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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

Asterisk 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.
Question mark 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.

AND Find all the words.
Example: internet AND education
AND NOT Find documents which have the first word, but not the second word.
Example: Internet AND NOT html
OR Find any of the words.
Example: Internet OR intranet
WITHIN Find documents where the first word appears some number of words before or after the second word.
Example: computer W/3 careers

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Search Field Syntax

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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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Accession Number

The Accession Number is a unique number assigned to each record in the database. Each database using Accession numbers uses a slightly different format for these numbers.

  • In the ERIC database, the accession number consists of a two-letter prefix followed by six digits. 'ED' and 'EJ' are possible prefixes, which identify the source file. 
  • In the CINAHL® database, the accession number is a 10 digit number.
  • In the AGRICOLA database, the accession number is a 3 letter prefix (CAT or IND) which represents the source file, followed by 8 digits.

Valid Forms:
    PN
    NO

ERIC Examples:
    NO(ed001001)
    PN(ej000001)

CINAHL® Example:
    NO(2003058053)

AGRICOLA Examples:
    NO(CAT10002285)
    NO( IND20337009)

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Author

Use to find articles written by an author or reviewer.

Valid Forms:
    AUTHOR
    AU

Examples:
    AUTHOR(Gertrude Enders Huntington)
    AU(Michael Kinsley)

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Citation and Abstract (ERIC)

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

  • Article Title
  • Abstract
  • Author
  • Notes
  • Subject
  • Source

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Corporate/Institutional Author

This field contains the Corporate names of the institution that authored the original document, sponsoring institution, conference, government agency, etc.

Valid Forms:
    CA

Examples:
   CA(health)
   CA(Canadian Assn of University Business Officers)

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Descriptors

Approved subject headings which appear in the thesaurus. They are assigned to consistently describe the concepts included in the content of an article or document. Record may contain descriptors in major/minor subject heading fields as well as within the subject field. 

Valid Forms:
   DE

Example:
   DE(Hyperkinesis)
   DE(Health Care Seeking Behavior)
   DE(bacterial disorders)
   DE("autonomic nervous system disorders")

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Document Language

Used to search Language index. This field contains the language in which the document was published originally. You can select languages from Language field specific index. 

 

Valid Forms:
    LA
    LN

Examples:
   LA(french)
   LN(french or english)

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Document Title

The title of a document, such as "Peering into the Future of Careers." This search field locates the occurrence of search words in the title of the document.

Valid Forms:
    TITLE
    TI

Examples:
    TITLE(Future)
    TI(future AND career)
    TI("Peering into the Future of Careers")

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Document Type

Use this search field to look for search words or phrases in documents of a certain type.

Valid Forms:
    AT
    TY
    DT

Examples:
    DTYPE(commentary)
    TY(editorial cartoon)
    AT(review)
    DT(arts/exhibits review)
    DTYPE(television review-no opinion)

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Education Level

Use to find documents relevant to a specific education community. Education level is available for materials published from 2004 onward.

Use phrase(s) to search this field.

Valid Forms:
    EL

Examples:
   EL(early childhood education)
   EL(middle schools)
   EL(higher education)

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Explode

This field is used to search for the main term and its narrower terms. If a main term has no narrower terms, then the search is made only for the main term.

Valid Forms:
   EXP

Examples:
   EXP(Ability)
   EXP(Abortions)

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Identifier / Key Concepts

The Identifier concisely summarizes the content of the original document and lets you search terms and concepts beyond those in the controlled vocabulary. Use keyword(s) to search this field.

Valid Forms:
    IF

Examples:
    IF(newcomer)
    IF(lion tamarin)

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Journal Title / Source

Used to search by a specific publication or publications.

Valid Forms:
    SO

Examples:
    SO(Forbes)
    SO(New York Times or Washington Post)
    SO(computing) — retrieves all periodicals with "computing" in their titles

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Notes

This field index contains miscellaneous information such as thesis notes, relation to other records, pages, etc.

Valid Forms:
    NT

Examples:
   NT(theta)
   NT(Phi Theta Kappa)

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Peer-Reviewed

Use this field to limit your search to articles from peer-reviewed journals. A peer-reviewed indicator is available for articles published from 2004 onward.

Use keyword(s) to search this field.

Valid Forms:
   PR

Examples:
   PR(yes)
   PR(no)

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Record Type

This field can be searched using descriptions which classify the format of the original record. You can browse record types in the Record Type field specific index.

Valid Forms:
    RT

Examples:
    RT(information)
    RT(journal)

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Report Number

This field contains the identifying number assigned to the document by the organization that produced or supported it. Use hyphens when searching for report numbers. You can choose numbers from the Report Numbers field specific index.

Valid Forms:
    RN

Examples:
    RN(1-1985e)
    RN(1-243-ag63-3500-48613)

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Sponsoring Agency

This field contains the information about the Sponsoring Agency. You can choose names from the Sponsoring Agency field specific index.

Valid Forms:
    SP

Examples:
    SP(aberdeen)
    SP(American Bankers)
    SP("cabell county schools huntington wv")

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Standard Number

Use to search ISSN and ISBN index. Use the hyphen when searching for ISSN. Search for ISBN without hyphens. 

Valid Forms:
    SNUM
    SNO

Examples:
    SN(1010-0652)
    SN(0415102006)

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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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Target Audience / Intended Audience

This field contains a description of the intended audience of the document. Searching in this field limits your results to post 1983 records. Use keyword(s) to search this field. The valid audience types are:

  • administrators
  • community
  • media
  • staff
  • parents
  • policymakers
  • practitioners
  • researchers
  • students
  • support
  • teachers

Valid Forms:
    TA

Examples:
    TA(administrators)
    TA(researchers)

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Update Date

Used to search Update. This represents the date the record was added to the database. The Update field is formatted as: YYYYMMDD (Y=Year, M=Month, D=Day).

To search for a range of dates, enter the dates separated by hyphens. This field is not available as a browsable index.

Valid Forms:
    UD
    JA

Examples:
    UD(20010126)
    UD(20010126-20010304)

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Year

Use to search Publication Year index.

Valid Forms:
    YR
    PY

Examples:
    YR(1986)
    YR(1986-1987)
    YR(>1998)
    YR(<1998)

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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".

about can just out those
after could like said through
also do make should to
an each many so use
and for more some was
any from most such we
are had much than were
as has no that what
at have not the when
be how now their which
because if of them while
been into only there who
between is or these will
both it other they with
but its our this would
by

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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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