- Using ProQuest Direct
Using ProQuest Direct
ProQuest Direct is an online periodical database that contains citations, abstracts and in many cases full-text articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers- over 10,000 publications in total. . ProQuest Direct may be used at any of the campus computer stations that have access to the World Wide Web and may be accessed from your personal computer by acquiring a password from the library.
Conducting a Search
The first screen you see when opening up ProQuest will be the Topic Guide option. Here you may type in your topic or select it from the "Browse topics" option to the right of the search box. Below is an example:
The question mark after regulation is truncation, meaning that both singular and plural are searched. Some of the results can be seen below:
In order to see your article results, click on view documents, which will allow you to see a list of the articles. For example, if the subheading 'Environmental Policy' were to be selected, some of the results would appear was seen below:
Notice that some of the articles have been 'marked' by clicking on the box to the left of the article title. This means that the selected article will be placed in the 'My research' folder at the top of the screen. This will allow you to email the selected articles or create a bibliography.
If you want to try to refine your search you may want to consider using the Advanced Search option, which you select by clicking on the folder at the top of the screen. This will allow you to combine three search fields or more together at one time as well as specifying options . Below is an example- notice that in this example two specific publications have been selected. One can select the search options by clicking on the drop-down menu to the right of the search box. Also notice that the Boolean operator 'OR' has been selected from the pull-down menu to the left. This means that results from either Los Angeles Times or Wall Street Journal will be searched. You may also search for publication titles by selecting the Publication Search option at the top of the screen:
Viewing Your Results
The Results screen displays the articles in descending order, with the most recently published article appearing first. Next to the name of the article you will see a legend indicating whether or not the article is available full-text or only as an abstract
When you see the article displayed, note that you have several options. You may email the article to yourself by clicking on “Email Articles” . This will bring you to a screen on which you enter your email address (you may also add a subject header or additional information). You may also print the article but you will need to purchase a vend card.
Getting Help
You have many more options available to you when using ProQuest. Please see a librarian for further assistance or to obtain a password for off-campus use.
Note: The screen shots and their contents are published with permission of Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission.