Search Tips

• Use "quotation marks" to search for exact phrases.
• 2 word queries (such as circus elephant) are searched as an exact phrase by default.
• 3 word queries (such as new york orchestra) are searched as words that need to appear in proximity to each other by default.
• Use special characters and operators (below) to focus your query.

Learn About

• Truncation and Wildcard Characters ?, *
• Operators AND, OR, NOT …
• Search Field Syntax AU(...) for author
• Stop Words the, an, of …
• Example Searches

Truncation and Wildcard Characters

	The symbol * is used as a right-handed truncation character only; it will find all forms of a word. For example, searching for econom* will find "economy", "economics", economical", etc.
	The symbol ? is used to replace any single character, either inside the word or the right end of the word. ? cannot be used to begin a word. For example, searching for "wom?n" will find "woman" and "women." Searching for "t?re" will find "tire", "tyre", "tore", etc.

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Operators

Boolean, proximity and adjacency operators are used to broaden and narrow your search.

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Search Field Syntax

• Abstract
• Citation and Abstract
• Citation and Document Text
• Company Name / Organization
• Document Text
• Geographical name / Location
• NAICS/SIC Codes (Industry Code)
• Person
• Subject Terms
• Ticker Symbol

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Abstract

Search article abstracts for your terms.

Valid Forms:
    ABS
    AB
    ABSTRACT

Examples:
    ABS(customer delight)
    ABS(ozone)

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Citation and Abstract

When you select Citations and abstracts 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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Company Name / Organization

Search for a company or other organization featured prominently in an article, including the following:
    Associations
    Companies
    Cooperatives
    Divisions of companies
    Governmental organizations
    Political parties
    Other organizations, such as professional sports teams, churches, native
    american tribes, and music groups

Valid Forms:
    CO
    Company
    ORG

Examples:
    CO(Ford)
    CO(Vodaphone Group)
    CO(Berlin Philharmonic)
    CO(African National Congress)
    Company(ProQuest)

Note: When you search using Company/Org, ProQuest finds articles containing your search terms in the index field. For example, a search for CO(United Nations), will find articles indexed on United Nations and United Nations Federal Credit Union. To find articles indexed with the exact term United Nations, use the literal search field: LCO({United Nations}). The literal search field uses curly braces inside of parentheses.

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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.

Valid Forms:
    TEXT
    TX

Examples:
    TEXT(Kofi Annan)
    TEXT("North Sea oil")

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Geographical name / Location

Use this search field to look for articles in which a geographical area or location figures prominently in the text.

Valid Forms:
    GEO
    GN
    LO
    LOC
    LOCATION
    GC

Examples:
    GEO(Midwest)
    GN(UK)
    GEO(New South Wales)
    GN(Black Forest)

Note: When you search using Location, ProQuest finds articles containing your search terms in the index field. For example, a search for GEO(Paris), will find articles indexed on Paris and Paris City Utah. To find articles indexed with the exact term Paris, use the literal search field: LGEO({Paris}). The literal search field uses curly braces inside of parentheses.

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NAICS/SIC Codes (Industry Code)

The NAICS/SIC code defines the economic activity of a business as defined by the US Census Bureau.

Valid Forms:
    SIC
    NAIC
    NAICS

Examples:
    SIC(4911)
    SIC(514210)

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Person

Use to find articles about a person. When the Personal Name field is displayed in an article citation, the life spans of historical figures follow their names.

You can enter the name in any format. Searching for NA(John A Smith) will return the same results as NA(Smith, John A).

Valid Forms:
    NAME
    NA
    PNM
    NM
    PER

Examples:
    NAME(Toni Morrison)
    NA(Vladimir Putin)
    NM(Cesar Chavez)

Note: When you search using Person, ProQuest finds articles containing your search terms in the index field. For example, a search for PER(Cher), will find articles indexed on Cher and Cher Pere Noel. To find articles indexed with the exact term Cher, use the literal search field: LPER({Cher}). The literal search field uses curly braces inside of parentheses.

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Subject Terms

Use the Subject search field to look for articles about a specific subject. When searching Hoover's, this contains information on company type.

Valid Forms:
    SUB
    TERMS
    SB
    SU

Examples:
    SUB(Music)
    SU(venture capital companies)
    SU(Health Care)
    SU(nonprofit)

Note: When you search using Subject, ProQuest finds articles containing your search terms in the index field. For example, a search for SUB(Models), will find articles indexed on Models and Models (Architecture). To find articles indexed with the exact term Models, use the literal search field: LSU({models}). The literal search field uses curly braces inside of parentheses.

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Ticker Symbol

Use to find articles with indexed ticker symbols. The ticker symbol is used by the major U.S. stock market exchanges to identify companies.

Valid Forms:
    TICKER
    TK
    TIK
    TS

Examples:
    TICKER(AAPL) — Apple Computer, Inc.
    TK(INTC) — Intel Corporation

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Stop Words

ProQuest ignores the following frequently-used words. To use them as part of a search phrase, enclose them with quotation marks: e.g. "the sound and the fury".

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Example Searches

The examples below illustrate the kinds of searches you can build in Basic Search or Advanced Search using operators and fields.

Content varies between ProQuest databases; therefore, the number of documents found using the examples below would vary.

weather

Finds documents that contain the word weather.

educat*

Finds documents containing the words education, educator, educate, and educating. The "*" is the truncation symbol to find multiple forms of a word.

weather AND pacific ocean

Finds documents that contain the word weather and the phrase pacific ocean.

"Blair Witch Project"

Finds documents that contain the phrase Blair Witch Project.
Always enclose phrases longer than two words in quotation marks.

sub(mars) AND water AND life

Finds documents about Mars that mention water and life. The Subject Terms search field will help you find documents that are about a particular subject.
Keywords (such as water and life as in the example) focus your search more precisely.

author(Dave Barry)

Finds documents written by Dave Barry, a popular commentary writer.

at(book review) AND name(Stephen King)

Finds book reviews of works by Stephen King. Use the document Type search field to find different kinds of documents, including biographies, interviews, and recipes.
Note that dtype is also a valid syntax form for document Type.

source(Fortune) AND company(Ford) AND PDN(>03/01/2001 AND <10/30/2001)

Finds documents from the magazine Fortune about the company Ford published between March 1, 2001 and October 30 2001. Use the Source search field to restrict your search to a specific newspaper or journal. Use the Company field to restrict to a specific company.

at(movie review-favorable) AND "Blair Witch Project"

Finds favorable movie reviews of the movie Blair Witch Project.

stype(newspaper) AND at(obituary) AND John F. Kennedy Jr.

Finds newspaper obituaries about John F. Kennedy Jr.

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