This is the second or third review I've been working on where I've run into this issue. Other databases–PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and CINAHL (EBSCOhost)–all run my search just fine, but both ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global and APA PsycINFO give me this message: "Unable to complete your search. Please try again."
I reached out to ProQuest about this, and they essentially told me that I was using too much truncation and suggested to search for terms without quotation marks so it automatically pulled in variations such as singular and plural and British and American spelling. They also didn't clarify exactly what the truncation limit is.
Obviously, this is a problem for systematic searching. I am already planning to ask if my institution can switch to EBSCOhost for APA PsycINFO because I'm having such a hard time searching ProQuest. EBSCO's open dissertations is about a third of the size of ProQuest dissertations & theses, though, so I am hesitant to leave that one out.
Has anyone else encountered this? Do you have any workarounds beyond what the rep suggested or alternatives to ProQuest?
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Jules Bailey
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