After you enter a search, ProQuest returns a list of matching documents called your Search Results. By default, documents that ProQuest determines are most relevant to your search terms display at the top of the list.

The search box above your results list

Results not what you expected? Search again.

Your search is reflected in the search box above your search results. If it doesn’t look like you found the documents you need, run a new search.

Want to change your search?

Click Modify search to return to the search page where you created the search, with your original search terms and any limiters displayed.

Recent searches: re-run a previous search

Click the Recent searches link to access and re-run your previous searches.
Important to know — Recent searches remain available for your current session only. You will need to save a search to keep it available during future sessions.

Search within your current results list

Click Search within to jump to the bottom of your results list and use the search box there to search within your current results list only. By searching within your current results list, you are focusing—or narrowing—your search.

Suggested subjects—powered by ProQuest Smart Search

When you run a search, ProQuest—in addition to returning a results list—automatically evaluates your search terms to provide you with subjects relevant to your search. The subjects display as links in a box titled Suggested subjects at the top of your results list. Click a subject to retrieve a results list of relevant documents.

Things you can do with your current search

The links for these tasks are located at the top of your results list.

Create an alert

Click Create alert to define an automated email alert that lets you know when new documents that match your current search are available in ProQuest. Alert emails will include links to view the documents in ProQuest.

Create an RSS feed

An RSS feed for your current search will function much like an alert, letting you know when new documents become available in ProQuest. However, an RSS feed gives you more flexibility of access. Instead of only being delivered by email, you can integrate your RSS feed into an RSS reader or into a Web page.

Save your search

Click Save search to save the current search to My Research. Saving a search requires that you sign in to your My Research account. If you don’t have a My Research account, you’ll need to create one. After you save a search, you’ll be able to re-run it anytime you are in ProQuest. If you do not save a search to your My Research account, you won’t be able to access or re-run it if you exit your current session.

Download all results

Click Download all results to download a file containing all the items on your results list, up to a maximum of 2000 items. You can specify the level of detail you wish to include, generate a bibliography from your results list and choose a citation style.

You can download your results in HTML, PDF, RTF or text only format with all occurrences of your search terms highlighted. If you check the Include my recent searches checkbox, details of your search strategy will be included. Your search strategy will be displayed in the same sort order you have selected on the Recent Searches page.

Choose the amount of detail you want to display for each item in the list

Items in your Search Results list are available either in Brief view or Detailed view. Click the links above the results list to switch between the views.

Brief view includes:

• Title and date
• Highlighted occurrences of your search terms in the title
• Pricing information (if you are on a transactional payment plan)
• Details of the database the item was found in, including coverage information
• Citation information (if you are a subscriber to a particular database).

Detailed view includes the same information as Brief view, plus the following:

• Up to 3 instances of your search terms in the article are highlighted, so you can view your terms in context
• Links to the article in different formats are shown where available
  

Each numbered item in the list is presented using the layout you have chosen. The sections below detail the elements that display with each item.

Check boxes and your Selected items list

A checkbox displays with each item in your search results.

• Select the checkbox to add the corresponding item to the Selected items page. Traditionally often called a marked list, your list of selected items is stored only for the duration of your current session. The list will no longer be available after you exit your current session. However if you are accessing ProQuest using a My Research account and you choose to pause your current session, you can return to it at any time for up to 4 hours, and your Selected items list will be retained.
  Important to know — To save documents beyond your current session, so they are available during your future ProQuest sessions, select one or more checkboxes and click the Save to My Research link above your results list. A sign-in prompt will display if you are not already signed into My Research.
• Select the checkbox above your results list to add the first 20 items to the Selected items page. Deselect the checkbox to remove the items. To remove all the items from your Selected items page at once, click the Clear link in the blue toolbar above the Search Results.
• With one or more checkboxes selected, you can also click any of these links above your results list to perform the corresponding task:

Selected items

Display the Selected items page.

Save to My Research

Click the Save to My Research link above your results list. The documents will be saved to the default My Research folder named All Documents. You can optionally create or specify a different destination folder. You will be prompted to sign into your My Research account if you are not signed in already.

Email

Email selected items to yourself and others. You can specify the level of available document detail (Citation, abstract, indexing, Full text, etc.) you want to send, as well as selecting a citation format.

Print

Select a level of document detail (such as Full text if available), and display print-ready versions of the selected documents in one continuous file. Optionally specify a page break between each document as they print.

Cite

Create a formatted citation for each selected item in your preferred citation style. You can then email, print, or download the citations. You can also copy and paste the citations into a Word or other document.

Export/Save

With one or more documents selected in your results list, click Export/Save to do any of the following:

• In the Export popup, export document citations to a:
  • citation management tool, such as RefWorks
  • formatted text file, such as RIS
  • reporting tool, such as Excel

• In the Save as file popup: Save document information—you specify how much information—to file formats such as PDF or Text only

More about Save as file

Click this link with just one, or several items selected in your search results.

With one item selected:

• Include the level of information—as available—about the document you want to include.
  Important to know—When you select Full text, original file formats (such as PDF, video, presentation, or spreadsheet) will not be saved.

