Abstract
Thirty years have passed since a published comparison of natural language and terms and connectors searching in legal databases, and that analysis included only Westlaw. The current study compares natural language and terms and connectors searching in both Westlaw and Lexis for two hypothetical scenarios. Searchers ran four searches for each hypothetical: Lexis natural language, Westlaw natural language, Lexis terms and connectors, and Westlaw terms and connectors. The results showed no statistically significant difference between natural language and terms and connectors for either hypothetical. This suggests it may be appropriate to reduce the time and energy spent teaching law students how to use terms and connectors in searches.
Repository Citation
Amy Taylor,
The Relevance of Natural Language Versus Terms and Connectors Searching in Westlaw and Lexis
, 117 L. Lib. J. 311
(2025),
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/fac_artchop/1732