Basic Search
ProQuest looks for your words in all fields - including any available abstract or full text.
- If you enter intelligent quotient for example, ProQuest will look for documents that contain both intelligent and quotient in any field.
- Autocomplete: When you enter keywords in the search box, ProQuest provides suggestions from previously successful searches; the list changes as you type, to match previous searches that start with what you have entered.
Limit your Search
- Select one of the buttons above the search box to limit your search to a particular type of content e.g. books.
- Select the Full text checkbox to find only documents that provide the complete full text.
- Select the Peer reviewed checkbox to limit your search to content that has been evaluated by people in the same research area in order to maintain quality.
Search Commands
Use search operators to specify the relationships between your search terms.
- Phrases
- Use Quotation marks ("...") to enclose phrases longer than two words.
e.g., "hong kong philharmonic orchestra"
- Truncation (*)
- Use * to replace any characters of a word to search all possible combinations. For example:
-- colo*r retrieves records containing color and colour.
-- nurse* retrieves records containing nurse, nursed, nurses, nursing, etc
- Search Operators
- Use AND to combine concepts.
e.g., "internet of things" and "data mining"
- Use OR to broaden a search by including synonyms or alternative keywords.
e.g., "internet of things" or iot
- Use NOT to eliminate the occurrence of a term.
e.g., cloning not human
- Use NEAR/N to specify the proximity of two terms in any order.
e.g., tourism near/5 ecology
- Use parentheses to control how search terms are combined.
e.g., ("birth control" or contraception) and (china or india)
