ResultsThe Results page shows you the documents that contain matches to your search words. From this page you can:
Use ProQuest® Smart Search to focus your searchDepending on the ProQuest collection you are searching, you may see the ProQuest® Smart Search area at the top and bottom of your page. ProQuest compares your search terms to the available index terms, index term pairs, and publications for the database(s) you are searching. It then provides you with suggestions that can help you focus your search. Suggested TopicsOnce you perform a search, you will see Suggested Topics options. These are alternate topics related to the search terms you have entered. Suggested Topics appear in order by relevance (best suggestions and matches first) and often contain pairs of index terms to help focus results. You can click Next and Prev to view more terms. When you click on one of these topics, a new search is performed and you will see the Narrow your results by: options. Here, you can select to view Topics, Dates, or Publications. You can select from these options to narrow your search by adding these choices to your search using AND. As you add terms to narrow your search, you will notice a bread crumb trail below the ProQuest® Smart Search, showing each of the terms you added. Each term is a link, which you can use to step back in your search. If you add a term, and find it takes your search down the wrong path, you can easily backtrack by clicking on earlier terms. ProQuest® Smart Search gives you a powerful way to quickly focus your search by selecting broad terms in the beginning and using the Narrow choices to focus your search. To make sure that you don't miss important content, while making sure your search is focused, ProQuest® Smart Search uses literal search fields and (when appropriate) includes synonyms and alternate forms of index terms. View Suggested PublicationsThe View the publication option displays up to three publications matching the terms you entered in the search field. When you click on a Publication name, you will be taken to the Publication Search page, where you can select an issue or search within the publication. Read a DocumentTo read a document in your Results list, just click the document's title. The document will open the in best-available format. (ProQuest observes the following order to determine best-available format: Text+Graphics, Full Text, Article Image, Document - PDF, Page Map, Page Image, Citation/Abstract.) To view a document in a specific format, click the icon corresponding to the format you want. To view PDF documents, you need Adobe® Reader® installed on your system. If you do not have it, you can download Adobe Reader for free. If you view a document in PDF format and the next document provides a PDF version, ProQuest will display the PDF when you click Next document. In all other cases, ProQuest will follow the order of preference described above when determining which format to display. Mark DocumentsTo keep a record of the documents that you found useful, click in the box next to the document's title and number. ProQuest adds that document to the Marked Documents section of your Marked List. You can also use the Mark / Clear all on page links to mark all the documents, or clear all marked documents on the current page. Filter Your ResultsThe tabs on the Results page let you filter your results, displaying subsets of the documents found. The filtering tabs that are available will depend on the ProQuest Collection you are working with. These filtering tabs include:
Below the tabs, two other options let you filter your results:
Sort Your ResultsThe Sort results by: drop-down menu lets you select alternate sorting methods. Depending on the ProQuest collection you are working with, you can select to have your documents sorted chronologically, alphabetically, or using another sorting method. By default, ProQuest displays your search results in reverse chronological order, with the most recently published document first. How ProQuest Determines RelevanceFor single word searches, ProQuest ranks documents by the number of times the word appears in the document.
For all other searches, ProQuest ranks documents by the frequency of each term weighted by how rarely the term occurs in the collection. documents in which an infrequent term appears are ranked higher in relevance.
Change the Number of Results Displayed on the PageAt the bottom of the page you see the Results per page drop-down menu. Use this menu to adjust the number of documents displayed on each page. You can select 10, 20 or 30 documents per page. Refine Your SearchThe Refine Search link takes you directly to the search form at the bottom of the Results page. The appearance of the search form will vary, depending on the method you used to conduct your search. The form will show the terms you used to run your search, as well as the buttons and fields for the method you used. For example, if you used Basic Search for your original search, you'll see the Basic Search form below your search results, including the search words and parameters you used to run the search. You can refine your search by making changes to the search form. For example, if you've found too many documents you may want to narrow your search. If you're new to finding information using electronic resources, or you'd like hints for improving your search strategies, you may want to read our search advice. Natural Language SearchWhen Natural Language Searching is enabled, you can enter your search in natural language—the same way you would ask a question or speak a phrase. For example, if you want to find out about storms, you might use:
A Natural Language Search doesn't have to be a question. It can be a simple phrase. A parser will evaluate and reformat the query in the ProQuest syntax notation. It removes most punctuation, ignores question words and endings, and performs a variety of checks that will convert your question or phrase into a query using the ProQuest syntax. |
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