Searching the LexisNexis® Research Services

The LexisNexis® research services provides several searching options for you to use. To learn more about these options, click one of the following links:

The Search Tab and Subtabs

     The "by Source" subtab

     The "by Topic or Headnote" subtab

     The "by Guided Search Form" subtab

     The "by Dot Command" subtab

Using Terms and Connectors

Using Natural Language

Using the Easy Search™ Feature

Using Semantic Search

Changing Menus

To see samples in the LexisNexis® Support Center, click one of the following links:

Search Tips and Samples

Segment Searching

The Search Tab and Subtabs

The LexisNexis® research services offer multiple ways to submit a search. Under the main Search tab you will find four subtabs: "by Source", "by Topic or Headnote", "by Guided Search Form", and "by Dot Command". While you'll find that the search approaches have similarities, you may find one approach more comfortable than the other and choose to use it for a majority of your LexisNexis research.

• With the by Source tab, you can choose to use the Quick Search form or use Look for a Source to select the source you want to search before entering your search terms.
  
  Note:  There is an additional charge to search in sources marked with a dollar sign ($). If a source is part of your subscription, there is no additional charge to search in that source, no matter how you got to it in the hierarchy.
  
  
• With the by Topic or Headnote subtab, you choose to search using one of two options: "Search across Sources" or "Search by Headnote". Use this subtab if you need help identifying a legal source in which to search or finding legal materials based on areas of law and related legal topics.
  
  
• With the by Guided Search Form subtab, you select a guided form which has one or more recommended sources already identified.
  
  
• With the by Dot Command subtab, you know the library and file names of the sources you want to search and use shortcuts to get to your information.

Selecting a Source

To begin your search, you can choose an item (source name or combined sources) from your most recently used sources by selecting one from the drop-down list under "Recently Used Sources." Or, you can look for a source with any of the Look for a Source tabs available to you: Legal, News & Business, Public Records, and Find a Source.

Legal, News & Business and Public Records Tabs

Note:  Your menu or subscription determines which tabs appear.

With these tabs, suggested sources are displayed by category, with a link under each category to additional sources. Each selection you make in the source hierarchy creates a "trail" of your path. If you wish, you can click on one of the links in the trail at any time to travel back up the path you've been following. Even if you use "Find a Source" while you're exploring, your trail will still be shown.

An example "trail" might look like this:

Legal > Federal Legal- U.S. > Federal Cases, Combined Courts

When you have identified a source in which you want to search, click the source name to go to a search form. Searchable sources are identified by document icons. From the search form, you can compose and submit your search request using one of these methods:

1. Terms and Connectors search
2. Natural Language search
3. The Easy Search™ feature
4. Semantic Search

Some related sources can be combined so you can search them together. For example, you may want to search in Ohio legal cases and Kentucky legal cases, or Pennsylvania statutes, New Jersey statutes, and New York statutes. Since some sources may not be combined with certain other sources for legal reasons, when you click one check box, others may become grayed out. When you are finished selecting sources, click "Combine Sources" to proceed to the Search form.

To remove the check boxes from the hierarchy display, clear the "Sources: Show check boxes for combining sources" check box on the Preferences page.

Look for a Source

You can look for a source on any of the tabs available to you: Legal, News & Business, and Find a Source, as well as any of the tabs for sources you may have subscribed to for your state or practice specialty. Your menu or subscription determines which tabs appear.

With these tabs, suggested sources are displayed by category, with a link under each category to additional sources. Each selection you make in the source hierarchy creates a "trail" of your path. If you wish, you can click on one of the links in the trail at any time to travel back up the path you've been following. Even if you use "Find a Source" while you're exploring, your trail will still be shown.

An example "trail" might look like this:

Legal > Federal Legal- U.S. > Federal Cases, Combined Courts

When you have identified a source in which you want to search, click the source name to go to a search form. Searchable sources are identified by document icons.

Combining Sources

Some related sources can be combined so you can search them together. For example, you may want to search in Ohio legal cases and Kentucky legal cases, or Pennsylvania statutes, New Jersey statutes, and New York statutes. Since some sources may not be combined with certain other sources for legal reasons, when you select one check box, others may become grayed out. When you are finished selecting sources, click "Combine Sources" to proceed to the Search form.

