Webinar Format:  20 minutes instruction, 10 minutes Q&A

Register by clicking on a date below.
August 17th 10:00 AM CT
August 18th 12:00 PM CT
August 19th 2:00 PM CT
August 23rd 2:00 PM CT
August 24th 10:00 AM CT
August 25th 12:00 PM CT

Submit a question about West km integration with WestlawNext in advance to our presenters.  Just add a comment below this post. Your Questions will be answered during the webinar sesions.

Schedule:

Note: Even if you missed the webinar, you can still see the slides and check out our collection of past Q&A posts, including two recent Q&As on Terms and Connectors and the Advanced Search template in WestlawNext.

Q: Is there a way to limit which databases or content areas are being searched prior to executing a search?
A: Yes. You can easily limit what content you want to search by using the Browse section of the home page. You can select a jurisdiction, topic or content set like cases and then run a search. Once you select a content page, like California materials, you can specify which content you would like to search on that page before running your search.

Q: Can you explain the difference between ResultsPlus and “Additional Relevant WestSearch Results”?
A: ResultsPlus uses your search terms alone to retrieve results. WestlawNext searching (WestSearch) employs West’s editorial assets much like an expert researcher would – only faster – to find the best documents for your research, tools like the West Key Number system, KeyCite and West’s secondary sources. The Additional Relevant WestSearch Results link may appear after running a Terms and Connectors search. Behind the scenes of your T&C query, WestlawNext is also running a plain language WestSearch. The top 10 plain language results are analyzed to locate additional results that did not appear on the T&C result list. WestlawNext then displays a link to access those additional documents. The “Additional Relevant WestSearch” results link will show a maximum of 10 documents.

Q: Does “Additional Relevant WestSearch Results” only appear when a Terms and Connectors search is run?
A: Yes. “Additional Relevant WestSearch Results” is a feature designed to show customers additional results when they run a Terms and Connectors search.

Q: If I click on “Additional Relevant WestSearch Results,” is there an extra charge to view the results list?
A: No. These results lists are included as part of the original Terms and Connectors search charge.

Q: When does the gray summary box (“In this issue” summary on cases) appear in search results?
A: The gray summary box appears when the detail selector on a result list is set to either “More Detail” or “Most Detail.”

Q: Do the “eyeglasses” disappear forever when you close out of a WestlawNext session, or will they still be there?
A: The eyeglasses icon is shown for documents viewed in the last 30 days using the same Client ID. To be considered “viewed,” you must actually link into the full text document; the fact that a document appears in your search results does not trigger the eyeglasses icon. Also, in order for the icon to display, you must use the same Client ID that you used when you viewed the document previously.

Q: What does “Most Used” mean in the sorting options?
A: The “Most Used” ranking is based on aggregate usage of documents by customers.  “Usage” includes printing, downloading, emailing, using copy with reference or using KeyCite on a document.

Q: If I use WestlawNext to pull a case by citation, am I still charged the initial $60 search fee?
A: No. Using the search box to find a citation will incur a lesser document charge, but not the full $60 search charge.

Q: Is there a way to pull a list of multiple cites, a la West Find&Print?
A: Yes. You can enter up to 20 citations separated by semicolons, and the result list can then easily be printed, downloaded or emailed.

Note: For a quick overview of Terms and Connectors and the WestlawNext Advanced Search template, see the slides from the webinar, and be sure to check out our collection of past Q&A posts, including our most recent Q&A on using Terms and Connectors in WestlawNext.

Q: Are all the fields you can search listed on the Advanced Search page?
A: Yes. The Advanced Search page offers a template-style search screen that allows you to enter your search terms into boxes that will automatically search the relevant fields. The fields you see will vary by document type searched. For example, clicking into the Advanced Search page from the main screen will provide the standard options (e.g., “Find documents that have…All of these terms / Any of these terms / This exact phrase,” etc.), while clicking into Advanced Search from the Cases page will provide additional fields such as party name, citation, synopsis, digest, judge, and attorney.

