[Search Module - Regulations]
Full-text search in Regulation Search is designed to support discovery and deeper investigation. It allows you to search across the full text of regulatory documents to:
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Investigate a specific regulation or initiative in detail
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Sense-check or explore results surfaced through monitoring notifications
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Explore unfamiliar topics, terminology, or regulatory approaches
The system searches for exact words and phrases and variants, such as plural forms or conjugations of the root word. This ensures comprehensive coverage of all relevant mentions.
Full-text search is most valuable when you are asking focused or exploratory questions, rather than trying to stay continuously informed.
How to Use Full-Text Search
To run a full-text search:
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Enter a keyword or phrase into the search bar
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Review the initial result set before applying filters
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Apply filters to narrow results once you understand what is being returned
Full-text search works best when you start with specific language or concepts, rather than broad regulatory themes.
How to Interpret Full-Text Search Results
Search results are ranked by relevance. The relevance score takes into consideration:
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Term frequency and location: Regulations where keywords appear in the title, source title, common name, or description are given higher weight than those with mentions in the full text.
- Recency: Newer or recently updated regulations are prioritized. The system considers introduction, last update, and commencement dates.
Full-text search supports investigation and understanding — results should be assessed for relevance before being treated as actionable.
Exploring Results and Keyword Mentions
Click any regulation title in the results list to view its detailed summary.
Click on the Full Text tab (Beta).
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The bottom-left corner shows the number of keyword mentions found in the document.
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Use the navigation arrows on the lower right side to jump between highlighted mentions within the text.
This makes it easy to pinpoint where and how your search terms appear within the regulation.
Discovery vs Monitoring: How Full-Text Search Fits
It is important to distinguish between discovery and monitoring workflows:
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Monitoring ensures you never miss regulatory change that matters, using search-based monitoring notifications.
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Discovery helps you explore, investigate, and understand regulatory developments in more depth.
Full-text search supports discovery, while notifications deliver ongoing awareness.
🔗 For ongoing monitoring across topics and jurisdictions, see: Setting Up Search-Based Monitoring Notifications
Best Practices for Using Full-Text Search
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Use full-text search to answer specific questions
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Start with keywords, then refine using filters
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Avoid very broad terms that may return large volumes of low-relevance results
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Treat insights from full-text search as inputs for discovery, not as monitoring coverage
Turning Discovery into Monitoring
If a regulation identified through full-text search is relevant for your Monitoring Universe, enable individual notifications to monitor any related changes.
You can also:
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Refine the results by adding relevant topics, jurisdictions, and other filters
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Save and Notify to ensure ongoing awareness
This ensures discoveries are not lost and become part of your Monitoring Universe.
🔗 To learn how to convert searches into monitoring notifications, see: Setting Up Search-Based Monitoring Notifications