To remove the check boxes from the hierarchy display, deselect the "Sources: Show check boxes for combining sources" check box on the Preferences page.

Find a Source

To locate a specific source to include in your search when you are not sure of the publication title or its location in the list of sources, use the "Find a Source" feature. Use Option 1 to search for a source, or Option 2 to browse for a source alphabetically.

Option 1

To search for a source, enter a publication name (or part of a name), or a word or phrase related to the content of a publication and click Find. For example, to find journals dealing with criminal law, type "criminal law". Your results will include a number of journals, such as :

Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia - Criminal Law Materials

Criminal Law and Criminology

Criminal Law Forum

Your results will also include highly relevant journals that do not contain the words "criminal law" as part of the title, such as:

Journal of Money Laundering Control

If you wish, you can use search connectors such as "and," "or," and "w/2" in your search to construct a Boolean search, but they are not required.

Note:  Do not use semicolons in your search unless you are searching for a specific short library and file source name, such as GENFED;COURTS. If you include a semicolon in your search, the Find feature will only look for these short source names.

Option 2: Browse Alphabetically

Click the 0-9 or A through Z links to find sources that begin with that numeric range or letter. The sources appear below the drop-down list; click any source link to use that source, or use the check boxes to combine multiple sources.
To navigate the list:

• Select a title from the "Go to Page Starting with" drop-down list if you want to display a specific section of the list.


• Use the Prev and Next buttons to see the adjacent groupings of sources.

Check Boxes

When you get your results, click any source link to search it, or click the check boxes to combine multiple sources in your search.

Find

Click Find to search for the source you entered.

Using Terms and Connectors

Click a link below for information about searching using terms and connectors. Examples are included.

Developing a Search Request

The Lexis® research service uses Boolean search logic. A Boolean search request includes the terms and phrases that reflect ideas essential to your research, and the optional terms and connectors that let you search for term variations and link your search terms and phrases. Using other options, such as date limitations, wildcard characters, and segment searching, can help shape your search results.

The Lexis service searches for documents containing the specific terms and combinations of terms in your search request. Every term (or form of the term) in your search request must appear in the document for that document to be included in your search results.

To develop a search request, use the 5-step process below.

1. Identify the topic.
   Determine the area that you want to research.

   Information about efforts in the fast food industry to use recyclable packaging.

2. Choose your search terms.
   Use terms that reflect ideas essential to your research topic. Include alternative terms, and avoid terms that are too general. For example, to find articles about efforts in the fast food industry to use recyclable packaging, you might use these terms:

   recycle   package   container   fast food

   Note:  The Lexis service and the Nexis® service are not case-sensitive.
   
   
3. Use truncation and wildcards to include term variations.
   !  Finds a root word plus all the words made by adding letters to the end of it.

   recycl!  finds "recycle," "recycling" and "recyclable."

   Note:  Terms that work best with ! are those that are unique in their truncated form. For example, if you search for fir! (thinking that you want to find "fired," "firing," or "fires"), your results will also include "first," "firm," and so on.
   
   *  Holds one space for a character at any point in a term:

   bernst**n  finds the "ei" and the "ie" spelling of the name.

4. Link the search terms in a search request using connectors.
   Connectors such as OR, AND, W/N, and so on define relationships between your search terms. Click here for a list of all connectors and information about how to use them.
   
   
5. Specify date restrictions.
   If you wish, specify date restrictions.
   
   

Once you've decided on your search request, you can run the search. For example

recycl! W/25 fast food W/10 container OR package

finds documents where either "container" or "package" is in the same sentence as "fast food," and "fast food" is in the same paragraph as "recycle" (or its variants).

Depending on your results, you may then decide to edit your search, change your source, or use a number of other options for searching.

See the Searching the LexisNexis® Research Services article in the Support Center to review sample searches.

Terms

Terms are the basic units of a search. A term is a single character or group of characters, alphabetic or numeric, with a space on either side.

EXAMPLES:
McPherson	one searchable term
§1988	one searchable term
§ 1988	two searchable terms

A hyphen is treated as a space, so a hyphenated word is seen as two terms.

