Searching for Documents Using KeySearch

About KeySearch in West km
Using KeySearch in the West km Interface
Using KeySearch in the Westlaw Interface
KeySearch Result Sets

About KeySearch in West km

Using KeySearch, you can retrieve a list of your organization's documents that are relevant to a particular legal topic. When accessed in the West km interface, KeySearch retrieves only your organization's documents. When access in Westlaw, KeySearch can retrieve both Westlaw documents and your organization's documents.

The following combination of document categorization and retrieval techniques are used with KeySearch in West km:

• Automatic Classification: West's categorization and routing engine (CaRE) automatically indexes and assigns your organization's documents to KeySearch topics.
• Manual Classification: Your administrator manually assigns documents to KeySearch topics. In addition, your administrator can customize the existing KeySearch hierarchy of topics for your organization's specific needs.
• Full-Text Searching: Terms and connectors queries crafted by West attorney-editors and your administrator (and editable by you) leverage full-text searching to retrieve documents related to KeySearch topics.

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Using KeySearch in the West km Interface

To retrieve documents at your organization using KeySearch, complete the following steps:

1. In the West km interface (on the Litigation tab), click the KeySearch tab.
2. Browse the list of KeySearch topics and subtopics by clicking the Browse icons or hypertext links.

Links in regular text (not italic) are standard topics. Links in italic text are customized topics for your organization.

Numbers after each topic indicate the number of unique documents at your organization that have been assigned to that topic and its subtopics via automatic or manual classification. (This count does not include documents retrieved via full-text searching.)

To scan the available KeySearch topics and subtopics for specific terms, type the terms in the Scan text box at the top of the KeySearch page and click Search.

3. To restrict your search to particular groups of documents, such as office locations or practice areas, click the Library Groups panel and select or clear the library group check boxes to either include or exclude them.
4. To search a topic or subtopic related to your issue, click Search all of ... at the top of the page or click a Search icon .

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Using KeySearch in the Westlaw Interface

To retrieve documents at your organization using KeySearch, complete the following steps:

1. In the Westlaw interface, click Key Numbers at the top of the page, and then click KeySearch.
2. Browse the list of KeySearch topics and subtopics by clicking the Browse icons or hypertext links.

Links in regular text (not italic) are standard topics. Links in italic text are customized topics for your organization.

Numbers after each topic indicate the number of unique documents at your organization that have been assigned to that topic and its subtopics via automatic or manual classification. (This count does not include documents retrieved via full-text searching.)

To scan the available KeySearch topics and subtopics for specific terms, type the terms in the Scan text box at the top of the KeySearch page and click Search.

3. To search a topic or subtopic related to your issue, click Search all of ... at the top of the page or click a Search icon .
4. Select the sources from which you want to retrieve documents.
5. If desired, type additional search terms in the Add Search Term text box to refine the KeySearch query.

Note: If you select a customized topic that does not have an associated query, your KeySearch result is displayed without prompting you to add search terms.

5. If you want to view or edit the query for the selected KeySearch topic, click the View/Edit Full Query arrow.
6. If your administrator has grouped documents (e.g. by office locations or practice categories), select or clear the library group check boxes to include or exclude them from the search.
7. Click Search.

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KeySearch Result Sets

The KeySearch methods used to retrieve documents determine the KeySearch result set in which a document appears. There are three possible KeySearch result sets of unique documents.

Most Relevant

The most statistically relevant documents are listed first. These documents were either manually classified or were retrieved by both automatic classification and full-text searching. Manually classified documents are listed first, the remaining in order of relevance.

More Concept Matches

Additional documents that were retrieved by automatic classification are listed second. Documents are listed in order of relevance.

More Term Matches

For standard KeySearch topics, full-text searches run only against documents that have been automatically classified, so the More Term Matches result set doesn't apply. For custom KeySearch topics, additional documents retrieved by full-text searching are listed third. Depending on your organization's settings, documents are listed either in reverse chronological order (based on the date the document was last modified) or in order of relevance.

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