ProQuest records each search that you conduct during your current session. This search history is presented on the Recent searches page. After you've run at least one search during your current session, a Recent searches link to that page is available on the following search forms, as well as from the blue bar at the top of the page:

• Basic Search
• Figures & Tables
• Find Similar
• Look Up Citation

Important to know: Your recent searches are not saved beyond your current ProQuest session. To make them available for future sessions, you can save them to a My Research account. Alternatively, if you are already accessing ProQuest using a My Research account, you can pause your current session and return to it at any time for up to 4 hours. Your Recent searches will be available when you restart your paused session.

Check out the benefits of having a My Research account.

Your recent searches

When you click a Recent searches link, the Recent searches page displays.

You can:

• Click the search term link corresponding to a listed search to re-run the search, and retrieve a current search results list.
• View the list of databases that were included in the search.
• Modify a search using the form (Advanced, Basic, etc.) that you used to run the search originally.
• Delete a search.
• Create and schedule an alertalert. You'll then receive emails with newly published or historical documents that match your search, as they become available in ProQuest.
• Create an RSS feed to monitor ProQuest for new matching documents.
• Combine one or more of your numbered searches into a single precise search.

Recent searches and sets in ProQuest Dialog

As you run searches in ProQuest Dialog, each search—also called a set—during your current session is recorded on the Recent searches tab. Your searches are listed in reverse chronological order—most recent to oldest. A control lets you reverse the order. Each listed recent search has a corresponding set number—S1, S2, etc. You can use the corresponding set numbers (or the original search terms) to combine and rerun searches. For example, if your first search was for medicine, and your second search was for polio, you could combine the two searches into a single string on the Basic Search, Advanced Search, or Command Line Search pages as either:

medicine AND polio
or:
s1 AND s2

Both searches will find the same results.

Saving searches in ProQuest

If you are signed into a My Research account, you can save a search by clicking a Save search link on your results list or on Recent Searches.

Your saved search will be available on the Searches tab in My Research.

Saving searches in ProQuest Dialog

If you are signed into a My Research account, you can save a search by clicking a Save search link from the following locations in the interface:

• Above any search results list.
• Corresponding to a listed search on the Recent searches page.
• From the Recent searches tab on the Advanced Search or Command Line Search pages.

When you click a Save search link, the Save search popup displays with two links:

• Save just this search
• Save recent sets with this search

Save just this search

In the Save search layer, enter a (required) name, a project code and optional note. Your saved search will be available on the Searches tab in My Research.

Save recent sets with this search

A set is a search and its corresponding results. Run a search and a set is created. When you click Save recent sets with this search, the Save Search page displays. The page lists all of the searches you’ve run during your current session. The listing is in reverse chronological order, with your most recent search listed first. If the search you are saving references any previous sets—for example, if your search is s1 OR s3—, those sets (the first and third searches you ran during your session)—are automatically selected for you on the Save Search page. You can optionally select additional sets to save with your search.

Your saved searches

Click the Searches tab in My Research to see your saved searches. In addition to the tasks listed above for your recent searches, you can:

• Edit your search name.
• Add a note.

Multiple-set search strategies in ProQuest Dialog

A search strategy can be as short as a single search, or as long as one hundred. Expert researchers often run, evaluate, and refine many searches during their session, before they are satisfied with the results of their final search.

If you’ve saved sets with your search, this text line displays with the search on the Saved Searches page:

Search strategy contains multiple sets

Adjacent to the text is a Show/Hide toggle link. Click the link to show/hide the complete list of sets saved with a search.

Important to know — If you’ve imported a search from a legacy DataStar account, click the View DataStar query to compare the original set structure with what displays when you click the Show (search strategy) link.

Modifying multiple-set search strategies in ProQuest Dialog

For any listed search saved with sets, click the Edit search strategy link to display a page of the same name. On that page, you can:

• Edit any of the sets in your strategy directly in a simple text editor by using cut, copy, and paste.
• Run either your final saved search, or all of the sets in your strategy in succession. Then evaluate the results of each search on the Recent searches page.

Combine searches - using operators

Combining search with the NEAR and PRE operators

Combining searches with the NEAR and PRE operators will only work if the original searches you want to combine were done in the same field.

For example, S1 PRE/3 S2 is a valid combined search if search 1 is TI(energy) and search 2 is TI(renewable), but not if search 2 is SU(renewable).