Search Tree on Lexis+

The Search Tree on Lexis+^® displays exactly how the terms in your search were applied and how those relationships impacted your results. The Search Tree provides a graphical representation of the background process to determine the ultimate number of results you get from your search. 
 

• While viewing results, click the Search Tree button  to the right of your search terms at the top of the results list
• The search tree displays when you use the Edit Search feature
• The search tree automatically displays when your search returns no results

Note: The Search Tree is not available when you are searching within the table of contents for a source. It is only available when you are searching for documents.

The information below describes how the Search Tree displays for natural language and terms & connectors, or Boolean, searches.


Natural Language
Terms & Connectors (Boolean)
 

Natural Language 

A natural language search is run using a search algorithm and retrieves results based on the relevance of your terms. Some documents may not contain all the terms you entered based on the way the algorithm weighs the importance of the entered terms. 

The graphical representation displays the terms and the number of results for each term, then information about how many results have all terms within the document, a paragraph, or a sentence. You can deselect 1 or more of the terms to exclude those terms from the search or click a link to retrieve the results represented.

Note: The Search Tree will not display when there are more than 5 terms in the search.  

• Level 1 shows the total number of results retrieved with your search using the search algorithm.
• Level 2 shows all your terms along with the Doc Count if just that term was run as your search - employment would retrieve 403 documents, interview would retrieve 246 documents, etc.
• Level 3 shows how many documents contain all your terms within the same sentence or paragraph, and the number of documents that include all your terms.

Note: The Search Tree is available for natural language searches run in all content types except News and Legal News.


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Terms & Connectors (Boolean) 

In a terms & connectors search, the search runs and looks for the terms according to the relationships you defined with the connectors in your search. Search Tree provides a graphical representation of the background process to determine the ultimate number of results you get from your search.

Each part of your search is represented in a box that displays how many results would be retrieved if only that part of the search was run. Each level of the interactive tree indicates how each part of the search is run until the last level displays the final result count of the full search.

Hover your cursor over the any of the oval boxes to see the search that would be run to retrieve that Doc Count and click to run the search.

In the example above:

• Level 1 shows all your terms along with the Doc Count if just that term was run as your search - employment would retrieve 10,000+ documents, interview would retrieve 10,000+ documents, etc.
• Level 2 shows how many documents would be retrieved if the search only contained employment w/10 interview or invasion w/25 privacy
• Level 3 shows how many documents would be retrieved if the search only contained employment w/10 interview and lie detector
• Level 4 brings your entire search together and displays the ultimate Doc Count of your search

Note: The Search Tree is available for terms & connectors (Boolean) searches run in all content types.


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