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ProQuest Health & Medical Collection: Searching

User guide for ProQuest Health & Medical Collection

Basic Search

PROQUEST HEALTH & MEDICAL Collection  will default to the Advanced Search screen:

  • Rows can be added with the + add a row key, and the AND connector is automatically engaged.
  • Use the first box to search for your first search concept and it's variations; the second box for your second concept and it's variations, and so on.

Combining Search Terms

Combine terms using the connectors AND, OR, NOT from the drop down menu or by typing them directly into the box.

OR – use OR to find articles which use any or several of your search terms, or to combine terms that are similar

This will increase the number of articles found

e.g. physical activity OR exercise OR sport

 

AND – use AND to find articles which use all of your search terms, or combine terms that are different

This will reduce the number of articles found

e.g. physical education AND obesity AND children


NOT - use NOT to exclude terms

e.g. children NOT adolescents

*Use this search with caution as it may exclude relevant results*

Truncation and Phrase Searching

Truncation – placing an asterisk * at the natural end of a word (the stem) will find all variations
 e.g. exercis* will return information containing the terms exercise, exercises, exercising, exercise-led, exercise-induced etc.

               

Phrase searching – Placing double quotation marks around terms will search for it as an exact phrase

e.g. "physical activity"

Example Search: