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RESEARCH GUIDES

Communication

Resources for research, scholarship, and teaching in the field of Communication

Find News, Legal, or Business Information

Nexis Uni includes news content, legal documents, and business information. Use the search box on the main page to search across all content types at once:

Screenshot of the Nexis Uni search box on the main page, which allows users to search all content types at once

If you know what specific type of content you're looking for, use the top menu to access that particular section of the database:

Screenshot of Nexis Uni top menu. Options are Home, Power Search, News, Companies, Market Insight, Biographies, Legal, and Sources

  • Power Search: Search across multiple types of sources at once
  • News: Content from major U.S. and world newspapers, magazines, newswires and press releases, newsletters, blogs, news abstracts, transcripts, and and select visual media
  • Companies: Company profiles, industry analyst reports, merges and acquisitions/donations info, and all SEC filings (full text and abstracts)
  • Market Insight: Country and industry reports
  • Biographies: Biographical and contact information of notable people, primarily from Who's Who and ZoomInfo
  • Legal: U.S. Federal, state, and some international cases, statutes and legislation, administrative codes and materials, law reviews and journals, dockets, jury verdicts and settlements, briefs, pleadings and motions, legal news, jury instructions, forms, and expert witness analysis
  • Sources: Search the full list of publications/sources included in Nexis Uni by title, source type, location, and more.

Finally, use the nine-dot button (top left) to access two other LexisNexis tools:

  • Nexis Dossier: More user-friendly overviews of selected companies and executives. Company reports include a financial overview, links to news, SEC filings, mergers & acquisitions, related legal cases, and intellectual property.
  • Total Patent One: Patent database

How to Search

A natural language search lets you describe your question the same way you would in a normal human conversation. For example, to find articles about the environmental impacts of AI technologies, you might use this search:

Example: What effects does AI technology have on climate change and natural resource usage?

Or you can just use the most important terms and phrases from that search question, in any order:

Example: artificial intelligence climate change natural resources

Learn more in this video:

Using terms and connectors in your search like and, or, !, and " " (also known as Boolean search techniques) translates your question to computer-speak for the database, which can help you find more relevant results. Learn how in this video:

Connectors Quick Guide

" "

Use quotation marks around a phrase of two or more words to find exactly those words, in that order: "social media"

AND (or &)

Results must include both of these words or phrases.

Example: chatgpt AND deepseek will bring back results that discuss or compare both of these AI tools.

OR

Results must include either one of these words or phrases.

Example: chatgpt OR deepseek will bring back all results about ChatGPT AND all results about DeepSeek, even articles that only mention one of them.

AND NOT

Results should not include these words or phrases.

Example: ocean city maryland AND NOT new jersey brings back results about Ocean City, Maryland but nothing about Ocean City, New Jersey.

/n

Specify the number of words that appear between two search terms. “n” can be any number between 2 and 255.

Tips:

  • Use /2 when searching for a person's name: George /2 Bush
  • Use /5 when searching for items in the same phrase: Moore /5 budget
  • Use /25 when searching for items in the same sentence: artificial intelligence /25 workforce
  • Use /50 (or /p) when searching for items in the same paragraph: higher education /50 funding, or higher education /p funding

! or *

Add ! or * to a word root to bring back different words that start with the same root.

Example: econ! will find words that begin with "econ," like economic, economics, and economical.

Filter, Save and Share Search Results

Use filters on your search result page to narrow to more relevant sources. Once you've found what you need, you can save, download, share, or cite your results. Learn how in this video:

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