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When you go into Nexis Uni from the library website, your screen will look like this:
There are 3 options for searching available to you from this screen: basic searching (in the big search box at the top of the page), advanced searching (the link directly below the basic search), and a Guided Search (the series of boxes below the basic search). If you go to the bottom of the page, you can also browse sources on topics - Business, Criminal Justice, or Politics.
If you're looking to explore a more general topic, basic search is the tool you'll want to use. Type in a couple words or a short phrase and click the magnifying glass icon (or press Enter on your keyboard).
Advanced Search is best used when you already have a relatively specific topic in mind and you want to narrow your results right from the get-go. When you click the link for advanced search, your screen will look like this:
You'll see on the right side of your screen there are some tips on how to use certain punctuation to help you find what you're looking for!
There's also a blue menu towards the top of the page that says "Select a Specific Content Type". If you click on this, a menu will appear that looks like this:
From here, you can choose what kind of sources you want to look at, and far more specifically than in the Guided Search on the homepage.
When you're ready to search, click the red Search button at the bottom of your page.
The Guided Search option is especially helpful if you're somewhere in between the exploring and very focused phases. You can choose what kinds of sources you want to look at (in a broad way), and then type in a keyword and one or two other pieces of information, depending on the type of resource you'd like to find.
You can choose from either News, Cases, Law Reviews, Company Info, or A Publication.
Once you've typed in your keywords and filled out the information, be sure to click on the blue Search button at the end of the row. Just hitting Enter will either do nothing, or (if you have something typed in the basic search box) will try to run a basic search instead of the guided search.
Once you've hit Search, your screen will look something like this:
On the left side of the page, there is a "Snapshot" of what your results are - what kinds of sources, how many articles there are of each.
To narrow your results, scroll down a little bit to the "Narrow By" heading. From there you can filter results by:
The ones that will likely be most useful for you will be Timeline, Publication Type, Subject, and maybe Location (if you're finding you're getting a lot of international news, etc.)
Good news, everyone! Everything in Nexis Uni is full text!!! No need to use WebBridge or Find Full-Text, or ILL for anything you find in there! Wahoo!
From the results page, just click on the title of the article you want to read, and voila! You're there!
There are four main types of articles in Nexis Uni:
Each one has a slightly different look to them, and displays different information. Unfortunately, Nexis Uni does not have a citation creator for MLA, APA, Chicago, etc. style citations, so you'll have to find and format the information yourself. If you're confused about what information you're looking at, take a look at a few examples below, or ask a librarian for help.
Check out our citation guide to help you create citations for these articles.
This is an example of what a News article will look like:
Up at the top of your screen will be, in large letters, the title of your article. Below that, in much smaller font are the publication title, and the publication date for this article.
Below that, is more citation information about your article: location within the publication, length, and byline (which is newsspeak for author).
Then your actual article will be replicated in full. If there are footnotes, there will be little green arrows you can click to bring you to the appropriate note at the bottom of the article.
Beneath the article itself is more information, mostly to help with searching. Information like location, subject terms, keywords, etc. If you don't know what exactly this article is about and don't want to read the whole thing (and there isn't a summary or abstract provided), you can scroll down to these terms to get a sense of what the article is about and whether it will be helpful to you or not.
Nexis Uni is our best source to find legal information - you'll find both state and federal court case decisions in here. However, these are not easy documents to parse. Take a look at the screenshot below:
Again, at the top of the page is mostly citation information.
Below that, the citation information is repeated again in full, with other information like other courts that heard this case (listed in Reporter), previous documents cited in this case (Prior History), etc.
Then there are Case Terms (which are very similar to subject terms for scholarly articles), and the Case Summary - both of which can help you determine both what the case was about, as well as the decision made by the court.
Find related cases and additional citation information, click on About This Document on the far right of the screen.
To navigate to different sections of the case, use the Go To: dropdown menu at the very top of the page . These documents are normally very lengthy and have many different sections. You are, of course, welcome to read the entire document in full, but rather than scrolling and skimming for the parts you need, try using this. This header will stay at the top of the screen no matter where in the document you are, so you can always use this function.
Law Reviews are articles written by law scholars discussing legal matters. They're published in specific Law Review journals, and are often quoted in legal case decisions by both lawyers and judges. These are great sources written by legal experts that discuss all sorts of aspects of the law.
If you find one in Nexis Uni, your screen will look like this:
As with the other two types of sources, Law Review articles will start with basic citation information at the top of the page:
Below that, in the Reporter section, will be the Volume, Abbreviated Journal Name, and starting page number of the article. If you can't figure out what the full title is, go to the right of the screen and take a look at the box called "About this Document" - the journal name will appear in full there.
The Author will also be listed in this section
After the heading "Text", your article will appear in full. There will be little green arrows with numbers next to them that indicate a related footnote - click on the arrow to see what the footnote says.
Nexis Uni is also a great place to find company profiles, SEX filings, and other information related to businesses.
If you find one of these, your page will likely look something like this:
At the top is:
Under the heading "Company Information" there are a few bits of information about the company itself - Address, CIK, SIC Code.
Then, because this is an SEC Filing (not all documents will have this information), there are notes about the SEC Filing - File and Accession Number (you probably won't have to worry about these unless your professor asks you for them).
Then, there's a table of contents - click on the blue arrows to decide which sections you'd like to read.
Find the publication title on the right side of the page in the "About this Document" box - in this case, it's an SEC EDGAR Filing.