Full Text Search Tips
- Select the Advance Search or Power Search option.
Advanced search sounds harder, but is in fact simpler since it will spell out
your options, remind you of boolean operators, and show which fields can be searched. - Try to be as specific as possible. Avoid search terms that are vague, have multiple meanings, or
are too common. Do not search for “dog” search for “cocker spaniel.”
- Limit your search to article titles on JSTOR and headlines or lead paragraphs on Nexis/Lexis.
Think about it. If the word “cocker spaniel” is in the title, the article is more likely to be about “cocker spaniels.”
On Nexis/Lexis enter: headline(cocker spaniel) to search only the headline or lead(cocker spaniel) to search only the lead paragraph of a story.
- Limit by date in Nexis/Lexis. If you have to, open another browser window and do a Google search to find
out when an event took place.