MUSE Search Help
If you can't find what you need in the search help, please contact MUSE Customer Support.
Using the Search Engine
Tips for Searching
Working With Results
Using the Search Engine
Browser Requirements
The Project MUSE search interface utilizes cascading style sheets, supported by and tested on the following browsers:
- PC Windows - Internet Explorer 5.x; Mozilla 1.0
- Macintosh - Internet Explorer 5.x; Mozilla 1.21
For best results, please use one of these browsers. If you experience display problems while using one of the platform/browser combinations listed, please contact Customer Support.
Internet Explorer 5.x: Under Explorer, choose Preferences, select Web Content, then make sure "Enable Scripting" is checked under "Active Content."
Journals Included in Search
If you are from an institution that subscribes to MUSE, the search engine will retrieve results from all journals in MUSE.
If you do not have full-text access to all the journals MUSE offers based on your institution's subscription, you may limit your search to just those journals to which your institution subscribes. Use the option provided on the advanced article search screen.
If the search engine does not recognize you as an institutional subscriber, the search engine will search all MUSE journals, however, you will not have access to the full-text. If you have password access to a particular journal in MUSE, searching from the advanced screen and using journal title limits is recommended.
You can also view our list of subscribers to check if your institution subscribes, and to which of the six MUSE journal collections it subscribes. Please refer any questions about access to your institution's library.
Please note that anyone may use the Project MUSE search engine. To view full-text articles, however, you must be from an institution which subscribes to MUSE or have password access, e.g. through association membership.
Article Search Box
The article search box is available on each page on the website in the upper right corner. Use this search box as a starting point, or for quick, simple searching. Use the advanced screen for more features and options.
- Enter term(s) in the search box. Use quotations to search for a phrase (e.g., "paradise lost").
- If desired, use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine terms in different ways.
Advanced Article Search Screen
Advanced search provides more options for performing both simple and complex searching.
- Enter term(s) in the search box(es). Use quotations (e.g. "paradise lost") to search for phrases.
- If desired, combine terms by typing Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT, or type terms in separate boxes and use the pull-downs at the left of the search boxes. To add an additional search box, click on Add a Row.
- Select fields to search from the right-hand pulldowns. You can combine search strings against different fields by using the different search boxes
- Select how you want to sort and display your results.
- If needed, use options to limit the search results to specific sets of journals, articles or year of publication.
Search Fields
All Fields (w/ text) -
All Fields except Text - All Fields except for the article text. Useful field to start with; general search but narrower than with the text of the article.
(All fields include all the search fields listed in the pull-down, as well as volume number, issue number, first and last page numbers, type of article (article or review), ISSN (electronic version), and abstract if available.)
Article Text - The text of the article.
Article Author - Authors of MUSE articles or reviews.
Article Title - Title of MUSE article.
Subject Headings - Subjects of articles using Library of Congress Subject Headings.
Journal Title - Title of MUSE journals.
Author reviewed - Authors and editors of books reviewed in MUSE, as well as playwrights and directors of performances reviewed or artists of exhibitions reviewed.
Title reviewed - Titles of works (books, exhibitions, plays, films) reviewed in MUSE journals.
Options for Limiting a Search
If needed, use additional search options on the advanced screen to search on subsets of the MUSE database by document type, year, journal title(s) or article language:
By Type of Content
Check the appropriate box or boxes to limit to either Articles, Reviews, or types of literary works.
- Articles - approx. 57% of MUSE - Include articles, editorials, commentaries, works of fiction, drama and poetry.
- Reviews - approx. 43% - Include book, film, exhibition, performance reviews, etc.
- Fiction.
- Poetry.
- Drama.
By Year
- Enter a 4 digit year in each box to set a range of dates to search.
- Enter a year in the left-hand box only to specify that year forward
- Enter the same year in both boxes to specify that year only
By Journal
You can limit your search by individual journal title(s) or by discipline group(s).
- To limit your search to specific titles, select from the list.
- Make multiple selections or "de-select" a selection by holding down the control or command key.
- If you do not have all MUSE titles available at your institution, an additional category "All Journals" will be available. Select that option to expand your search to the full database.
- To search by discipline, use the pull-down to select "All Disciplines"
- All MUSE titles, regardless of subscription, are included in the groupings.
