Academic Help: Accounting

Latest revision as of 15:38, 27 August 2010

Direct link to this form: http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sf&sfi=AC02NBAcctSrch

[edit] About the Accounting Search Form

The Accounting search form is part of the "Subject Area" search forms on LexisNexis Academic. On this form, you can accomplish such tasks as:

• Search accounting-specific publications
• Search accounting reference material
• Get Controller Reports

[edit] Search For

This form has a quick search default. If you enter terms only in the first row and leave the date set to "All Available Dates" the search will work pretty much the way the "Search the News" option works on the Easy Search. If all you want to do is search for a few terms in a specific source, then the rest of this Help section does not apply to you.

If you use any of the other features, then the form switches to using Boolean logic and you do need to read the rest of this Help section.

Boolean logic means you construct your search using individual terms joined by connectors such as "And" and "Or." If you are looking for stories about Hillary Clinton and simply search on "Hillary Clinton," LexisNexis will assume that you want to find documents in which those two words occur in that order and right next to each other. You will miss any document that refers to her as "Hillary Rodham Clinton." To find such documents you can enter the terms on separate lines and pick the "AND" or "within 5 words of" option from the drop down box for Connectors (see below). For more about connectors, see the article on Boolean Searching.

Note: Although quote marks are used in the examples, they are ignored in Boolean searches. If you want to search a phrase, simply enter it in a single text box and LexisNexis will assume you want the exact words in the exact order.

[edit] Connectors

The second and third input rows of in the Search For section start with a drop down box that lets you choose connectors when you have entered terms on more than one row. The connectors are:

• And
• Or
• Not
• Within 5 words of
• In Same Sentence as
• In Same Paragraph as

For an explanation of how these and the other available connectors work, and to learn about search techniques, see the article on Boolean Searching.

[edit] Search Terms

Sometimes called "keywords," the terms you enter in the text box will be matched against terms that occur in documents when your search is run. There are a few things you should know about entering terms on this form:

• Implied adjacency -- if you enter two or more words in the same box (with no connector), LexisNexis will assume you want to find documents in which those words occur together and in order. Entering "hot dog" will only find documents that mention hot dogs. Entering "hot AND dog" will find any document that has both these words, for example a story about a dog on a hot day.
• Automatic pluralization -- LexisNexis automatically searches plural forms of most nouns. You do not need to use wildcard characters to search for "dog" and "dogs," simply enter "dog" and LexisNexis will find both variations.

[edit] Specify Date

One of the most efficient ways to narrow your results set is by specifying the date. If you're researching a current accounting practice, try narrowing the date to the last 6 months. If you're researching a past event, use the "Is Between..." option to set the dates yourself. Choosing a time period to search through will change your results drastically. You will be much more likely to find relevant results.

[edit] Specify Source

On the Accounting search form, you have two general options for sources. Your first option is to simply click the check boxes of those sources you'd like to search. Some sources have a Browse option that will let you see the source's Table of Contents.

Your other option is to use the "Browse Sources" links to navigate to the Source Directory. You may select the "Accounting & Tax" option from the "Industry" section on the Browse Sources form. From there, you can choose multiple specific sources to search within. For more instructions on the Source Directory, click here.