Advanced Search

Advanced Search is a powerful way to search with ProQuest. Enter your word or phrase, and use the fields to focus your search.

See hints on improving your searches for tips on creating more effective searches. See frequently asked questions on Advanced searches for answers to some commonly asked questions.

Enter a word or phrase into the search field.
If you're combining your search with additional search words:

Choose the operator (for example, AND or OR) you want to use. (For more information on using operators, see the Search Tips.)
Add your search word to the search field next to the operator list.
From the drop-down menu, select the field to search. (For more information on using these fields, see the Search Tips.)
Continue adding words as needed. If you want to add more terms, click Add a row.

When you finish entering your terms, click Search.

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

Limit your search to articles by a specific Author.
Select a specific Database.
Set a date range.
Limit your search to a specific document language.
Limit your search to a specific Document type.
Exclude Book Reviews
Exclude Newspapers
Limit your search to a specific Location.
Limit your results to Full text, Scholarly or other document sets.
Search a specific Publication title.
Select how many documents to display on each Results page.
Limit your results to scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed.
Select how to sort your results.
Limit your search to a specific Subject.

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Abstract

Search article abstracts for your terms.

For more information on using this field, see the Search Tips.

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Author

Enter an author's name to limit your search to articles written by a specific author or reviewer.

You can enter the author's name in any order. Searching the author field for John A. Smith produces the same results as searching for Smith, John A.

You can enter multiple author's names, separating them by AND to find articles by two authors.

For more information on using this field, see the Search Tips.

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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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Citation and Abstract

When you select Citation and abstract from the drop-down menu, ProQuest searches the following fields:

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

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Citation and Document Text

When you select Citation and document text, ProQuest searches within the complete text of the article, the citation fields, and the abstract.

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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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Document ID

The Document ID is a unique number assigned to each document in ProQuest.

For more information on using this field, see the Search Tips.

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Document Language

Use this field to limit your search to a document originally published in a specific language.

Enter a geographic location or click Browse locations to select from a list of locations available.

For more information on using this field, see the Search Tips.

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Document Text

Searches only the full text of articles for your search terms. Article abstracts are not included in this search. AND, OR, and other search operators are treated as such unless enclosed in quotes.

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Document Type

ProQuest searches all document types by default. To limit your search to specific document types, such as Reviews or Features, select an article type from the drop-down menu.

Reviews provide critical evaluations of creative works, products, and restaurants and can be divided into several categories. In addition, each review can be further divided by the reviewer's opinion. To access these additional features, select More review options. You will see additional drop-down menus. Select the type of review (for example, Book review). You can then optionally select the desired opinion (for example, Favorable).

For more information on using this field, see the Search Tips.

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Ethnic Group

To find articles from a particular ethnic perspective, ProQuest lets you limit your search to articles from a publication representing that ethnic group. Select a specific ethnic group from the drop-down menu.

For more information on using this field, see the Search Tips.

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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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Geographical Name / Location (Look up)

Use this search field to look for articles in which a geographical area or location figures prominently in the text, or to locate companies located in a specific geographic area.
Enter a geographic location or click Look up locations to select from a list of locations available.

The terms in the Look Up Locations window are listed in alphabetical order, making it easy for you to browse them. Scan the list for the location you want to add to your search.

You can move to terms starting with a particular letter by entering the letter in the box and clicking Find Term. You will be taken to the first term beginning with that letter.

You can also search for a location. Enter the location in the box and click Find Term. You will be taken to the nearest match (alphabetically).

If you reach the end of a page and haven't come to the location you want, just click Next to move to the next page.

When you've found the location you're looking for, click Add to Search to add the location to your current search.

For more information on using this field, see the Search Tips.

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Limit results to: Full text documents only

By default, ProQuest will search all information in the selected databases.

Full text documents only To limit your search to documents available in full text format, check this box. Leave the box empty to search articles available as citations and abstracts.
Data & Reports Check this box to search only content reporting data or other summary information such as company reports, industry snapshots, or market research reports.
Multimedia Check this box to search only multimedia content such as audio or video files.
Scholarly Content Check this box to search only scholarly content, including peer-reviewed journals, working papers, and dissertations.
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.
Working papers are non-peer-reviewed, unpublished works submitted by academic scholars.
Tools & Templates Check this box to search only content that has been classified as a template or tool, these might include spreadsheets, forms, sample plans or how-to-guides.

If you select multiple limits, such as Multimedia and Scholarly content, your results will include content that matches either limit (e.g. the limits are “OR”d together).

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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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Results per page

Use this menu to adjust the number of documents displayed on each page. You can select 10, 20 or 30 articles per page.

You can change the number of results displayed later on the Results page.

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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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Subject (Look up)

Enter a subject, or click Look up subjects to open the Look Up Subjects window.

The terms in the Look Up Subjects window are listed in alphabetical order, making it easy for you to browse them. Scan the list for the term you want to use for your search.

You can move to terms starting with a particular letter by entering the letter in the box and clicking Find Term. You will be taken to the first term beginning with that letter.

You can also search for a term. Enter the term in the box and click Find Term. You will be taken to the nearest match (alphabetically).

If you reach the end of a page and haven't come to the term you want, just click Next to move to the next page.

When you've found the word you're looking for, click Add to Search to add the term to your current search.

For more information on using this field, see the Search Tips.

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