Segment Searching - Part One

Every document that enters the Nexis database is segmented; the headline, the leading paragraph, the body, the section in which it was found and more. You can harness this information to limit your search to a particular segment.

To search for articles that mention ‘Rudd’ in the article headline, you could use 'headline(rudd)'. To also include articles that mention 'Rudd' in the first paragraph, where most journalists will give a synopsis of their article, you could use 'hlead(rudd)'.

The following document segments are commonly used:

• headline
• hlead (headline and leading paragraph)
• body
• byline (article author)
• date
• length
• section
• publication

Document segments such as 'date' and 'length' can be used in conjunction with '>' (greater than) and '<' (less than). For example, to avoid abstracts you could use 'and length (>300)'.

A complete list of document segments available for use with a given publication can be found by clicking on the source information icon (the blue circle with the i). You can also find document segments to use by clicking on the ‘[+]’ next to ‘Show options to search specific document sections’. This will present you with a drop-down list that you can also use to avoid having to manually type in the document segment names.

Are these search tips helpful? Do you have some you'd like to share? Let us know at upfront@lexisnexis.com.au.