Searching, Display, Citations and Email

General settings

Interface language

You can set the default language for the ProQuest interface. You can either choose an interface language from the drop-down list, or select the Let Browser Choose option if you want ProQuest to detect where you are accessing the internet from and change the interface language accordingly. Note that if you select this option but the browser is set to a language other than those supported by the ProQuest platform, the interface will display in English.

Date format

You can specify what format dates will be displayed in throughout ProQuest. You can also specify which page users will be taken to on first accessing ProQuest by choosing an option from the Start users on drop-down list, and specify whether users will see brief or detailed information on each publication on the Select Databases page.

Searching

Autocomplete

You can choose whether to enable or disable autocomplete for your users. If you choose to enable this feature, when your users type in the search box, a list of terms - always based on what they've typed at any point - begins to display beneath the box. These terms are in a dictionary built from previous successful searches by all users. Users can click a term in the list to search on it immediately.

Default search

You can choose whether ProQuest searches for terms in All fields + text, or All fields (no full text). If you choose All fields + text, ProQuest will by default search for your terms everywhere in a document, including in full text. If you choose All fields (no full text), you will retrieve instances of your terms which occur anywhere except in the full text. Note: the Historical Newspapers, American Periodicals and British Periodicals databases will always search the full text, even if the All fields (no full text) option is set in PAM.

Control the display of search limiters and their default state

Within the main ProQuest interface, checkboxes on the search pages allow you to limit your search to full text, peer-reviewed material (that is, research that has been evaluated by people in the same field in order to maintain quality), and/or items from scholarly journals (journals published for an academic audience by a recognized society with academic goals and missions). You can use the drop-down lists on the Interface Settings page in PAM to specify whether these checkboxes should display checked or unchecked by default in the main interface; you can also choose not to display these checkboxes if you prefer.

Customize search results

You can also choose whether spelling variants and/or plural, comparative and superlative forms are included or excluded from searches.

Results, document display, linking

Number of items to display per page

You can set the number of items per page that will display on Search Results pages. The default number is 20 items per page, but you can change this to 10, 50 or 100.

Default sort order

By default, results are sorted by relevance, meaning the most useful articles should sort to the top of the list. You can use the Default sort order drop-down to change the default display to oldest items or most recent items first.

Relevance is calculated on the basis of the number of times your search term appears in an article, which field it appears in, and where in the document it appears.

Important to know: If your users have My Research accounts, they can change the default sort order for all search results on the Preferences page within ProQuest. What they specify there will be in effect anytime they use ProQuest and sign in to My Research. When they change the sort order directly on a Search Results page, their selection will last only for the duration of their current session.

Translate option

ProQuest offers 'on-the-fly' machine translation of selected content. The Administrator Module enables you to choose whether or not to include this functionality on the Document View pages. If you choose to include this option, users will be able to click the 'Translate' link next to the abstract or full text of an item they are viewing, select the language they want to translate from and the target language, then click Translate to translate the text.

'Find a copy' link

If a user is viewing the record for an item with no full text available that does not have copies available within your institution, and at least one outbound custom link has been added in the Administrator Module using the link resolvers or OpenURL links, clicking the 'Find a copy' link will show a list of all available custom links to that resource that have been added. If one of the custom links is set as the default, then the specified link will appear on the Search Results and the ‘Find a copy’ link will not display.

Note that the ‘Find a copy’ feature does not include links from ProQuest to other full text resources that have been set up using resource linking with OneClick TM.

The Administrator Module also enables you to change the link text for "Find a copy" links to your own wording.

Ordering copies of dissertations and theses

Users can order hard copies of dissertations or theses from within ProQuest. The first time they place an order they will need to set up an account; thereafter their billing and shipping information will be retrieved automatically when they log in with their username and password to place an order.

Users can order copies by clicking the link that appears on the Search Results or Document View pages for an item. You can enable or disable these links in the Administrator Module. If you choose to enable the link, you can also specify custom link text.

Citation

You can set the default citation style that will be used throughout ProQuest. The following citation styles are available:

As well as setting the default citation style, you can also specify which styles to make available to users in the main ProQuest platform. Available styles are shown as checked in PAM; to remove a style from the ProQuest interface, uncheck the checkbox next to that style.

Alerts & RSS

You can control when your users can create alerts and RSS feeds in the main ProQuest interface, and prevent anonymous users from using these features. If the Require My Research sign in before creating alerts and RSS feeds checkbox is left unchecked, anyone with access to your institution's account can create an alert or RSS feed. If the checkbox is checked, only users who have logged in using a My Research account will be able to create alerts and RSS feeds; users who do not have a My Research account or who have not logged in using their My Research credentials will be prompted to do so if they try to create an alert or RSS feed.

Email

ProQuest offers users the ability to email articles to themselves or others; you can disable or enable this option via the Administrator Module.

You can also set the default format for received emails. If you want your users to be able to include images or styling in the emails they will receive, select HTML format.