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Scope note: This web page supplements information needs of students in the School of Social Work. The information presented here is not meant to be comprehensive. Please contact Library staff for additional information at social.work.library@umich.edu.
What Is ProQuest and What Does it Cover?
ProQuest is a resource for finding abstracts and full-text articles
at the University Library. It consists of a number of databases, each with different
coverage. Unfortunately, ProQuest is not the best source of information
for social work topics. Some databases previously available from ProQuest
have been consolidated into one interface so that multiple databases can be searched
at the same time.
Journals and Magazines and Historical Newspapers
ProQuest Research Library - Provides indexing for over 3,200 popular magazines and scholarly journals in a broad range of subjects, such as business, health, psychology, and social sciences. Two-thirds of the articles included in the database are available in full-text format, with some full-text available as early as 1987. Indexing and abstracts start as early as 1971.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers Databases - Digital reproductions of historic back issues with searchable text of the following newspapers are covered:
The New York Times - 1851 to 2001
The Wall Street Journal - 1889 to 1987
Christian Science Monitor - 1908 to 1991
Los Angeles Times - 1881 to 1985
Washington Post - 1877 to 1988
Diversity Databases
Alt-Press Watch (coverage varies)- Indexes over 150 newspapers, magazines and journals from alternative, independent presses. Some full-text publications of interest to Social Work are Race, Gender & Class, published by the Department of Social Sciences at Southern University at New Orleans, Poverty and Race, published by the Research Action Council and Youth Today, published by the American Youth Work Center for people in fields related to child and youth services.
Ethnic Newswatch (coverage varies) - Ethnic Newswatch is a full-text, bilingual (English and Spanish) database of newspapers, journals and magazine articles published by "ethnic, minority and native presses" with coverage from 1990. A spreadsheet is available listing each of the approximately 200 publications within the database along withthe dates and ethnic groups covered for each publication.
GenderWatch (coverage varies)- The GenderWatch database covers approximately 140 international publications on women and gender issues. It includes the Journal of Women and Aging, Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, Marriage and Family Review and many other journals newspapers, newsletters, special reports and regional publication on women and gender issues.
Economics, Business and Political Science Databases
ABI/INFORM Global (1971 - )– This is THE major business index. Nearly 1,800 worldwide business periodicals are indexed, including the Wall Street Journal (US Eastern Edition. Information on 60,000 + companies with business and executive profiles.
ABI/INFORM Dateline (1985 - )- Local and regional business news gathered from a variety of the major business tabloids, magazines, wire services and regional business publications.
ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry (1971 - )-More than 750 business periodicals and newsletters focused on trade and industry.
Hoover's Company Records (coverage varies)- Access to Hoover's is available from all Proquest ABI/INFORM databases. Results from a search in one of these databases may have links to company names mentioned within the abstract or article. Clicking on this link will take you to further information on the corporation provided by Hoover's. This is an exellent resource for researching company information such as company location, finanical information, officers and competitors.
Financial Times (1996- )- Global financial and economic news from a European perspective.
Snapshot International Series (2001 - )- International market research information.
OxResearch (1986 - )- Analytical articles by Oxford University and other world scholars covering world and regional economics and political developments.
Each of the individual databases listed above may be searched separately or in combination, with the exception of Historical Newspapers databases. The Historical Newspapers Databases cannot be searched in combination with any of the other databases.
To change databases, click on the “Databases Selected” link directly below the tabs at the top of the search screen, make your selection and click the continue button to return to the search screen. You may also change databases using the database drop down menu on the search screen or the Select multiple databases link.
Search Tips
Try narrowing your search, using the "Date range" option. You can be as specific
or as general as you like with the date of publication you search, anywhere
from the last week to a specified date range.
You may limit your search results to only full text articles but this option only provides you with ProQuest full text articles. The University Library has many sources of electronic full text articles, and you may miss a valuable article available through another full text subscription provider by using this option.
To limit your search results to scholarly journals only, mark the box next to this option.
Click the "More Search Options" link for other search options, such as author and publication title.
The Advanced Search, available by clicking that tab at the top of the screen, allows you to look for search terms in specific fields, such as within the article title, a person's name, a subject name, or within the article text.
Selecting a Topic
If you don't have a topic in mind, try clicking the "Topic Guide" tab.
You can search for specific subjects, such as "aging" and can narrow or broaden
the term to give you ideas. Topic Guide also allows you to view a hierarchical
arrangement of topics from broad to narrower by clicking on "browse the subject
directory" link on the Topic Guide search page.
The "Browse Topics" tool on the search page can also help give you ideas for a topic. This link is similar to the "Topic Guide" but also allows you to automatically add an indexed topic to your search with the click of a button.
ProQuest offers a Thesaurus to aid you in your search for indexed terms. To access the Thesaurus click on the "Browse Topics" link, then click on the Thesaurus link at the top of the pop-up window:
Enter a term in the Thesaurus search field to find possible synonyms and to add these synonyms to your search.