By Language
You can limit your search by the language in which the article is written. MUSE includes articles in many languages in addition to English; utilize pull-down menu to make your selection.
Note: If you are not from a subscribing institution, you will automatically see just the lists of all MUSE titles and the disciplines. You can search all or parts of the database, but no full-text will be available unless you have password access, e.g. association membership. Read Journals Included in Search for more information.
Retrieving JSTOR Articles in MUSE
For some of the journal titles common to Project MUSE and JSTOR (www.jstor.org), MUSE provides links to articles from the back issues archived in JSTOR. If your institution participates in JSTOR, you may be able to retrieve full-text JSTOR articles when searching in MUSE.
How to include JSTOR articles in your search
Use the Advanced Article Search page to include JSTOR back issues in your search. Select the box 'Include JSTOR back issues' under Additional Search Options, to search for both MUSE and JSTOR articles simultaneously.
For JSTOR articles, the database will search for terms in the citation information only (title, author, abstract). It will not search within the full-text of JSTOR articles.
To search within specific journal titles for which MUSE provides links to JSTOR back issues, use the "By Journal" limit in Advanced Article Search.
If your institution does not have a full subscription to Project MUSE, you will still search all MUSE titles and any JSTOR back issues available as the MUSE search defaults to searching all MUSE titles.
Viewing full-text JSTOR articles
Search results for JSTOR articles include a "Full-Text in JSTOR" link. Clicking this link will open up an explanatory page in a new window.
From the explanatory page, click on the "Go to Full-Text in JSTOR" link to open the full-text article. This link will take you off of the Project MUSE site and onto the JSTOR site.
If you cannot open the full-text JSTOR article, your institution might not have access to JSTOR. Ask your librarian for help.
If you are having trouble using the JSTOR site, ask your librarian for help or contact JSTOR.
To return to the Project MUSE site, close the window in which you have been using JSTOR. Your MUSE Search Results screen should still be open in a different browser window.
JSTOR Back Issues
For some of the journal titles common to Project MUSE and JSTOR (www.jstor.org), MUSE provides links to articles from the back issues archived in JSTOR. If your institution subscribes to JSTOR, you may be able to retrieve full-text JSTOR articles when searching in MUSE.
Project MUSE supplements its journal coverage with the following back issues provided by JSTOR:
- American Journal of Mathematics 1878-1995
- The American Journal of Philology 1880-1995
- American Literature 1929-1999
- American Quarterly 1949-1995
- American Speech 1925-1999
- boundary 2 1972-1999
- Callaloo 1976-1994
- Diacritics 1871-1995
- Eighteenth-Century Studies 1967-1995
- ELH 1934-1994
- Ethnohistory 1954-1999
- French Historical Studies 1958-1999
- Hispanic American Historical Review 1918-1999
- Journal of Social Forces 1922-1925
- Journal of the History of Ideas 1940-1995
- MLN 1962-1994
- Modern Language Notes 1886-1961
- New Literary History 1969-1994
- Poetics Today 1979-1999
- Reviews in American History 1973-1994
- Shakespeare Quarterly 1950-2000
- Social Forces 1925-2000
- Social Text 1979-1999
- Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 1961-1998
- Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 1897-1972
- Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-) 1974-2000
- Transactions of the American Philological Association (1869-1896) 1869-1896
- Transition 1961-1999
- World Politics 1948-1995
Tips for Searching
Truncation
- Searching is on EXACT WORDS.
- Truncate with an asterisk (*) at the ends of terms only.
Examples:
Weimar, k* to retrieve Weimar, Klaus
modern* to retrieve modern, modernity, modernism, etc.
histor* to retrieve history, historical, etc.
cat* to search cat and cats, etc.
- We currently do not offer a mechanism to expand search terms within or at the beginning of words.
- Use truncation to search for plurals or parts of words.
Diacritics, Special Characters, Hyphens, and Punctuation
Diacritics and Special Characters
- Type in terms and ignore diacritics when searching. For example, do not use an "e" for umlauts.
- Use these substitutions for the following special characters:
- Type "ss" for ß
- Type "ae" for æ
- Type "o" for ø
- Type "n" for ñ
- Type "a" for å
- Type "c" for ç
-
Examples:
nagele will retrieve Nägele.
alvarez will retrieve álvarez
"Theory and Event" will retrieve Theory & Event.
