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Library Resources for Nursing PhD Students: Exploring: ProQuest

This guide provides information on how best to utilize library resources throughout your PhD program at the College of Nursing.

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Limits/filters

Limits and filters allow you to narrow the results down to only the ones that are most relevant. Common limits that are applied include: article type, date, and language.

Tip: the more limits and filters you set, the narrower your results will be. It is possible for you to limit your results all the way down to 0, so be careful.

Tip 2: do not limit by Full Text. As a student of ECU, you can receive the full text of articles either with your PirateID and password, or through our free Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service if ECU does not own a copy of the article. Electronic resources can be e-mailed to your ECU account.

Using ProQuest

Personal accounts in databases are free, and I strongly recommend creating an account for each database you may use. They are particularly valuable when you need to save your searches for longer than your current browsing period. Closing your browser almost always erases your search history; having a personal account allows you to save searches that you may want to look at again later.


To create an account in ProQuest, click on the icon of the person in the top right-hand corner of the page, then click on Create My Research Account in the dropdown menu.

Complete the form on the following page and click Create Account.

Infinite looping GIF demonstrating how to create an account in ProQuest

ProQuest makes its basic search feature fairly simple. Just copy and paste the search string you created from your concept table into the search bar and click the magnifying glass.

(Nurse OR Nurses OR "Nursing personnel") AND ("Health literacy") AND (Rural OR "Rural areas" OR "Rural health centers" OR "Rural population" OR "Rural populations" OR "Rural health nursing" OR "Underserved populations")

After clicking the magnifying glass, you will see the results page. You can apply limits to the results by selecting them on the left-hand sidebar.

As you select filters, ProQuest will refresh the results page to display only those articles that meet the selected criteria.

Infinite looping GIF demonstrating how to set filters and limits in ProQuest

To access articles that look relevant to you, click on the article title to open the article page. If ECU has access to the full text, you will see an option to download the PDF. If this option does not appear, please complete the Interlibrary Loan request form to have it e-mailed to you.

Infinite looping GIF demonstrating how to view full text in ProQuest

If you created a personal ProQuest account, you can save articles by selecting the ones you want to save, and then clicking on the three dots on the right hand side. Select RefWorks in the Citation Export options.

Infinite looping GIF demonstrating how to save articles to RefWorks in ProQuest

Next, click Yes, then Import, and OK.

To see the full article record in RefWorks, click on the title. Click on View Full Abstract to read the full abstract.

Infinite looping GIF demonstrating how to save articles to RefWorks in ProQuest

If you created a personal ProQuest account, you can save your search and create alerts. Click on Save search/alert on the right hand side of the results page. Select either save search or create alert. Follow the prompts to complete saving your search.

Setting an alert will allow ProQuest to run your search as frequently as you want it to, and you will receive e-mail alerts when new articles become available that meet your search criteria.

Infinite looping GIF demonstrating how to create an alert in ProQuest

Ask a Librarian

Live Chat

Chat with a librarian is available 9-5 Monday-Saturday.

You can also contact a librarian.

Call us:

1-888-820-0522 (toll free)

252-744-2230

Or email us:

laupuslibrary@ecu.edu

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