Friday, 13 January 2012

Westlaw

Quick Search Tips

1. To find a journal in Westlaw, open the database and type the title of the journal into the "Search these databases" box on the left of the screen. What we call a journal, Westlaw calls a "database".

2. An index of journal titles comes up. Select your title. Once you have clicked on the journal title in Westlaw, a search box appears. To find a particular article, type the title of the article (in inverted commas) into the search box. This seems to work better than using the Field search option.

3. Westlaw does not have a browse function. It works in the same way as LexisNexis ie. you can search within an individual journal but you cannot browse issue by issue.

4.The number of results from your search is displayed under "results lists" (top left side of the screen). Directly underneath is a link to "full screen list" which brings up all the results of your search (20 per screen). Click on the right arrow at the bottom to go to the next set.

5. The links under "results plus" are similar to the "related results" you get on other databases. They are not part of your initial search.

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