Sample Assignment: Search for a WSJ Article on a Given Topic
Your professor has posted an assignment that requires an analysis of government policy responses to the coronavirus. A range of journal and newspaper sources are required, including The Wall Street Journal. In the example that follows, a search is constructed to look for articles from The Wall Street Journal on various lockdown policies.
WSJ Search: lockdown AND policy
Two keyword terms (lockdown, policy) have been combined with the operator AND.
The AND requires that both terms appear in the resulting articles.
WSJ Results: Sorting Options
Articles from The Wall Street Journal are part of the larger periodical database, ABI/Inform. The search results screen displays the keyword terms and the publication ID for The Wall Street Journal.
Results are sorted in the order of "most recent first," however this can be changed if desired.
Note that the majority of results fall into the publication date range of 2020. This is likely due to the fact that the term 'lockdown' has appeared in many articles since March 2020.
WSJ: Capture the Citation
Any article that is used to inform an argument in a research paper must be properly cited in the writer's list of references.
Use the CITE button to automatically generate the citation. Databases typically provide citations in the APA, MLA, and Chicago/Turabian styles. Consult with your professor about preferred styles.
As discussed in the article cited below, not every country took the same approach to handling the COVID19 crisis.
Extra Credit!
Students who wish to tweak and refine their searches will find that they have entered the larger periodical database, ABI-Inform. Searches will no longer be exclusively for articles from The Wall Street Journal, however results may be limited by Publication Title to The Wall Street Journal. Listed below are a few additional strategies.
Phrases should be placed within quotation marks:
A search for CARES Act finds over 114,000 results (from hundreds of publications), including many articles on the Affordable Care Act.
A search for "CARES Act" using quotation marks finds just over 1,300 results. After limiting by Publication Title to The Wall Street Journal and the Wall Street Journal Online, 14 articles remain, all of which are about the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, (CARES Act).
Wall Street Journal - Database Landing Page: "Search within this Publication"
Wall Street Journal Initial Search Results
Wall Street Journal: CITE Button
ABI-Inform: Use Quotation Marks around Phrases; Limit by Publication Title to WSJ
McGahn, D. (2020, Apr 28). The Cares Act Blame Game Begins. Wall Street Journal Retrieved from https://ezproxysuf.flo.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxysuf.flo.org/docview/2395162362?accountid=28735
NOTE: The code "noft" (no full text), automatically inserted by the database, indicates that in this search example, the keyword terms are to appear in the higher weighted portions of the article, such as the title or abstract. In other words, the database is searching for the entered terms, anywhere except for within the body of the article, i.e. the full text. The drop-down box depicted below is a hallmark of the ProQuest family of periodical databases: ABI-Inform, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe. This box allows users to manipulate the where the search terms are expected to be found.
Other ProQuest Databases
Users who are familiar with ProQuest's Wall Street Journal database, will also be familiar with the features of other ProQuest periodical databases:
- ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new windowContains publications such as The Economist and The Wall Street Journal.
- Boston Globe 1980-present This link opens in a new windowContains the full text of well known publications such as The Economist and The Wall Street Journal.