Hyphens and Punctuation
- In general, do not type punctuation or characters (including ampersands) in your search: punctuation and special characters are ignored by the search engine and treated as spaces.
- However, when punctuation or characters appear as parts of words (e.g., hyphenated names or initials), enter the punctuation or character or leave a space and enclose in quotes.
- Z39.50 or "Z39 50" will retrieve Z39.50
- high/low or "high low" will retrieve high/low
- Reid-Pharr or "Reid Pharr" will retrieve Reid-Pharr
- W.E.B. DuBois or "W E B" Dubois will retrieve W.E.B. DuBois or W. E. B. Dubois
- Note: Typing W. E. B. DuBois or W E B DuBois (spaces between initials) will also retrieve W.E.B. Dubois or W. E. B. DuBois, but possibly other hits since the search engine will process the initials each as a separate term, e.g. w AND e AND b AND DuBois).
Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) and Phrase ("") Searching
- Boolean "operators" AND, OR, and NOT are supported:
- Either type in "operators" AND, OR, and NOT in the search statement.
- Or, use the multiple boxes in advanced article search and select the operators from the pull-downs.
- Use quotation marks ("") to search for phrases (words together in exact order).
- Both the search box and the advanced article search screen automatically combine terms so you don't need to type "AND."
- When using more than one kind of "operator" (either by typing or in the separate boxes in advanced), the search engine combines the operators from "left to right."
criseyde and chaucer
Retrieves results with both terms
hamlet not macbeth
Retrieves results with the term hamlet but not Macbeth
beloved or "song of solomon"
Retrieves results with either the term beloved or the phrase 'song of solomon.'
kerouac ginsberg burroughs ferlinghetti
Retrieves results which contain all of these terms
kerouac "dharma bums" "on the road"
Retrieves results which contain the term 'kerouac' and the phrases 'dharma bums' and 'on the road.'
milwaukee or atlanta and braves
Retrieves articles with braves and either milwaukee or atlanta or both.
- To make sure you enter the search you want regardless of order of terms, either:
- Use parentheses to have those terms searched first:
(milwaukee or atlanta) and braves
braves and (milwaukee or atlanta)
Retrieves articles with braves and either milwaukee or atlanta or both.
- Or, type in separate search boxes in advanced
milwaukee or atlanta
[AND]
braves
braves
[AND]
atlanta or milwaukee
These advanced examples also retrieve articles with braves and either milwaukee or atlanta or both.
- Tip: Use the advanced article search screen to search different search strings against different fields.
Searching for authors of articles and reviews
Use the Advanced Article Search Screen
-
Enter author terms for one or more articles in search box and select article author.
Examples:
Rafael Medoff
Medoff, Rafael
Medoff Rafael
Medoff
kathryn king jeslyn medoff
king medoff -
If searching by phrase, enter in 'last name, first name' format and select Article Author from the right-hand pull-down.
"medoff rafael" -
If in doubt about how an author is entered in MUSE, try truncating with the '*' symbol.
"Tinter, A*"
d* dutton
Working with Results
Sorting Results
Use the
- Relevance (the default)
Selecting Relevance results in an order starting from the most pertinent based on calculation of frequency and proximity of search terms.
Please note: Ranking is especially useful for s searching for topics or subjects across the full-text ('all fields w/ text' or 'full-text' in the fields pull-down). Keep in mind, however, that "relevance" (see above) is calculated by software and is not fool-proof. Please use relevancy ranking as a general guide. If needed, see Refining or Narrowing Results to get a smaller, more focused results set. -
Date
Selecting Date, Latest First puts results in order by publication date starting from the most recent results.
Selecting Date, Earliest First puts results in order by publication date starting from the most recent results.
MUSE contains articles from as early as 1993 or 1995, but the majority of articles are from 2000 onward. -
Journal
Selecting Journal, A-Z puts results in alphabetical order by journal title.
Selecting Journal, Z-A puts results in reverse alphabetical order by journal title.
Use the
You can also change the order and number of results from the Results page.
Results Display
Find information about your current search at the top, including options to change the order and display, followed by options to modify or narrow down your results, an option to move between results pages, then your list of results.