EXAMPLES:
pretrial	one term
pre-trial	two terms
pre trial	two terms

A period is treated like a space except when:

• The period is preceded and followed by a number.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  99.9 is one term

• The period is preceded by a space and followed by a number.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  .999 is one term

• The period is preceded by only one alphabetic character and followed (with no spaces in the sequence) by any number of single letters each of which is followed by a period.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  F.B.I. is one term, while F. B. I. is three terms (because of the spaces after the periods).

Search Terms: Guidelines

• Choose search terms that are specific or closely related to the topic of interest.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  medical malpractice OR physician! negligence

• Choose terms you might use when discussing the topic with a colleague, including current jargon or buzzwords.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  Freedom of Information Act OR FOIA

• The terms should reflect ideas essential to your research topic, such as treatments, cures, or side-effects.
  
  
• Include alternative terms and abbreviations.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  mri OR magnetic resonance imaging

• Avoid terms that are too general, such as "illness" or "behavior."

Proper Names

Because of the many ways in which a proper name can be expressed, use the following search pattern to obtain a comprehensive result:

(first name OR first initial W/3 last name)

EXAMPLE:

To find documents referring to Mary Jones, use this search:

(Mary OR M W/3 Jones)

Note:  This method ensures comprehensive results and includes variations such as Mary J. Jones, M. J. Jones, Mary Jane Jones, Jones, Mary J., and Jones, M. J.

Some names searched using this pattern will yield irrelevant references in the search results. When this happens, you can add additional search terms to decrease the likelihood of irrelevant results. For example, if Mary Jones is a CPA, you could use this search:

(Mary OR M W/3 Jones AND CPA OR C.P.A. OR accountant)

• The order of surname and forename may differ.
  
  EXAMPLE:
  
  To find documents that contain R Smith and Smith, R, use a proximity connector like W/n:

  smith W/2 r

• The presentation of multiple initials may differ.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  rj smith

  would find RJ Smith but not R.J. Smith (with periods) or R J Smith (with spaces). To find all possibilities, use an OR connector:

  (rj OR r j OR r.j W/3 smith)

  Note:  The system interprets the periods in initials as blank spaces.
  
  
• A name may be given with or without middle initials.
  
  EXAMPLE:
  
  To find articles by Raymond Smith, Raymond J. Smith and Raymond J. A. Smith use a proximity connector like W/n:

  (raymond W/3 smith)

• To account for all the possible combinations of name presentation, we recommend a combination of techniques.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  (smith W/3 ray! OR r)

  would find all of the above examples.

Plurals

• Using the singular word form will retrieve the singular, plural, and possessive forms of most words.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  city

  would find city, cities, city's, and cities'
  
  
• The system will not automatically find the plural form of words that end in "us" or "is", or other irregular plural forms.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  bonus

  would not find bonuses
  
  EXAMPLE:

  child

  would not find children
  
  Note:  Use the OR connector in these instances.

Connector Order and Priority

Connectors operate in the following order of priority:

1. OR
2. W/n, PRE/n, NOT W/n
3. W/sent
4. W/para
5. W/SEG
6. NOT W/SEG
7. AND
8. AND NOT

Note:  You cannot use the W/para and W/sent connectors with a proximity connector (e.g., W/n).

If you use the same connector more than once in your search string, the connectors operate from left to right. If the "n" (number) connectors have different numbers, the smallest number is operated on first.

For example, the connectors in the following search string are operated on in the manner described below:

bankrupt! W/25 discharg! AND student OR college OR education W/5 loan

1. OR has the highest priority, so it operates first and creates a unit of student OR college OR education!.
   
   
2. W/5, the smaller of the W/n connectors, ties together the term loan and the previously formed unit of student OR college OR education!.
   
   
3. W/25 operates next and creates a unit of bankrupt! W/25 discharg!.
   
   
4. AND, with the lowest priority, operates last and links the units formed in the second and third bullets above.

Changing Connector Priority

To change the connector priority, use parentheses. Connectors inside parentheses have priority over, or operate before, connectors outside parentheses.

EXAMPLE:

bankrupt! W/25 discharg! AND (student OR college OR education W/5 loan)

Prioritizes as: (student OR college OR education W/5 loan) AND (bankrupt! W/25 discharg!)

Wildcard Characters

Using wildcard characters and truncation lets you easily combine or eliminate search terms, making your search simpler.

