Factiva User Guide
Using Factiva can be complicated. This guide is meant as a quick resource about some of the more common ways to use Factiva to find information. For an exhaustive explanation of the complete functionality of Factiva please go to the Factiva learning page available through the help link while you are logged onto Factiva.
Factiva is located on the databases by subject page under Business and in the A-Z area in the F's. This guide will cover the following areas:
- Free text Search
- Search Options
- Factiva Connectors
- Intelligent Indexing
- News Pages
- Companies/Markets
Free Text Search
The free text search gives you a easy and direct way to search for news articles. In addition you can further refine your search using the drop down menus described below.
The simplest, most direct way to search for an article is to run a keyword search using the free text search box. Enter your search terms in the box at the top of the screen, this is called the Free Text search box. You can use the drop down menu to limit the search by time period. The search below would retrieve articles with the phrases "silicon valley" and "stock options" that were in the news in the last month.
More Search Options
The "more search options" area in the lower part of the search screen gives you additional ways to limit and arrange your search.
- The first drop down menu lets you select which part of the article to search. The default is headline and lead paragraph, but you can choose to search the full article to get more results, or just select parts of the article to search to get fewer results.
- Check boxes let you choose to exclude republished news and other types of recurring news items to narrow your search.
- The second drop down menu lets you change the sort order of your results
Factiva Connectors
The connectors AND and OR are useful when searching specific parts of articles like headlines and lead paragraphs. When searching Full text however, the following connectors can help you search more precisely.
| Connector term | Example |
|---|---|
| AND specifies all terms must appear in the same document: | global warming AND climate change |
| OR specifies that either search term appears in the same document: | women's rights OR feminism |
| SAME is used to specify that the terms appear in the same paragraph | Sarbannes-Oxley SAME software |
| Nearn specifies the proximity of search terms in order | Rome Near4 Italy finds documents with the term pope within 3 words of the word Italy |
| W/n specifies proximity in the order entered | Rome Near4 Italy finds documents in which Rome, by no more than four words, precedes the word Italy |
| Atleastn specifies that a word or phrase must appear a minimum number of times | Atleast8 terrorism returns documents that have the word terrorism repeated at least eight times. |
Intelligent Indexing
Factiva Intelligent Indexing™ allows the user to narrow the search by selecting from a variety of menus. It is a useful way to focus on particular regions or countries or on specific types of information. Once you select the areas relevant to your search, you can then combine the Intelligent Indexing selections with keyword searching to further focus in on items of interest.
Begin with the Intelligent Indexing menu: (note that English is the default language):
Choosing a Source
If you are looking for a specific source you can expand the source menu and either search for the source using the text box, or select some general or specific sources from the drop down list.
Expanding Categories
When you click the plus side to the left of the category, that category will expand into submenus. You can then scroll through and select menu items.
In the above example, both Belize and Costa Rica have been selected from the Central American Countries submenu, under the "Find a Region" menu. Notice how the two terms are displayed above linked by the OR term.
After you have selected from a menu you can close it by clicking on the minus sign. You can then open other menus and choose additional categories. Below is an example selecting additional subject terms. Notice how the "Belize or Costa Rica" selection is readily visible and highlighted in purple next to the Region heading. This shows you what selections you have made.
You can search for a specific term as well as browsing through the options presented under each category. When you click the category that you want to search a dialog box will open. Enter your search term to see if it is one of the limiters available. In the example below we searched for the term growth, when it was found in the "Economic Growth" in the results, we clicked on the term to select it.
After you make your selections, they show up below the "currently selected" heading. Before you execute your search you can also select a date range from the date drop down and enter keywords in the free text box.
Here is an example of a search for articles about the economic growth in Belize or Costa Rica for the past three months written in English or Spanish.
News Pages
The News Pages tab allows you to browse new from major newspapers as well as other news sources.
Companies/Markets
The Companies/Markets tab allows you to find company news and financial information. Use the search box to enter the stock symbol or name of the company you are interested in.
Quick Search
In the Company Quick Search Area you can access general company information including: Contact Information, Business Description, Key Competitors, and Corporate performance. At the bottom of the page there are also a number of useful reports.
Reports
Reports that you can find further down the page include: Company Data from Reuters, Financial Snapshot, Financial Snapshot plus Profile, Comparison Report and more. You can also generate a custom report.
Quotes
When you click on Quotes you can quickly obtain a company's stock information. You can also choose the time period and the display of the information using the drop down boxes.
Below is an example of McDonalds Stock information in a formatted table display. You can also choose a static chart or comma separated values as your display type.