Q: Do I need to use connectors in the Advanced Search template?
A: No. The Advanced Search template automatically adds the connectors appropriate to the fields you decide to use. For example, in the “All of these terms” field, terms are automatically separated by an ampersand (&). You can use Terms and Connectors in the Advanced Search template, but it’s not required.

Q: Is it true that the ampersand (&) can only be used in the Advanced Search template?
A: No. The ampersand (&) can be used in either the main search box or the Advanced Search template. When an ampersand is the only connector used in your query, a plain-language search is run. When more than one connector is used, a Boolean Terms and Connectors search is run.

Q: How is OR used in Advanced Search?
A: When using the Advanced Search template, you can search for multiple terms with an OR in between them just by entering your terms in the “Any of these terms” field. When you do this, an OR is automatically inserted between the listed terms.

Q: What do quotation marks do in Advanced Search?
A: When you are using the Advanced Search template, any quoted phrases you enter will be treated as components of a plain-language query. This means the WestSearch algorithm will retrieve documents with your phrase AND related documents that may not contain the phrase but discuss related concepts. If you want to limit your search to an exact phrase, use the “This exact phrase” field in the template.

Q: In the “phrase” searching field, can you enter more than one phrase? Sometimes you need to include multiple phrases in your query.
A: Yes, you can search for more than one phrase by connecting the two phrases. For example, “statute of limitations” & “breach of contract” will search for documents with both of those phrases.

Q: Are the term frequency links in the Advanced Search template equivalent to the Lexis “atl” command?
A: Yes. The “Term frequency” feature within the Advanced Search template allows you to specify the minimum number of times a term should appear in a document. After entering terms in the “All of these terms,” “Any of these terms,” or “This exact phrase” fields, you can click the “Term frequency” link to the right of each box and specify the number of times each term should appear in the result documents.

Q: If I have a name and want the full name to appear once and the last name to appear multiple times, how would I do that?
A: In this situation, you should enter the first and last names into “All of these terms” boxes, and then set the term frequency for each (“once” for the first name, “multiple times” for the last name).

Q: I searched for the name Caruthers, but I kept getting hits that gave me Caruth. How do I avoid that?
A: To get that exact name, click the Advanced link next to your selected jurisdiction and enter Caruthers into any of the three boxes under the heading “Find documents that have.” This will only return documents with the exact word “Caruthers.”

Q: When you enter multiple phrases into the “This exact phrase” box, does it connect the phrases with an “and” or an “or”?
A: “Or.” However, you can change this to “and” by using an ampersand between phrases (e.g., “first phrase” & “second phrase”.)

Q: If I run a plain-language search, can I use Terms and Connectors to narrow by “Search within results”?
A: Yes. You can use Terms and Connectors to narrow any plain-language search.

Q: How do you enter a date search?
A: On the Advanced Search template, there is a date box that will allow you to restrict by date. Alternatively, the Terms and Connectors date restrictor can still be used in the search box.

Next up: Understanding search results in WestlawNext

Note: For a quick review of Terms and Connectors on WestlawNext, be sure to see the slides from the webinar, and check out our collection of past Q&A posts.

Q: Can I just write a “classic” Boolean search without using the Advanced Search template?
A: Yes, you can enter a standard Boolean Terms and Connectors query into the search box without selecting Advanced Search. Whenever a query contains a connector (/, !, %, etc.), it automatically becomes a Terms and Connectors search.

Q: Once I use a connector that will initiate a Terms and Connectors search, will the function recognize other Terms and Connectors such as quotation marks?
A: Yes. When used without other connectors, quotation marks, ampersands (&), spaces, and occurrences of the word “or” are considered parts of a plain-language search. When used with other connectors, they become Boolean connectors and follow the standard Terms and Connectors search rules.

Q: Do you lose the power of the WestlawNext algorithms when you use Terms and Connectors?
A: No. The WestSearch algorithms are used for ranking the results of all searches in WestlawNext.

Q: How does relevancy ranking work when you use a Terms and Connectors search?
A: WestSearch determines which results are most relevant to your search and places them at the top of the list. WestSearch does this by analyzing dozens of relationships, including the West Key Number System, KeyCite, ResultsPlus, document links, usage patterns and editorial content.

