Basic Search

Basic Search is an ideal way to get started with ProQuest. Just think of a word or phrase related to the information you're looking for and type it into the computer.

See hints on improving your searches for some tips on creating searches. See frequently asked questions on Basic searches for answers to some common questions.

Basic Search:

1. Enter a word or phrase into the search field.
2. Click Search.

You can focus your search with the following options (some are only available after clicking on More Options):

• Select a specific Database.
• Set a date range.
• Exclude Book Reviews
• Exclude Newspapers
• Look for terms in
• Search a specific Publication title.
• Limit your results to scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed.
• Select how to sort your results.

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Biographical Profiles

The Biographical check box lets you limit your search to articles that contain biographical information. When this box is checked, the string AND SUB(personal profiles) is added to your search as a limiter.

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Database

The Database field lets you limit your search to a specific database available from ProQuest. The default for this field is the database you are currently searching (or multiple databases, if you are searching more than one database).

• Select a specific database from the drop-down menu to limit your search to a single database.
• Click Select Multiple Databases to select multiple databases.

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Date Range

The default for this field is All dates, which searches all information in the current databases.

To limit your search, select the desired date range from the drop-down menu.

If you select a date range option (for example, On this date... or Before this date...), a field (or fields) will appear for you to enter the desired dates.

Enter the desired date(s).

For information on the date formats ProQuest supports, see the date formats reference.

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Exclude Book Reviews

Check Book reviews to exclude book reviews from your results.

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Exclude Newspapers

Check Newspapers to exclude newspapers from your results.

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Look for terms in

Select Citation and abstract from the drop-down menu to search only within the citations and abstracts in ProQuest. Select Citation and document text to search within the complete text of the article, the citation fields, and the abstract.

Searching in Citation and abstract is more likely to find articles whose main focus meets your search terms. Searching in Citation and document text will find more articles, because it will find articles that mention your search terms anywhere within the article.

When you search just the citations and abstracts, ProQuest searches the following fields:

• Author
  
• Personal Name
  
• Abstract
  
• Product Name
  
• Document Title
  
• Subject Terms
  
• Company Name
  
• Source (publication title)
  
• Geographical Name
  

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Natural Language Search

Searches are intercepted and translated using a natural language search engine. This lets you enter your search as a question or a sentence. The search engine will translate the entry to find the keywords by their position in the sentence.

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Publication Title (Look up)

By default, this field is empty.

To limit your search to a specific publication, enter the publication's title. Or click Look up publications to select a title from a list of the available publications.

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Publication Type (Browse)

ProQuest searches all publication types by default. To limit your search to a specific publication type, select it from the drop-down menu.

To search in multiple publication types, you will need to enter the information into the search field using the mnemonic.

You can filter your articles by publication type on the Results page. Click on the desired publication type tab to view only those articles in your search results.

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Scholarly Journals, including peer-reviewed

Check this box to search only scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed journals. Leave the box empty to include other sources in your search.

A publication is considered to be scholarly if it is authored by academics for a target audience that is mainly academic, the printed format isn't usually a glossy magazine, and it is published by a recognized society with academic goals and missions.

A publication is considered to be peer reviewed if its articles go through an official editorial process that involves review and approval by the author's peers (people who are experts in the same subject area.) Most (but not all) scholarly publications are peer reviewed. Some trade publications are actually peer reviewed, but ProQuest does not consider them when filtering on peer reviewed. This is because getting results from trade publications instead of academic journals can be frustrating to researchers. Instead, ProQuest excludes these peer reviewed trade publications and only considers publications that are scholarly in terms of content, intent, and audience.

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Sort Results by

This field lets you select how you want your results sorted. The options that are available here depend on the database or databases you are currently searching. For example, you may be able to sort records by most relevant, or to display the oldest records first.

Select the desired search order from the drop-down menu.

You can change your sort order on the Results page by using the Sort results by drop-down menu.

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