Comparison of Research Speed and Accuracy Using WestlawNext and Lexis Advance

ABSTRACT

In 2010, Thomson Reuters released a new search engine to the legal academy called WestlawNext. WestlawNext's single-search-box approach revolutionized the legal research process. LexisNexis followed with its own next-generation search engine, Lexis Advance. This study compares the speed and accuracy of WestlawNext and Lexis Advance for basic legal research questions. Fifty-five participants answered five legal questions in each system. We reviewed their results and research trails to determine how the systems compared on speed and accuracy. Our results indicate few significant differences between the two systems for basic legal research tasks utilizing keyword searches.     

Testing the Limits of WestlawNext

Law students in Advanced Legal Research courses at two law schools completed a series of exercises designed to explore several discrete aspects of WestlawNext. Professor Peoples reports the results of this study concerning the impact of WestlawNext's pricing model, user interface, and search algorithm on research results. The article concludes with suggestions for improvement to WestlawNext and a call for librarians to become more involved in training students to use WestlawNext.     

The Quest for Client Savings in Legal Research: WestlawNext v. Westlaw Classic

The cost to the client of Westlaw versus WestlawNext was assessed using two research methodologies. One methodology reflected real-world questions over time across categories. The other methodology had artificially generated questions broken down by category and evenly numbered across platforms. In both experiments, WestlawNext cost the client roughly double the cost of Westlaw Classic. Simplified pricing plans were cheaper for primary law and expert materials but were more expensive for other categories.     

The Case for Curation: The Relevance of Digest and Citator Results in Westlaw and Lexis

Summary

This article addresses pricing questions raised by the 1996 acquisition of West Publishing Company by The Thomson Corporation by considering what happened to Lawyer's Co-op/Bancroft-Whitney treatise titles transferred to CB-C following the Thomson acquisition of Lawyer's Co-op. Although the sample of titles examined is small, it appears that price increases have been well above increases in the legal publications industry generally, and this suggests the need to monitor West titles carefully.     

Artificial intelligence behind the scenes: PubMed's Best Match algorithm

This article focuses on PubMed''s Best Match sorting algorithm, presenting a simplified explanation of how it operates and highlighting how artificial intelligence affects search results in ways that are not seen by users. We further discuss user search behaviors and the ethical implications of algorithms, specifically for health care practitioners. PubMed recently began using artificial intelligence to improve the sorting of search results using a Best Match option. In 2020, PubMed deployed this algorithm as the default search method, necessitating serious discussion around the ethics of this and similar algorithms, as users do not always know when an algorithm uses artificial intelligence, what artificial intelligence is, and how it may impact their everyday tasks. These implications resonate strongly in health care, in which the speed and relevancy of search results is crucial but does not negate the importance of a lack of bias in how those search results are selected or presented to the user. As a health care provider will not often venture past the first few results in search of a clinical decision, will Best Match help them find the answers they need more quickly? Or will the algorithm bias their results, leading to the potential suppression of more recent or relevant results?     

Black Studies Scholarship and Its Coverage in Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science

This study analyzes the coverage of black studies journals as compared to women's studies journals in Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, and ArticleFirst. This study also examines black studies bibliographies and directories to identify journals that are suitable for inclusion in Journal Citation Reports and consequently Web of Science and evaluates seven black studies journals using the Thomson Reuters journal selection process.     

纯电动汽车产业关键技术演进分析——专利引文分析视角

在构建基于专利引文分析的产业关键技术演进分析流程的基础上,以Thomson Innovation （TI）专利信息平台中DWPI和DPCI数据库中1993-2010年的专利数据为数据源,结合主题检索与分类号检索,构建纯电动汽车技术相关主题专利分析数据集,运用引文分析、多元统计分析等方法,揭示不同时期纯电动汽车产业的关键技术分布及其演进,为相关部门把握纯电动汽车产业技术重点、选择研发方向、优化资源布局、提高研发效率等提供重要依据。     

Ranking journals: could Google Scholar Metrics be an alternative to Journal Citation Reports and Scimago Journal Rank?

The launch of Google Scholar Metrics as a tool for assessing scientific journals may be serious competition for Thomson Reuters' Journal Citation Reports, and for the Scopus‐powered Scimago Journal Rank. A review of these bibliometric journal evaluation products is performed. We compare their main characteristics from different approaches: coverage, indexing policies, search and visualization, bibliometric indicators, results analysis options, economic cost, and differences in their ranking of journals. Despite its shortcomings, Google Scholar Metrics is a helpful tool for authors and editors in identifying core journals. As an increasingly useful tool for ranking scientific journals, it may also challenge established journals products.     

