Reference – The Reporter

Legal Research Tip: Terms and Connectors

There are many ways you may choose to run a search through a legal research database. You may be more familiar with the use of keyword searching in which you enter a few terms that describe what you’re looking for. Your typical Google search is a great example of how we use this method daily. Although this method may be helpful for quick and easy research, you’ll want alternatives when conducting more complex legal research.

What are Boolean search terms and connectors?

A boolean search is conducted by entering a few specific terms and symbols that tell the search engine what you want it to return and/or what you want it to exclude. These specific terms can be used with connectors to specify the relationship between those terms. For instance, you may specify your terms be used in the same sentence (/s) or the same paragraph (/p). Boolean searching allows you to have full control over the types of results you see. This is especially useful when trying to narrow your results and cut down your research time.

The following is a table of Boolean terms and connectors that may be used to run a search through a legal research database like Westlaw or LexisNexis. Each database contains a list of connectors you may use which can be found in the advanced search.

Westlaw Connectors:

Term	Explanation	Example
& (AND)	Results shown will include both search terms.	Landlord AND Tenant. Your results will show only resources that include both the terms Landlord and Tenant. You will not receive results with only one of the terms.
Use a Space (OR)	Results shown will include at least one of your search terms.	Landlord OR Tenant. Your results will show resources that include either the term Landlord or the term Tenant or both terms.
NOT	Results shown will exclude words after NOT.	Landlord NOT Tenant. Your results will show resources that include the term Landlord and exclude the term Tenant.
n/	Replace the n with a number to receive results of search terms within “n” words of each other.	Landlord /3 Tenant will show you results that contain the term Tenant within 3 words of the term Landlord.
s/	Results shown will include terms within the same sentence.	Landlord /s Tenant will show you results of the terms Landlord and Tenant within the same sentence.
p/	Results shown will include terms within the same paragraph.	Landlord /p Tenant will show you results of the terms Landlord and Tenant within the same paragraph.
!	Results shown will include different root endings of a term.	Damag! will show you results with any words that start with Damag such as: Damages, Damaging, Damaged.
*	This allows for the results to show different letters where you include an asterisk.	Plea* will show you results with any word that has a letter where the asterisk is such as: Pleas, Plead.
“ “	Results shown will include the exact terms within the quotation marks.	“Plea bargain” will only return results with the terms Plea Bargain as opposed to Plea and Bargain separately.
( )	Can be used for group search terms.	Property AND (Landlord OR Tenant) will show results that include the term Property and either the term Landlord or Tenant.
+s	Results shown will include the first term preceding the second within the same sentence.	Landlord +s Property will show results that include the term Landlord preceding the term Property within the same sentence.
+p	Results shown will include the first term preceding the second within the same paragraph.	Landlord +p Property will show results that include the term Landlord preceding the term Property within the same paragraph.
% (but not)	Results shown will exclude terms after the % symbol.	Landlord % Tenant will show results that include the term Landlord but not the term Tenant.
+n	Results shown will include the first term preceding the second within n terms of each other (where n is a number)	Landlord +3 Property will show results that include the term Landlord preceding the term Property within three terms of each other.
#	Results shown will exclude plurals and equivalents.	Perm# will not include terms such as permanent or permission.

LexisNexis Connectors:

Term	Explanation	Example
& (AND)	Results shown will include both search terms.	Landlord AND Tenant. Your results will show only resources that include both the terms Landlord and Tenant. You will not receive results with only one of the terms.
Use a Space (OR)	Results shown will include at least one of your search terms.	Landlord OR Tenant. Your results will show resources that include either the term Landlord or the term Tenant or both terms.
w/n or near/n or /n	Results shown will find documents where the service locates the first term within a specified number of words of the second term.	Landlord w/3 Tenant will show you results that contain the term Tenant within 3 words of the term Landlord.
AND NOT	Results shown will exclude terms after AND NOT.	Landlord AND NOT Tenant will show results that include the term Landlord but not the term Tenant.
Pre/n	Use pre/n to find documents where the service locates the first term within a specified number of words before the second term.	pre/n connector is used in situations where a different word order changes the meaning of a statement. For example, “summary judgment” is different than “judgment summary”, so for results that include summary judgment, enter: summary pre/2 judgment
w/sent	Results shown will include terms within the same sentence.	Landlord w/sent Tenant will show you results of the terms Landlord and Tenant within the same sentence.
w/para	Results shown will include terms within the same paragraph.	Landlord w/para Tenant will show you results of the terms Landlord and Tenant within the same paragraph.
w/seg	Results will show documents where the service locates search terms in the same segment of a document, approximately within 100 words of each other.	Landlord w/seg Tenant will show you results of to find Landlord in the same segment, within approximately 100 words of Tenant.
pre/p or +p	Results shown will include the first term preceding the second within the same paragraph.	Landlord pre/p Property will show results that include the term Landlord preceding the term Property within the same paragraph.
pre/s	Results shown will include the first term preceding the second within the same sentence.	Landlord pre/s Property will show results that include the term Landlord preceding the term Property within the same sentence.
not w/n	Results will include the first term where there is no mention of the second term by at least the specified number of words. (Where n is a number)	Landlord not w/3 Property will show results that include the term Landlord not within three terms of the term Property.
not w/s or not w/sent	Results will include the first term where there is no mention of the second term by at least a sentence.	Landlord not w/s Property will show results that include the term Landlord not within a sentence of the term Property.
not w/p	Results will include the first term where there is no mention of the second term by at least a paragraph.	Landlord not w/p Property will show results that include the term Landlord not within a paragraph of the term Property.
not w/seg	Results will include the first term where there is no mention of the second term by at least a segment (approximately 100 words).	Landlord not w/seg Property will show results that include the term Landlord not within a segment of the term Property.

