
Searching for articles on mathematical and statistical topics in ProQuest
ProQuest is a multidisciplinary database and the records on mathematical and statistical topics can get buried in a very large number of records. A lot of the ProQuest databases use classification codes which can be used to produce a fairly precise searches for these topics. Here's how to search using them.
Start your browser (Explorer or Firefox) and go to the library web page from the student webpage. Click Search a database. Click Proquest Central from the A-Z database list.
You will need an Athens username and password, but if you forget it you can check it by logging on to My Caledonian and clicking the Athens tab.
Log in using your Athens username and password.
Setting up the search
At the Welcome to ProQuest page, all of the databases will have a tick beside them.
Click the orange Use selected databases button, (unless you want to focus the search to a particular database)
In the search box enter mathematics (or statistics or an alternative term).
You will now see a large number of records on the chosen subject.
Now select More options from the Classification section towards the foot of the Narrow results by column on the right of the screen,
From the box headed Classification, click on the blue Classification link.
The reorganised list shows the Decimal Classification numbers at the top. Select the classes you want to view by ticking the boxes in the Include column, and then clicking Apply. You can choose the numbers from the list or by using numbers from the spines of useful library books.
The list of the records classified under the terms you selected will now be displayed under the Search Results, they are organised by relevance.
(If the set of records is still very large it can be reduced further by using the one of the additional search functions available on ProQuest to combine the search with other topics.)
Select records from the list by clicking the box beside the title. To create your bibliography, click Create Bibliography in the box at the top. In Output style choose GCU Harvard 2011a. Choose your folder from the drop down References to include menu. Click on Create bibliography. You may have to go to red ‘click here’ to open. Your bibliography will appear in a pop-up window. You can cut and paste it into the end of your document. For more information on how to use RefWorks, look at the work-through guide on the library web pages or contact your librarian.
For more help on using Proquest databases, contact your librarian on the library webpages.