An Integrated Spatial Search Engine for Maps and Aerial Photographs on a Google Maps API Platform

A traditional library catalog does not do justice to maps and aerial photographs. Text can never fully describe them and maps' and aerial photographs' geographic coverage or perimeters cannot be displayed visually in the online public access catalog (OPAC), so searching based on their textual metadata without specific spatial reference data used also for display purposes is often not enough to locate relevant items. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's (HUJI) Geography Department has developed a spatial search engine for their scanned aerial photographs collection that allows users to locate one or more aerial photographs according to the area of the Earth's surface that was photographed and their accompanying metadata. The Humanities and Social Sciences Library, which holds a large unscanned print map collection, has asked to integrate a similar map search mechanism in the Department's existing search engine, and a new website was launched in December 2015 (http://ccg.huji.ac.il/aerialphotos/) showing the aerial photographs' center points alongside the maps' rectangle perimeter. The search engine retrieves maps and aerial photographs that intersect with a user-drawn rectangle. This article discusses the characteristics of these collections, the rationale behind searching for maps and aerial photographs together, and the process of defining and building this spatial search engine. This method allows users to view which items are available in their area of interest side-by-side, on a Google Maps background map.     

Searching for a New Way to Reach Patrons: A Search Engine Optimization Pilot Project at Binghamton University Libraries

ABSTRACT

Search engine use is one of the most popular online activities. According to a recent OCLC report, nearly all students start their electronic research using a search engine instead of the library Web site. Instead of viewing search engines as competition, however, librarians at Binghamton University Libraries decided to employ search engine optimization strategies to make their Web site more visible on the search engine result pages. Although search engine optimization is used frequently by commercial Web sites, few libraries have attempted to optimize their own sites. This article describes Binghamton University's experiences in developing and implementing an optimization pilot project. The research presented in this article has importance for libraries who may be considering an optimization project for their own sites.     

我国英文学术期刊中国人名拼写情况调查与分析

调查美国汤森路透科技信息集团2013年公布的《期刊引证报告》中135种国内(不包括港澳台地区)主办的SCI英文学术期刊中国人名拼写情况,分析人名拼写存在的问题及产生的原因,提出了规范人名拼写形式的建议,旨在为期刊管理部门、期刊编辑和科研人员提供参考。     

The development of an AI journal ranking based on the revealed preference approach

This study presents a ranking of 182 academic journals in the field of artificial intelligence. For this, the revealed preference approach, also referred to as a citation impact method, was utilized to collect data from Google Scholar. This list was developed based on three relatively novel indices: h-index, g-index, and hc-index. These indices correlated almost perfectly with one another (ranging from 0.97 to 0.99), and they correlated strongly with Thomson's Journal Impact Factors (ranging from 0.64 to 0.69). It was concluded that journal longevity (years in print) is an important but not the only factor affecting an outlet's ranking position. Inclusion in Thomson's Journal Citation Reports is a must for a journal to be identified as a leading A+ or A level outlet. However, coverage by Thomson does not guarantee a high citation impact of an outlet. The presented list may be utilized by scholars who want to demonstrate their research output, various academic committees, librarians and administrators who are not familiar with the AI research domain.     

Music Literature Indexing: Comparing Users' Free-Text Queries and Controlled Vocabularies

This study examined the characteristics of users' free-text queries submitted to RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (a music literature database), and compared those queries with the controlled vocabularies used by RILM. Search-log analysis identified 11 categories of user-created search terms, and mapped each user-created search term to RILM's index terms, assessing whether it was a perfect match, a partial match, or no match. Only 30.04% of the user-created search terms did not match RILM's index terms. Most of the partial-matching and non-matching user-created search terms were personal names, work titles, and topical terms. Suggestions are offered to enhance RILM's controlled vocabularies.     

Search methods for prognostic factor systematic reviews: a methodologic investigation

Objective:This study retroactively investigated the search used in a 2019 review by Hayden et al., one of the first systematic reviews of prognostic factors that was published in the Cochrane Library. The review was designed to address recognized weaknesses in reviews of prognosis by using multiple supplementary search methods in addition to traditional electronic database searching.Methods:The authors used four approaches to comprehensively assess aspects of systematic review literature searching for prognostic factor studies: (1) comparison of search recall of broad versus focused electronic search strategies, (2) linking of search methods of origin for eligible studies, (3) analysis of impact of supplementary search methods on meta-analysis conclusions, and (4) analysis of prognosis filter performance.Results:The review''s focused electronic search strategy resulted in a 91% reduction in recall, compared to a broader version. Had the team relied on the focused search strategy without using supplementary search methods, they would have missed 23 of 58 eligible studies that were indexed in MEDLINE; additionally, the number of included studies in 2 of the review''s primary outcome meta-analyses would have changed. Using a broader strategy without supplementary searches would still have missed 5 studies. The prognosis filter used in the review demonstrated the highest sensitivity of any of the filters tested.Conclusions:Our study results support recommendations for supplementary search methods made by prominent systematic review methodologists. Leaving out any supplemental search methods would have resulted in missed studies, and these omissions would not have been prevented by using a broader search strategy or any of the other prognosis filters tested.

Open in a separate windowLeah Boulos     

PageRank算法的原理简介

在介绍PageRank算法基本思想、基本公式和计算实例的基础上,介绍如何利用PageR- ank算法提高网页PR的方法,最后指出PageRank算法存在的不足,并对其发展趋势进行分析。     

Using Journal Citation Reports and SHERPA RoMEO to Facilitate Conversations on Institutional Repositories

This article describes a technique using the Thomson Reuters’ Journal Citation Reports and the SHERPA RoMEO Web site to identify a set of core journals in a discipline and determine whether the journals’ publishers allow preprint or postprint archiving in their copyright transfer agreements.     

The NICE OECD countries’ geographic search filters: Part 1—methodology for developing the draft MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) filters

Objective:There are no existing validated search filters for the group of 37 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This study describes how information specialists from the United Kingdom''s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) developed and evaluated novel OECD countries’ geographic search filters for MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) to improve literature search effectiveness for evidence about OECD countries.Methods:We created the draft filters using an alternative approach to standard filter construction. They are composed entirely of geographic subject headings and are designed to retain OECD country evidence by excluding non-OECD country evidence using the NOT Boolean operator. To evaluate the draft filters’ effectiveness, we used MEDLINE and Embase literature searches for three NICE guidelines that retrieved >5,000 search results. A 10% sample of the excluded references was screened to check that OECD country evidence was not inadvertently excluded.Results:The draft MEDLINE filter reduced results for each NICE guideline by 9.5% to 12.9%. In Embase, search results were reduced by 10.7% to 14%. Of the sample references, 7 of 910 (0.8%) were excluded inadvertently. These references were from a guideline about looked-after minors that concerns both OECD and non-OECD countries.Conclusion:The draft filters look promising—they reduced search result volumes while retaining most OECD country evidence from MEDLINE and Embase. However, we advise caution when using them in topics about both non-OECD and OECD countries. We have created final versions of the search filters and will validate them in a future study.     

Tabs and Tabulations: Results of a Transaction Log Analysis of a Tabbed-Search Interface

The following study analyzes user search behavior using a tabbed-search interface. For this study, a transaction log was used to collect information about user searches and included tab used; search terms; date, time, and location of search (on campus or off campus); as well as a unique ID to identify the user session and another ID to identify each transaction. This article explains the process for examining 4,300 search queries conducted on the library homepage during an academic semester and presents findings from the analysis. The article also details enhancements that were made to the tabbed-search interface as a result of the transaction log analysis. Additionally, the article discusses the merits of using a transaction log as a method of ongoing assessment of a library Web site's search interface.     

An effective and efficient results merging strategy for multilingual information retrieval in federated search environments

Multilingual information retrieval is generally understood to mean the retrieval of relevant information in multiple target languages in response to a user query in a single source language. In a multilingual federated search environment, different information sources contain documents in different languages. A general search strategy in multilingual federated search environments is to translate the user query to each language of the information sources and run a monolingual search in each information source. It is then necessary to obtain a single ranked document list by merging the individual ranked lists from the information sources that are in different languages. This is known as the results merging problem for multilingual information retrieval. Previous research has shown that the simple approach of normalizing source-specific document scores is not effective. On the other side, a more effective merging method was proposed to download and translate all retrieved documents into the source language and generate the final ranked list by running a monolingual search in the search client. The latter method is more effective but is associated with a large amount of online communication and computation costs. This paper proposes an effective and efficient approach for the results merging task of multilingual ranked lists. Particularly, it downloads only a small number of documents from the individual ranked lists of each user query to calculate comparable document scores by utilizing both the query-based translation method and the document-based translation method. Then, query-specific and source-specific transformation models can be trained for individual ranked lists by using the information of these downloaded documents. These transformation models are used to estimate comparable document scores for all retrieved documents and thus the documents can be sorted into a final ranked list. This merging approach is efficient as only a subset of the retrieved documents are downloaded and translated online. Furthermore, an extensive set of experiments on the Cross-Language Evaluation Forum (CLEF) () data has demonstrated the effectiveness of the query-specific and source-specific results merging algorithm against other alternatives. The new research in this paper proposes different variants of the query-specific and source-specific results merging algorithm with different transformation models. This paper also provides thorough experimental results as well as detailed analysis. All of the work substantially extends the preliminary research in (Si and Callan, in: Peters (ed.) Results of the cross-language evaluation forum-CLEF 2005, 2005).

面向主题的个人实时搜索引擎的设计与实现

介绍一种专为个人用户量身订做的搜索引擎，它使用启发式实时搜索算法，为用户提供最新的主题相关信息。该系统能够结合用户需求，很好地解决综合性搜索引擎中普遍存在的主题固化、信息滞后等问题，同时为搜索引擎的个人化提供理论和实践依据。