For research help, contact the reference desk Reference Services
806-742-7155
reference.law@ttu.edu

Global Women’s Leadership Project: What is it?

This is the first in a four part series highlighting Penn Law’s Global Women’s Leadership Project Database. Each segment of this series will introduce a different aspect of this database.

“The Global Women’s Leadership Project (GWLP) at Penn Law, developed under the auspices of Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has created a clearing house of information on laws that govern women’s status in the family, as the first phase of the UN Women’s Family Law database.

The GWLP is one of the first efforts to map the panoramic sweep of laws that regulate a woman’s role in the family and society, including laws governing property, inheritance, custody, guardianship, marriage, divorce, residence, citizenship, domicile, age of marriage, guardianship, female genital mutilation (FGM), “husband obedience ” and sex-selective reproductive decisions. The first phase of the database covers the 54 African countries; the 19 civil law countries in Latin America and 32 states of Mexico; the 51 independent states of Europe; Israel; India; and Pakistan. The research on the Middle East is ongoing.”

This database can be accessed here. Below is a view of the homepage.

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From this site, users can also access a world map that outlines family law in various countries as it relates to women’s roles in the family.

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For convenient navigation there is also a list of the database’s featured content on the left side of the page.

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The Database can be accessed here.

Legal Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

1 UCLA

The UCLA School of Law Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library has compiled a timely guide (https://libguides.law.ucla.edu/coronavirus) to help locate legal responses to COVID-19. According to the guide, “many units of government at all levels (federal, state, and local) have issued, and continue to issue, legal responses to the coronavirus epidemic, and some states have laws pre-dating the epidemic but that have become more relevant, such as quarantine statutes and requirements for paid sick leave. This [sic] goal of this guide is to provide links to primary sources and high-quality summaries to these.”

2 UCLA

The federal materials provided in the guide include links to items published by various federal agencies as well as Public Laws about COVID-19. While the major focus of the guide is on federal and California resources, there are sections dedicated to other state and local jurisdictions.

There is also a useful section that provides links to “Other Resources” that users might find educational.

3 UCLA

Among the Other Useful Resources is the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource Kit from LexisAdvance and the COVID-19 Workforce Virtual Toolkit from the HHS.

4 UCLA

For assistance with locating further information on COVID-19, please contact the Law Library Reference Desk between the hours of 8:30am and 4:30pm Monday through Friday via email or phone.

Email: reference.law@ttu.edu

Phone: 806-742-7155

Bloomberg BNA’s Corporate Law Report: Perform an Advanced Search

This is the fourth in a four part series spotlighting Bloomberg BNA’s Corporate Law Report.

Today, we will highlight the website’s advanced search function. It is a very helpful tool and is fairly simple to use. it is Accessible from the Corporate Law Home Page

First, you will select the magnifying glass at the top right of the page then the Advanced search option in green below.

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That would lead you to the filter options. Here you can narrow your search by keyword, topic, agency, tribunal, type, and date.

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Each of the filter options also has a drop down list you can choose from highlighted in green below.

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This search should produce a more refined and tailored list of articles for your needs.

Access to the Corporate Law Report database is available through the Texas Tech Law Library website under the Electronic Databases tab.

Bloomberg BNA’s Corporate Law Report: Exploring an Article

This is the third in a four part series spotlighting Bloomberg BNA’s Corporate Law Report.

Today, we will explore an article from the homepage of the Corporate Law Report.

Scrolling down the home page, the most recent news articles are shown, an article shown below, allows a reader to utilize many different features.

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By using the links at the top of the page readers can quickly switch between different articles on the site.

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The article also has links to a couple of related articles on the site as well.

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Access to the Corporate Law Report database is available through the Texas Tech Law Library website under the Electronic Databases tab.