• Citation style
  • The default is Standard ProQuest; any other selection remains in effect throughout a session.
• File format

A permanent ProQuest link to each document you are saving is saved with your file.

With multiple items selected:

The information above for selecting a single item applies, with the following differences:

Bibliography:

• If you accept the default Include selection of Results listing only, you cannot request a bibliography.
• If you select one of the other Include choices, such as Citation, abstract, indexing, then you experience the following:
  • A checkbox labeled Include bibliographic citations at end of file displays.
  • Beneath the checkbox, a dropdown labeled Citation style displays. (The default is APA 6th. Any other selection remains in effect throughout a session.)The dropdown is disabled (grayed out), until you select the checkbox.
  • When you elect to include a bibliography, a page titled Bibliography appends to the end of your saved file.

Saving as file – create a custom format

Create a custom format to include only the data fields you want shown in your saved file.

1. Choose Custom format from the Include dropdown in the Save as file popup.
2. Click Continue. A list of all available fields in your selected document displays.
3. Select the fields you want to include.
   • Click the [x] to remove a selected field
   • Click Clear to remove all selections and start again.
4. With your fields selected, click Continue. Your saved file will include only indexing from those fields.

Clearing your selected items

After you email, print, export, save or cite a list of items, you can quickly and easily clear your selected items at one time by checking the Deselect items when done checkbox.

Icons show what kind of publication (source type) each item was published in (Detailed view only)

An icon displays to the left of each document title in your results list if you have chosen to display your items in Detailed view. The icon indicates what kind of publication—for example, newspaper or magazine—the item was published in.

Document title and information

The title of each document in your list is a link. Click the link to view the document. Citation information for each document displays beneath the title. For some documents, a brief snippet of the available full text displays beneath the citation information.

If a document is found in more than one database, the number of databases that the item appears in is shown below the title and date information. You can click the View list link to see which databases include the item in question.

Search term (hit) highlighting

Occurrences of your search terms that are found in the title or available text snippet display with a yellow highlight.

Document preview

To the right of the title of each item is a Preview icon:

Move your cursor and pause over the Preview icon corresponding to any item in your results list. A box displays, containing the document title, abstract, and citation information.

Browse included images (Detailed view only)

If the document contains images—such as photographs, illustrations, or charts—image thumbnails are presented in a horizontal viewer.

• Click a thumbnail to open the document scrolled to the place where the image displays inline.
  

Document formats

Documents you find in ProQuest can be available in a variety of formats, such as Full text, Citation/Abstract, Transcript, and Video. Labeled icons for available formats display at the bottom of each item in your results list in Detailed view. Click a format icon to view the document in the corresponding format. See the full list of formats and their associated icons.

You may also see one of the following three links display with an item. These links indicate that the full text of an item could not be found in ProQuest. Your library or institution can configure ProQuest to look at databases from other providers they subscribe to, in an attempt to locate full text from non-ProQuest sources for you.

Link to full text

If your administrator has set up ProQuest (using ProQuest One Click) so that it searches the library’s holdings—ALL databases from ALL information providers (not just from ProQuest)—and ProQuest finds a full text copy in a database from another provider, you will see the Link to full text icon. Click the icon/link to open the full text document in a new browser window/tab.

Link resolvers  

Your administrator can set up one or more link resolvers or custom links in ProQuest. Link resolvers, such as 360 from Serials Solutions figuratively sit in the center of all of your library’s providers, and therefore, the library’s holdings. When configured by your administrator, link resolvers allow a ProQuest search to extend to other provider databases the library subscribes to, such as EBSCOhost. Similarly, they also allow for an EBSCOhost search to extend to databases provided by ProQuest. When you click a link resolver or similar custom link—displayed when ProQuest DOES NOT supply full text AND One Click is either not configured or if it is, no Full Text is available—the resolver or custom link will try and locate full text of the item from another provider. Unlike the certainty provided by Link to full text, there are no guarantees that full text will be returned. However, unlike Link to full text, a link resolver can return information about the location of hard copy full text in your library’s holdings...in addition to electronic full text through another provider.

Find a copy

If your librarian has configured a link resolver or custom link, but has not specified any icon or link text for the resolver, Find a copy is the default link text. The description for Link resolvers above applies here.

The right-side column

Sort your results

Use the dropdown list to re-order your results list. If you sort by relevance, ProQuest evaluates your search terms, determines which matching documents are the most relevant, and orders your results list with those most relevant documents first. You can change the sort order to newest-to-oldest, or oldest-to-newest.

Narrowing your search results

• Document information (indexed terms) — Included in the Narrow results by section is a list of various relevant document information bits, such as Publication title, Subject, and Language. Click any of them to show the top five relevant values that returned documents. Click a value to refresh your results list to show documents indexed with that term. Click the More options link to selectively pick which values to include or exclude from your results list.
• Date — Drag the tabs at the bottom of the date control and click Update to change the start and end dates of your search. After a brief pause, your results list refreshes to include only those documents from the selected date range. The date range shown above the control is your current adjusted range. Click Clear to return to the original date range.