• Use an exclamation mark (!) to find a root word plus all the words made by adding letters to the end of it.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  acqui! would find variations on the term acquire such as acquires, acquired, acquiring, and acquisition

  CAUTION:  Use ! only on unique roots; fir! will find fired, firing, and fires, but will also find first, which you may not want. In the example above, acqui! will also find acquiesce, acquiescent, acquit, acquiet, and so on.
  
  
• Use an asterisk (*) to replace characters anywhere in a term, except the first character. Use one asterisk for each character you want to replace.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  wom*n would find woman and women
  bernst**n would find bernstein and bernstien

  Use the asterisk to hold a space for variations in spelling at any point in a term.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  bernst**n would find both the ei and the ie spelling of the name

  If you use asterisks at the end of a term, they do not all have to be filled, but may find up to the specified number of characters.
  
  EXAMPLE:

  transplant** would find transplant, transplanted, transplanter

  Note:  transplant** does not find transplantation or transplanting because only two wildcard characters are used. To find all the variations of transplant, use the ! wildcard character instead of the asterisk.

Date Restrictions

Sometimes you need to limit your searches to a particular time frame. You can either use the drop-down list to define your date restriction, or you can enter dates in the From field, in the To field, or in both fields. The standard date format is: mm/dd/yyyy . Click here for more information about date formats.

You can use another form of date restriction if the documents in the source you're using contain date segments. You can restrict your search to the date segment of documents when you want to find cases decided on, before, or after a particular date. Because date segments involve numbers, they are "arithmetically searchable." Date segments use the arithmetic operators shown below:

=    is	equal to or is
>    aft	greater than or after
<    bef	less than or before

EXAMPLES:

The following are examples of date restrictions.

date = 1997	or	date is 1997
date > december 31, 1997	or	date aft December 31, 1997
date < 1/1/1997	or	date bef 1/1/1997

Click here for more information about segment searching.

Segment Searching

Documents have a structure that is common to all documents of that type. In the LexisNexis® research services, this structure is called segments; segments are the natural parts or divisions of the document. For example, cases contain name, date, court, opinion, and dissent segments, among others.

You can restrict your search to a specific part or segment of a document, such as the court that heard the case or the judge who wrote the opinion. Segment searching is especially useful when you are looking for:

• Opinions written by a particular judge
  
• Cases involving a particular party
  
• Cases in which a particular attorney or firm appeared as counsel
  
• Cases decided on, before, or after a particular date

Different types of documents have different segments. For example, a case will not have the same segments as a newspaper article.

To see a list of segments for the source selected in the search form you're using, click the drop-down list in the "Restrict by Segment" section of the form. To select a segment for your search or to add a segment-restricted search to the terms you've already entered in the search box, follow these steps:

1. Select a connector from the Search Connectors list, if you're adding a segment restriction to terms in the search box.
   
2. Select a segment from the drop-down list.
   
3. Enter your segment-related search terms in the text box next to the segment drop-down list.
   
4. For a Terms and Connectors search, click Add to transfer your segment search criteria to the search terms.

Repeat these steps as many times as you wish. Complete the rest of the form, and click Search.

You may also perform segment searching by typing your segment search terms directly in the search box. Enter the segment name, then type your search terms enclosed in parentheses. Complete the rest of the form, and click Search.

EXAMPLES:

To find cases when you know the party names, enter:

name(griggs AND duke)

To find opinions written by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, enter:

writtenby(o'connor)

Use the AND connector to link a segment search to other search terms or to other segments.

EXAMPLES:

To find opinions by Justice O'Connor that discuss age discrimination, enter:

writtenby(o'connor) AND age W/5 discriminat!

To find opinions by Justice Posner that reversed an earlier opinion, enter:

writtenby(posner) AND disposition(reversed)

Segments that involve numbers, such as dates, are "arithmetically searchable." These segments use the arithmetic operators shown below:

=    is	equal to or is
>    aft	greater than or after
<    bef	less than or before

EXAMPLES:

The following are examples of numeric segment restrictions.

Date = 1997	or	date is 1997
date > December 31, 1997	or	date aft December 31, 1997
date < 1/1/1997	or	date bef 1/1/1997
number = 99-3512	or	number is 99-3512

See the Segment Searching article in the Support Center to review sample segment searches.

