ADVANCED SEARCH ON WESTLAWNEXT Thomson Reuters Westlaw Instructional Aid Series

CONTENTS Introduction to Advanced Search Running an Advanced Search Advanced Search Results Conclusion

INTRODUCTION TO ADVANCED SEARCH What is Advanced Search? Advanced Search is a feature on WestlawNext that allows you to utilize Terms & Connectors and Field Restrictors, while still taking advantage of the WestSearch algorithm to sort results by relevancy and offer further relevant results at the user’s option. What is WestSearch? WestSearch is the world’s most advanced legal search engine. It leverages over 100 years of editorial analysis of the law, and it emulates the best practices of experienced legal researchers. It uses tools like KeyCite, the Key Number System, the work of our attorney editors to organize and classify information and even customer usage data, to look beyond your search terms to find the best answer to your issue.

INTRODUCTION TO ADVANCED SEARCH Why run an Advanced Search on WestlawNext? One of the advantages of WestlawNext is that a user can enter a Plain Language query and WestSearch’s algorithm will reach beyond the terms the user entered to retrieve relevant results. The creators of WestlawNext understand, however, that there are times when you want to run a very focused query for particular terms, or would like to restrict your terms to targeted fields. WestlawNext allows users to run an Advanced Search and then provides the option for the user to include further relevant results provided by WestSearch as well as a variety of ways to sort your results.

INTRODUCTION TO ADVANCED SEARCH The Advantages of using Advanced Search Helps to formulate a Terms & Connectors search & understand their function/relationship in a query Helps to take advantage of the document fields that are available to search in order to target your research WestSearch’s relevancy ranking is still incorporate to bring the most relevant documents to the top of your list. WestlawNext allows users to run an Advanced Search and then provides the option for the user to include further relevant results provided by WestSearch

CONTENTS Introduction to Advanced Search Running an Advanced Search Advanced Search Results Conclusion

RUNNING AN ADVANCED SEARCH You can run an Advanced Search by clicking the advanced link to the right of the orange Search button. The advanced link is also available to the right of the orange Search button on particular category pages. Here, we see the advanced link to the right of the Search button after browsing to Secondary Sources

RUNNING AN ADVANCED SEARCH Here is a view of the Advanced Search screen after browsing to Secondary Sources. As you can see, there are a variety of options to restrict your results by field, or to use terms to limit your results. *The fields that are available will depend on the content category that you have selected. Here, you can limit by terms or phrases, or restrict by date, title or citation in Secondary Sources.

RUNNING AN ADVANCED SEARCH Note the sample to the right-hand side of the Advanced Search Template that shows a detailed description of the available fields for the document, as well as a list of available Connectors and Expanders. The diagram on the right-hand side of the screen shows the fields available in a sample document

RUNNING AN ADVANCED SEARCH Let’s discuss other ways in which you can run an Advanced Search on WestlawNext. Run an Advanced Search on WestlawNext by entering the prefix ADV: in front of your Terms & Connectors search. Try it – select All States as a jurisdiction, type ADV: “retaliatory discharge” into the query box, and click Search. WestlawNext will run an Advanced Search automatically if you are using Boolean Terms & Connectors such as “/s”, “+p”, “!” and other specific connectors or symbols. Note that using only quotes (“..”), space (OR) or and (&) in your query will not automatically run a Terms & Connectors search

RUNNING AN ADVANCED SEARCH Here is a view of the Advanced Search screen after browsing to Cases content. As you can see, the template is different, and the options to limit your results are particular to the Cases content. Again, a description of the fields and available Connectors and Expanders is available on the right-hand side of the template. Here, you can limit by terms or phrases, or restrict by date, title or citation.

CONTENTS Introduction to Advanced Search Running an Advanced Search Advanced Search Results Conclusion

ADVANCED SEARCH RESULTS Your Advanced Search runs globally over 13 content categories that will appear on the left-hand side of the Overview screen. There is no need to select a database. WestSearch sorts the documents from each content category in order of relevancy.

ADVANCED SEARCH RESULTS Advanced Search provides a variety of options for sorting your results depending on the content category you have selected. For example, in cases you can sort by Relevance, Date, Most Cited, or Most Used.

ADVANCED SEARCH RESULTS You can navigate directly to the portion of the document shown on your Result List by clicking on that language in your Result List. Click on the Reuslts List Display language… to see the language where it appears in the document.

WESTSEARCH RESULTS Once you’ve found a document you can annotate the document by highlighting language or using the annotations icon.

WESTSEARCH RESULTS You can also deliver the document (by clicking the envelope icon) or add it to a folder (by clicking the folder icon) in the upper right.

CONCLUSION Give it a try – use Advanced Search on WestlawNext to limit your query to the terms of your search, while still retaining the option to sort by Relevance using the WestSearch algorithm. If you have questions about Advanced Search or need help using WestlawNext, call the Reference Attorneys: 1-800-REF-ATTY (733-2889) Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week