ProQuest
The aggregator behind the library catalogue — dissertations, news, and scholarly content under one subscription.
At a Glance
- Publisher
- Clarivate (acquired ProQuest in 2021)
- Coverage
A family of databases spanning ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (the most comprehensive dissertation index, millions of works), scholarly journals, newspapers and historical news archives, ebooks, and primary-source collections.
- Access
Institutional subscription.
- Free alternative
- For dissertations, institutional repositories and OpenAlex; for news, library news databases.
- Regional
Strong Anglophone and historical-archive coverage.
Our Take
ProQuest’s strength is breadth of format — it’s often the only place to find a specific dissertation, a digitised historical newspaper, or a primary-source set alongside journal content, which makes it a workhorse for literature reviews, history, and the social sciences. Because it’s a platform of many databases, knowing which sub-database you’re searching matters as much as the query, and coverage and interface vary across them. Its search also expands plurals and variants automatically, which can quietly broaden results. Use it for dissertations, news, and primary sources; reach for a citation index when you need impact metrics.
Power Tips
- Use EXACT(‘your term’) to switch off automatic plural and variant expansion and tighten precision.
- Confirm which ProQuest sub-database you’re in before building a search; scope deliberately for auditable systematic-review counts.
Alternatives & Complements
EBSCO, Web of Science, Scopus, Nexis Uni, institutional repositories
Figures last verified: June 15, 2026