Database quick guides: ProQuest

Truncation and wildcard

- can not be used as the first character in a search term

[*n] replaces n characters, n 0-20

econom[*20]
> economy, economics, economically, econometrics

? replaces 0-1 character

humo?r[*20]
= humor[*20] OR humour[*20]
> humor, humour, humorousness

Spelling variants are looked for without wildcard.

organisation
> organisation, organisations, organization, organizations

organisation* OR organization*
= organi?ation*
> organization, organisational, organizationally

When a singular word is searched, the plural and possessive forms of that word will also be searched as well as the comparatives and superlatives.

Truncation gives more alternatives.

child
> child, children

child*
> child, children's, childhood

Hyphenated form finds hyphenated and non-hyphenated forms.

Non-hyphenated form is treated as separate words.

Some hyphenated words are also written combined. With these you must use OR operator.

talk-show
> talk-show, talk show, talk-shows, talk shows

multi-profession* OR multiprofession*

Double quotation marks

- wildcards can be used in the end of the phrase

- the singular form of a word does not retrieve the plural form

Proximity operator
- the singular form of a word retrieves the plural form

"criminal* insan*"
> criminal insanity, criminally insane

"corporat* profit*" 
> corporate profits, corporational profit

Boolean operators
AND, OR, NOT

- are not case sensitive

Without parentheses operator precedence is:
1. PRE
2. NEAR
3. AND
4. OR 
5. NOT

Proximity operators

- for two or more words that occur within a specified number of words (or fewer) of each other

- truncation is possible

- you can use parentheses to multiply terms

NEAR/n or N/n regardless of the order, n ≥ 0

energy near/4 polic*
= energy near polic*

(speech OR language) N/5 ( disabilit* OR disorder* OR impairment*)

Anywhere: searches also full texts if the database used  provides full texts.

Any terms retrieved using either truncation or wildcard characters are not considered when sorting your results based on relevance. 

When the Show results outside my library’s subscription checkbox is selected, search results will expand to include relevant ProQuest content outside the library’s subscription alongside entitled content. 

Select the Peer reviewed checkbox to limit your search to journals that has evaluation by people in the same field in order to maintain quality.