Sociology Graduate Student Resources

If results are too large or seem irrelevant, you can limit one or more search terms to a specific field.  For example, you can choose to search for important terms in the Title field. 

You can use these strategies in ProQuest databases such as Sociological Abstracts. To find out more, go into the database and look for a "Help," "About," or "Search Tips" link.

pre/# is used to search for terms in proximity to each other in a specific order; # is replaced with the number of words permitted between the search terms.

• Sample Search: parent* pre/2 educational (within 2 words & in order)
  • This would retrieve articles with no more than two words between parent* and educational (in this order) e.g. "Parent practices and educational achievement" OR "Parents on Educational Attainment" OR "Parental Values, Educational Attainment" etc.

w/# is used to search for terms in proximity to each other in any order; # is replaced with the number of words permitted between the search terms.

• Sample Search: parent* w/3 educational (within 3 words & in any order)
  • This would retrieve articles with no more than three words between parent* and educational (in any order)  e.g. "Educational practices of parents" OR "Parents value motivation and education" OR "Educational attainments of Latino parents"

? (the question mark) is used as a wildcard

• Sample Search: freshm?n and "college transition"
  • This would search for freshman and freshmen.

One strategy for learning what's in your database is to use the Subject filter to find new terms that you can use in searches. 

This tutorial demonstrates how (and why) to use the thesaurus tool to find index terms or subject headings when searching PsycINFO on ProQuest.

Although primarily focused on PsycINFO, these techniques can be used in any database with a thesaurus.

in Google Scholar, use the "Cited by" link to do forward citation chaining / forward citation trails.

See also: