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Proquest ABI/Inform Collection

A guide to all aspects of ABI/INFORM Collection including content, searching, and viewing results on the ProQuest platform.

Advanced Search Tips

Perform a more detailed search using the pull-down menu with supported field codes as well as the limit to section to apply additional limits.

1. Advanced Search Form and Pull-down Menus

Boolean, proximity, and field codes are supported. The default is to search for ALL terms entered. Separate terms with OR to find any of the terms.  To search for an exact phrase, use "quotation marks" around your search.

When running a search, the search default from the pull-down menu is either set to Anywhere or Anywhere except full text. Anywhere searches the full bibliographic record (all indexed fields) including the ProQuest full text. Anywhere except full text searches the full bibliographic record, but does NOT include a search of the ProQuest full text. Other search fields can also be chosen from the pull-down menu such as abstract, author, document title, and publication title.

For a full listing, description, and examples of how to format a search using field codes indexed in ABI/INFORM, please visit the Searchable Fields section of this guide.

2. Limit to: Full text, Peer reviewed, Scholarly journals

Full text, Peer reviewed, and Scholarly journals are the first limits that appear in the Advanced Search. The visibility of these limits is determined by your ProQuest Administrator Module settings. Whether or not any of these are checked by default is also determined by your ProQuest Administrator Module settings.

Checking the Full text limit will restrict your search to only search and retrieve records containing full text from ProQuest.

Checking the Peer reviewed limit will restrict your search to only search and retrieve records that are indexed in peer reviewed journals. Peer reviewed journals are a subset of scholarly journals and are defined as journals that undergo a review process where other experts (peers) in the field review the work before it  is published in the journal. Peer reviewed journals are also commonly known as refereed journals.

Checking the Scholarly journals limit will restrict your search to only search and retrieve records that are indexed in scholarly journals. Scholarly journals are journals that are intended for an academically oriented audience.

3. Date Range

The Date range limit defaults to search all dates. Other options include Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 3 months, Last 12 months, Last 3 years, On this date, After this date, Before this date, and Specific date range.

4. Database Specific Limits and Fields

Company/Organization, Person, and Location are part of the subject field search. They are defined as types of subjects and can be located by searching the subject field, but also are indexed separately and in addition to the subject as specific subject types. When a subject from a record happens to be a company or organization, a person, or a location, you will find a separate indexed subject field for these types. Subjects are also known as descriptors, subject headings, controlled vocabulary and sometimes classification terms. The subjects in ABI/INFORM are pulled from the ProQuest Thesaurus. To learn more about searching for subjects in the thesaurus, please see the Searchable Fields section of this guide. Each of these search options in the Advanced Search page also includes a look up link to the browsable index for this field. Use the look up link next to the search box to browse the subject types and add them to your search. To learn more about the look up feature, please visit the Searchable Fields section of this guide.

Classification codes are used to organize documents into broad topical areas. You can use them to find documents about a business environment, management function, industry or market, article treatment, geographic areas, and organizational types. Each record in ABI/INFORM is assigned to one or more classification codes. Use the look up link next the to Classification code search box to browse the topical areas and add them to your search.To learn more about the look up feature, please visit the Searchable Fields section of this guide.

The Product name limit will search the product name field and this is indexed in an ABI/INFORM record when the article is about a product. There is no look up or browsable index for this field.

The NAICS limit is for the North American Industry Classification System and the codes classify organizations by industry. You can use them to find documents related to a particular industry. Use the look up link next to the NAICS codes search to browse the industries and add them to your search. For more information, see the U.S. Government NAICS website. To learn more about the look up feature, please visit the Searchable Fields section of this guide.

The Source type limit refers to the publication type. All are unchecked by default and if you leave them as such when you run your search, all source types will be included in your search. Limiting your search by marking any of the source types will then only run your search to include those source types you selected.

The Document type limit is used to refer to the format of the full-text. This includes articles, blogs, books, company profiles, industry reports, market research, and many others. All are unchecked by default and if you leave them as such when you run your search, all document types will be included in your search. Limiting your search by marking any of the document types will then only run your search to include those document types you selected.

The Document feature limit can be used when you want to limit your search to items that contain additional graphical images such as charts, tables, photos, or illustrations. All are unchecked by default and if you leave them as such when you run your search, all document features will be included in your search. Limiting your search by marking any of the document features will then only run your search to include those document features you selected.

The Language limit is used to restrict your search to documents published in one or more languages. All are unchecked by default and if you leave them as such when you run your search, all languages will be included in your search. Limiting your search by marking any of the languages will then only run your search to include those languages you selected.

5. Display Options

The Sort results by menu controls the sort order of the records that appear in the results page. Sort by relevance, date (oldest first), or date (most recent first). Relevance is determined by an algorithm that factors in the number of times your search terms appear in the record as well where in the record your search terms appear.

Items per page is used to select how many results will display on the results page. Choose from 10, 20, 50, or 100 items.

Duplicates can appear in ProQuest if the item is indexed in more than one database or collection. The default behavior is to suppress the duplicate, however, if you would like the duplicate items to appear in the results, select to include duplicate documents.

6. Thesaurus

The ProQuest Thesaurus is used to index the ABI/INFORM subject field. The subject terms are found in the subject field and this is one of the searchable fields listed in the searchable fields table. The thesaurus allows you to find subject terms to narrow or broaden your search. Subjects are also commonly known as descriptors, controlled vocabulary, and sometimes classification terms. In ABI/INFORM, there are different subject types and in addition to the all encompassing subject field, there are also company/organization, person, and location. Please see section 4 of this page for additional details on these subject types.

For additional details on how to use the thesaurus and search using the subject field, please see the Searchable Fields section of this guide.

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