Defining Your Topic
Define your topic in the form of a question or statement, for example, Does
drug abuse decline with age? Then break down the question into specific,
logical components or concepts:
CONCEPT 1: |
CONCEPT 2: |
Next, write down all the synonyms you can think of to describe the concepts:
CONCEPT 1: |
CONCEPT 2: |
drug abuse |
aging elderly old people lifetime life span young adults |
Subject Search or Keyword Search?
You may want to start your search by entering some of the terms you came
up with in the search field. Keyword searching is the default method of searching
in ProQuest. If you enter one word or a two word phrase in the search field ProQuest
automatically searches for these terms together (for example welfare reform). If
you put three or more words together they will not be searched together unless
they are enclosed with quotes (for example: "child protection services" ).
A subject search uses special pre-defined terms to index articles. ProQuest uses the term "topic" and "subject" interchangeably when referring to these indexed terms. If you are not sure if a term has been defined by ProQuest as a subject/topic look up the term in the "Browse Topics" tool.
Working with Search Results
The Results page shows a list of articles matching your search terms.
Narrowing your search results
Icons below the articles show which formats are available, for example:
This icon indicates an article is available in a full text format.
This icon indicates an article is available as a PDF file.
This icon, with the link "find a copy" indicates the article is not available on ProQuest as a full text article. Clicking on this link or icon will take you to the article abstract.
Just because an article is not available through ProQuest as full text does not necessarily mean it is unavailable. Articles may be available in electronic full text form through another University Library services. To find out more information on how to find this article click on the "find a copy" link or the icon. This will bring up the article abstract. From the abstract, click on the SFX symbol or the link "Check SFX for Availability". SFX provides links to other sources for a full text version, delivery options through Interlibrary Loan, links to MIRLYN, showing which libraries have a print subscription of the journal and links to other University of Michigan libraries which own the journal containing the article. For more information on SFX see the SFX Frequently Asked Questions page.
If the article is available in both full text and PDF formats you can choose the format you would like to use to view the article by clicking on the corresponding icon. Clicking on the article's title will show the article in the best format available.
Click in the individual box at the left of each article to mark it for later
use or use the Mark/Clear all on page links to select all
articles. The Marked List tab at the top will show how
many articles you have marked.
| # | Strategy |
Results |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Go to the Social Work Library's Online Resource page at: http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/resource.html |
Starting place for finding databases and other online resources relevant to social work |
| 2. | Click on "Social Work Databases" | Takes you to the main list of databases |
| 3. | Click on the letter "P" in the index at the top of the page, scroll to find ProQuest" and click on the link | Connects to the combined databases ProQuest Newspapers, ProQuest Research Library and ABI/INFORM |
| 4. | Click on the link "Databases selected" directly under the Basic Search tab. | Shows the list of databases available. Selected databases are highlighted in yellow. |
| 5. | Change databases and click the "Continue" button on the Database page. | Returns you to the Basic Search page. The database(s) you selected are listed. |
| 6. | Click on the "Publication Search" tab along the top of the page. Click "Show all publications" | Lists all publications available and, if available as full text, what the full text coverage is. |
| 7. | Type "social work" in the publication search field. | Brings up all publications containing these terms anywhere in the journal title. |
| 8. | Click on "Health and Social Work" | Shows a list of links for each issue available. Some issues may be full text, some may be citations and abstracts only. |
| 9. | Click the "Basic Search" tab at the top of the page. | Takes you to the Basic search page |
| 10. | Enter the terms drug abuse and aging in the search field then the search button. | Shows the resulting list of articles found using these terms. |
| 11. | Click on the Full text articles only link. | Lists only the full text articles from your search results |
| 12. | Click on the Scholarly Journals tab | Shows only full text versions of articles in scholarly journals. |
| 13. | Click on the article title. | Shows the article in full text format |
| 14. | Check the box at the top of the Article View page to mark the article | Marks the article |
| 15. | Click on the Marked List tab at the top of the page. | Takes you to the Marked List page where you can print, email or download the citation. |
| 16. | Click on the Basic Search tab again. | Returns you to your last search. |
| 17. | Click on Recent Searches, under the Tools option. | Shows your search history. You can combine searches or run searches again. |
| 18. | Click on Advance Search tab at the top of the page. | Shows Advance Search form. |
| 19. | Enter "health care policy" (including the quotation marks), and on the next line enter child* and limit the term to subject by using the drop down menu. Check the Full text articles only and Scholarly journals options. | Searches for the phrase "health care policy" in the citation and abstract fields and limits the results to those articles which mention any subject headings starting with the word child (so children and children's are included). These articles are further narrowed by searching only full text scholarly journals. |
| 20. | Click on an article title from the results list | Shows the full text version and citation for this article. |
| 21. | Click the "more like this" link, shown on the yellow bar, under the citation | Takes you to the indexed terms used for this article so that you can use these terms to find similar articles. |
For additional help with ProQuest click on the Search Tips link, just above the Search button. Once in Search Tipsyou can search the contents, index or glossary or click on the link for Quick Reference Guides.
Last revised: ; Converted by Jamie Nielsen 9/30/07
Content last updated on 19 February 2007:
Social Work Library | (734) 764-5169 | social.work.library@umich.edu
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