded List (citations with a few words surrounding search terms), KWIC ("key word in context," citation with a sentence or so of the text surrounding search terms) and Full formats. Move through full records using the Next and Previous buttons, just above the top of the record on the right.

Downloading, Printing or Emailing

Full text: Display document in full text.

Email: Click Email, upper left, and enter any email address.

Print. Click Print, upper left, then click Display, then use browser print buttom.
Note: In Du Bois, printing requires a U-Card and costs 5¢ per page.

Download: Click Print, upper left, then Display, use browser file-save as sequence to save to A: (insert floppy) or U-drive (OIT account holders can log into their UDrive accounts from the icon on library computer desktops. For security, be sure to log out after saving). Save as .txt file.

Lists of citations: From citation list, mark desired citations and use the Email and Print buttons as described above. Note: lists will be citation only, not full text.