Q: How can I search for multiple phrases, or one phrase within a number of another phrase – for example, “_____” /s “_____”?
A: Quotation marks can be used along with proximity connectors in the main search box (e.g., “_____” /s “_____”), or you can use the “All of these terms” field in the Advanced Search template. You can enter multiple phrases in quotes in that field. An ampersand (&) is added between phrases automatically, but you can also use proximity connectors like “/s.”

Q: How does WestlawNext deal with pluralization? Should we be concerned about using the exclamation point (!)?
A: WestlawNext will search both the singular and plural form of any word that you enter into the search box. If you use the Advanced Search template, searching the singular form of the word will return both singular and plural forms of the word; searching the plural will only return the plural form of the word. The “!” connector is a root expander used to bring back variations on the form of a word – for example, contract! will return contract, contractual, contracted, contraction, contracting, etc.

Q: Does the pound sign (#) just invoke a Terms and Connectors search, or does it have a role within the search as well?
A: The # symbol forces the system to search for a particular word that may be too common otherwise. For example, if you enter #before, WestSearch would look for “before” as a term. The pound symbol also turns off the automatic-equivalents function, so #dog will only search for dog and not dogs.

Q: Are all the usual fields still available – for instance, wp in cases, and sd in statutes?
A: Yes, but the best way to utilize these fields in WestlawNext is through the Advanced Search option.

Next up: Using the Advanced Search template in WestlawNext

Q: Are WestlawNext’s features available to mobile devices?
A: We have a separate mobile site at m.next.westlaw.com, and anyone with access to WestlawNext can access the mobile version. The functionality is somewhat different due to technical differences between computers and mobile devices. However, the majority of the options are available on the site, which has been optimized for smartphones.

Q: How long will documents stay in folders or have notes?
A: Documents stay in folders until the user removes them from the folder. Notes remain on documents until they are removed from the document

Q: If you are looking at a case, can you see the whole KeyCite history and citing references at no additional charge?
A: No; each citation checked in KeyCite incurs a charge of $7.00 for transactional billing or $10.00 per minute for per-minute billing. KeyCite charges may be either included or ancillary, based on your WestlawNext subscription plan.

Q: Are you using the 19th ed. of the Bluebook (which was just released)?
A: We are currently using the 18th edition of the Bluebook for CiteAdvisor, the functionality of which is incorporated into WestlawNext.  We are working to incorporate the 19th edition of the Bluebook.

Q: Do current law students have access to both westlaw.com AND WestlawNext?
A: We’re now finalizing plans for launching WestlawNext to law students. Please contact your academic account manager for specific plans for your school.

Q: How do I get access to WestlawNext?
A: Contact your local West representative or account manager.

Q: When we switch to WestlawNext, will we still be able to print documents on dedicated Westlaw printers?
A: Printing to dedicated printers is not available at this time but is being developed.

Q: When I print a case where I have highlighted text, will the text be highlighted on paper?
A: You can choose to print a document with highlighting and annotations.  The highlighted text will appear in yellow on color printers and shaded on black-and-white printers.

Q: Another question about highlighted text: If  I run another search and the same case comes up, will the highlighting still be there?
A: Yes, the case will remain highlighted until you choose to delete the highlighting from that document.

Q: If you want a copy, are you charged to print it?
A: Yes. See the subscriber document on the Tools tab for specific delivery pricing information.

Q: Can you print from the browser window?
A: You can print from your browser, but then you lose all of WestlawNext’s delivery formatting options.

Q: Can you copy and paste without additional charges?
A: Copy with Reference carries no additional charge.

Q: What happened to ResultsPlus? Have you done away with it?
A: ResultsPlus is an integral part of WestlawNext, and now it’s incorporated into WestSearch. Results that appeared alongside results lists and documents are now included in results lists and ranked by relevance.