Using Natural Language

When you search using the natural language feature (also called the FREESTYLE™ feature), you can enter a search in plain English, without having to use any special terms or connectors. The natural language feature's document relevance ranking gives you quick access to the most pertinent documents in your search results. A typical search using natural language might be:

Under what circumstances can biological parents regain custody of adopted children after an adoption?

Note:  Wildcard characters such as ! and * are not valid in natural language searches.

The natural language feature works best when you:

• Need to research general or conceptual issues, rather than very specific topics
  
• Don't know much about an issue except for a few basic terms
  
• Are researching a complex issue and can't construct an effective search using terms and connectors
  
• Don't feel comfortable writing search requests using terms and connectors
  
• Want to supplement a terms and connectors search to ensure thorough results

Developing a Natural Language Search

To develop a natural language search, use terms that you might use when describing your research topic to another person. Then use the natural language options (listed below) to enhance the search.

EXAMPLE:

To find articles about efforts in the fast food industry to use recyclable packaging, you might use this search:

What efforts has the fast food industry made to use recyclable packages?

Or, you can use just the most important terms and phrases, in any order.

recycle package fast food

Natural Language Options

The natural language feature offers the following ways for you to enhance and refine your search. All are available from the Natural Language search form.

• Phrases
  The natural language feature automatically checks your search for legal, technical, medical, and other common phrases. You can also easily create your own phrases when you enter your search by enclosing the words you want considered as a phrase in quotes. If you want to ensure that adjacent words are not evaluated as a phrase, separate them with a comma.
  
  
• Mandatory terms
  If certain terms or phrases, such as company names, must appear in the documents you retrieve, you can designate them as mandatory terms when you enter the search.
  
  Note:  This function is available only from the Natural Language search form.
  
  Why use mandatory terms?
  
  When searching with terms and connectors, each search term (or specified alternative) must appear in every document. With the natural language feature, relevant documents may not contain all your search terms.
  
  To require that a search term or phrase appear in every retrieved document, you must make it a mandatory term.
  
  Mandatory terms are useful for searching on specific items (names, phrases, code sections, or regulations), rather than broad topics. But be careful how you use them:
  
  • Be sure the term must appear in a document; otherwise you may miss relevant documents. For example, if you make "Bill Clinton" mandatory, instead of just "Clinton", you might miss references to "President Clinton".
    
  • Since a mandatory term is required to appear in a document, it limits your search. So, the more terms you make mandatory, the fewer documents your search retrieves.
    
  • The more terms you make mandatory, the lower the importance of each term. So, if you use several mandatory terms, your results may be less relevant than if you only used one.
    
    
  Specifying mandatory terms
  
  To require that a search term or phrase in your natural language search appear in every retrieved document, you must make it a mandatory term.
  
  To make a term or phrase mandatory, enter the mandatory term(s) in one of the "Restrict using Mandatory Terms" text boxes on the Natural Language search form. You can choose to specify terms that appear anywhere in retrieved documents, or only within specific segments.
  
  
• Synonyms
  Place synonyms immediately after the search term to which they apply. Enclose them in parentheses and separate multiple synonyms with a comma:

  Under what circumstances can biological (natural) parents regain custody of an adopted child (minor, infant)?

  Synonym tips
  
  • Synonyms can add value to your results, but use them carefully. Using many synonyms reduces the importance of each, and your results may not be as on target as you'd like.
    
  • If you use synonyms for a mandatory term, the LexisNexis® research services retrieve documents containing either the mandatory term or at least one of its synonyms (similar to using the OR connector).
    
    
• Restrictions
  You can restrict your natural language search to specific documents, such as those issued on a certain date, or from a certain court.
  
  
• Terms/Concepts
  You can add synonyms, word variations, and other terms or phrases to your search. To select from a list of words or concepts related to your search terms, click "Suggest Terms for My Search" on the Natural Language search form.

Using the Easy Search™ Feature

The Easy Search™ feature lets you enter search terms to run a quick search. You are not required to enter your terms using terms and connectors or natural language guidelines, but if you do, the LexisNexis services automatically detect which type of search to perform. The first page of up to 250 documents is displayed in Expanded Cite View, with the search terms bolded.

Using Semantic Search

What is Semantic Searching?

Semantic searching facilitates query creation and improves your search results by using semantics, the science of meaning in language. Semantic searches modified by the searcher and enhanced with Boolean logic generate more complete and relevant results than traditional searches.