Q: How does Related Topics in WestlawNext differ from ResultsPlus?
A: ResultsPlus documents are retrieved by a search through secondary sources and briefs based on your search terms or terms in the document you are viewing. Related Topics uses a powerful new algorithm to identify significant issues within the document.  Specifically, it looks at the key numbers and keywords in the document.  It also analyzes the documents cited within the document and all of the citing references for the document. When clicked, these links retrieve documents that the search engine has determined are associated with and relevant to that issue. This makes it very easy to probe more deeply into a specific issue identified in one of your on-point documents.

Q: Are the Related Topics that appear with a case result specific to that case, or will they change as the focus of the query changes?
A: Related Topics are based on the document you are looking at; they are not tied to your search terms.

Q: What’s the relationship between Related Topics and Related Documents? How does it come up with those results?
A: When you are looking at a document, the right side of the screen lists Related Topics. When you are in a content category within a results list, the right side of the screen lists Related Documents. Related Documents are top results from other content categories in your search (Secondary Sources; Briefs; and Pleadings, Motions, and Memoranda).

We’ll be posting some of the most-asked questions about related materials, printing, and other WestlawNext topics over the next couple of weeks.

To start things off, let’s answer some of the questions that came up about the new results list refinement tools in WestlawNext.

Q: How is relevancy determined?
A: Relevancy is determined by a number of factors that include search terms, KeyCite, key numbers, and usage by research professionals.

Q: What’s the difference between “most used” and “most cited” in the ordering of search results?
A: “Most used” sorts the results list by aggregate customer usage of a document. “Most cited” sorts the list by the number of citing references the document has.

Q: Can you tell us more about “meaningful interactions”?
A: “Meaningful interactions” are used to help determine which documents are “most used” on WestlawNext.  Examples of meaningful interactions are print, email, download, KeyCite, and Copy with Reference.

Q: Is there a way to sort results lists by descending date (chronological order) as well as ascending date?
A: No, sorting by date can only be done in reverse chronological order.

Q: When you narrow search results, are you narrowing across all content or just the content you’re looking at?
A: Filters are specific to the content set that you are viewing and will only apply to that content set. When you choose another content set, you will see new filtering options that you can use to filter those results.

Q: Are you charged for the time you spend narrowing your results?
A: There are no charges for viewing or filtering results lists when signed on transactionally. Browsing charges for users who have selected per-minute billing are included in WestlawNext subscription plans. For cost recovery purposes, time spent browsing or narrowing a results list is billed at $10.00 per minute. These charges are listed on your invoice as included charges.

Q: When a document is in a Favorites list, what is the cost of looking at it from that list? Is there a “find” charge?
A: Favorites are links to category pages, not documents. Category pages include all content browse pages within the hierarchy or table of contents, from the broadest (e.g., all case law, or all Minnesota materials) to the most narrow (a list of USCA sections, or a list of the 10 most recent U.S. Supreme Court cases).

• There are no associated charges for viewing category pages when you are set to transactional billing.
• Browsing charges for users who have selected per-minute billing are included in WestlawNext subscription plans.
• For cost recovery purposes, time spent browsing the home page and content category pages is billed at $5.00 per minute.
• Time spent browsing a search results list is billed at $10.00 per minute. These charges are listed on your invoice as included charges.

Our upcoming WestlawNext expert webinar series is your chance to get answers to your questions. Starting next week, We’ll answer the most frequently asked questions we’ve gotten about WestlawNext, then give you a chance to ask your own.

Each 30-minute live webinar will include a 20-minute instructional session and 10 minutes for the instructor to field your questions. And if that isn’t exciting enough, one person from each of the six sessions will win a new Apple iPad just for attending!

This webinar takes a quick look at how WestlawNext does many of the things power researchers told us they wished Westlaw could do.

Find out how power researchers can still use Boolean Terms & Connectors within the WestlawNext platform and get more relevant, inclusive results.

We’ll answer the most frequently asked questions we’ve gotten about WestlawNext, then give you a chance to ask your own.

Each live webinar will take just 30 minutes or less (including Q&A time), and you could win a new Apple iPad just for attending!

This webinar takes a quick look at how WestlawNext does many of the things power researchers told us they wished Westlaw could do.

Find out how power researchers can still use Boolean Terms & Connectors within the WestlawNext platform and get more relevant, inclusive results.