With semantic searching, you use the same data sources you already use, but your search results will contain only the most relevant items. Using simple English terms, sentences, or paragraphs as the search query, the semantic search engine searches across multiple sources stored in multiple locations, even if they have different indexing systems. Semantic analysis is available for STM (Science, Technology, and Medical) sources, such as a patent or Elsevier Science source (see this Microsoft® Excel file for the official list of semantically-enabled sources).

The LexisNexis® Total Research System service can perform a semantic analysis of your input before running your search, generating a weighted list of terms that will be used as search terms. You can review and modify the terms and their weights before submitting your search (by clicking the "Analyze Search Input" button), or you can run your search without first viewing the weighted list of terms (by clicking the "Search Now" button). In both cases, you can add field restrictions or additional Boolean logic to fine tune your search.

To run a semantic search:

1. Click the Search tab.
2. Select at least one STM source (e.g., any source related to patents) from your Recently Used Sources or from the Option 2 - Look for a Source area, and proceed to the Search form using the appropriate button for your source selection method.
3. Click the Semantic Search sub-tab.
4. Enter at least 3 search items in the Search Input box, with no Boolean connectors. You can enter these items as words, sentences, or paragraphs.
   
   Tip:  For best results, enter homogeneous terms that relate to one concept at a time. Input strings of one to two sentences are optimal, whereas longer strings - though accepted - dilute focus from the subject and may affect the quality of the semantic analysis. For example, mechanical heart valve or heart valve replacement might generate a good semantic query, while mechanical heart valve medical procedures might not, since medical procedures is probably too vague.
   
   
5. Use the drop-down lists and check boxes on the page to specify publication dates, restrictions, authorities, search options, and results fields, if desired.
6. Choose what you want to do next:
   • To run your search without analyzing the input (terms or phrases/sentences) first, click Search Now.
   • To analyze the items you entered, click Analyze Search Input.

See also: Semantic Search - Analyze Search Input

Changing Menus

If you have a pricing plan that includes a selection of menus to search in, you'll see a "Change Menu" link at the top of the Search Sources page. Use this link to change the menu for your current research. The menu you select determines the pricing plan that will be used for your current research, as well as the sources that will be available for searching.

Click the Change Menu link to change menus. The Change Menu form displays, listing the available menus. Select the menu you want to use and click the Set button. Your original page is displayed, and the menu you selected appears beside the Change Menu link. You can select a different menu whenever you wish (if available).

Using the "by Topic or Headnote" Subtab

If you need help identifying a legal source in which to search, select the "by Topic or Headnote" subtab under the "Search" tab to find legal materials based on areas of law and related legal topics.

Using the "by Guided Search Form" Subtab

To use guided forms, select the "by Guided Search Form" subtab under the "Search" tab. A list of the guided forms supported by your subscription appears. You can then select the guided form you wish to use for your research.

Note:  Since there are several guided forms dedicated to performing public records research, clicking the Public Records item on this list displays a collection of public records-related guided forms. You'll notice that some of the forms listed here also appeared on the original list.

When the guided form you selected appears, enter your search terms in the appropriate fields. Clicking the Tips link on the form displays a set of Tips for that form to help you with this. If the form you selected is designed to search a number of different sources, a drop-down source list is provided to let you choose the specific source or group of sources you want to search. Some fields (such as Address, and Judge's Name) that are present to help you narrow your search are optional. That is, you can leave these fields empty or just enter the information you know. And, you can also use the flexibility of Boolean search connectors to help define how you want your terms used.

Henry w/3 Smith or Smithers

When you're ready, click Search. A list of documents that match your search criteria appears. If your initial set of results doesn't quite match your needs, you can click the Edit Search link to redisplay the guided form. Then, you can adjust your search terms or select a different source to search and try again.

Using the "by Dot Command" Subtab

If you know the library and file names of the sources you want to search (for example, GENFED or 5CIR), you can use this option instead of selecting sources from the source hierarchy. Enter the source names separated with semicolons (;) followed by your search terms and then click Go to search. You can also add dot commands for formats, such as .ci (Cite view) or .fu (Full view). You may be familiar with this "command stacking" method of searching from having used the classic interface of LexisNexis® research software.