Use the checkboxes to mark your results and the "Save Marked Entries" buttons (at top and bottom of results) to created a list of saved entries.
Links on the right side navigation bar take you to related screens: the Saved Results list (where you can e-mail, export or print results), the Search History, the Help screens, and back to the Advanced Article Search page.
Refining or Narrowing Results
When you have more results than desired, "refine" or "narrow" your results from the results screen or by returning to the search screen.
From the Results Page:
- The Results Search Box at the top of results allows searching of the results
- Searching defaults to "phrase;" enter one term or phrase at a time.
- Use the field pull-down for a narrower search.
- This is the simplest way to refine results.
Returning to the Search Screen
From the Advanced Article Search Screen
- Use the "Modify Search" link to return to the search screen and try one or more of the following tactics.
- Re-enter your search and use additional terms or phrases in separate search boxes.
- Select narrower fields to search in the right-hand pull-downs. Try different fields or combinations of fields.
- Examine the available limits options to narrow search by document type (articles or reviews), journals or groups of journals, or by year.
Marking and Saving Results
- Use the check boxes next to each citation, or click in the Mark All/Clear All box to mark or clear all results on a page.
- Click on the "Save Marked Results" button to save your marked results to the "Saved Results" page, where you can manage them in several different ways, including e-mailing, exporting, or downloading and printing.
-
Marks will be cleared once you leave that page of results, so in order for your marks to be "remembered," marked results must be saved on each page before going onto a new page.
Hint: Use the "Re-Sort" function at the top of the page to change the number of results that display on a page. This will allow you to mark or clear a preferred number of results at once.
See Email/Export/Print Saved Results for more information about managing your Saved Results list.
Search History
Search History allows you to review all of the searches you've conducted during your current session, including your search terms, how you searched ("AND" or "OR" etc.) in what fields, with which search options, and the number of results retrieved for each search.
- Click on "View Search History" from the right side navigation bar of the Advanced Article Search page to view your previous searches.
- Searches are ordered from most recent to least recent from top to bottom.
- Click on the linked number of results to the right of the search statement to access the results from that search.
- Click on the "Modify Search" link to the left of the search statement to edit that search.
- Searches which have been refined using the "Search Within Results" function will be marked "Refined Search" in red to the left of the search statement.
- Use the "Clear search history" link to remove all of your searches from the Search History page
E-mail/Export/Print Saved Results
Click on "View Saved Results" from the right side navigation bar on the Results page or on the Advanced Article Search page to view your Saved Results list. From the Saved Results page you can:
- E-mail Saved Results
- First, mark and save the results you would like to e-mail.
- Click on "View Saved Results" from the right side navigation bar to view your saved results list.
- Make sure that the saved results you want to e-mail are marked. Clear marks for any results you do not want to e-mail.
- Select the "E-mail" radio button and click "Export." The "E-mail Results" window will pop up. Enter the e-mail address to which you want to send the results. If you are sending the results to someone other than yourself, you can enter your e-mail address in the "From" line. You can also change the text in the "Subject" and "Notes" fields.
- Export Results to Citation Software
- First, mark and save the results you would like to export.
- Click on "View Saved Results" from the right side navigation bar to view your saved results list.
- Make sure that the saved results you want to export are marked. Clear marks for any results you do not want to export.
- Select the radio button corresponding to the software you would like to use (RefWorks, EndNote) and click "Export".
- Selecting the EndNote option will launch your EndNote program and prompt you to save to a library.
- Selecting Refworks will launch Refworks and import the results.
- Download Results in Printer-Friendly Text File
- First, mark and save the results you would like to download.
- Click on "View Saved Results" from the right side navigation bar to view your saved results list.
- Make sure that the saved results you want to download are marked. Clear marks for any results you do not want to download.
- Select the "Printer-Friendly Format" radio button and click "Export." A text-only version of the saved results will display. Use your browser's "Print" or "Save" functions to print or download the results to your computer.
- See Marking and Saving Results for more information about saving citations to the Saved Results page.
- Use the check boxes on the Saved Results page to mark results that you want to e-mail, export, download, or print.
- Your saved results from all searches will remain saved until you end your session (close out of the browser window) so that you can do several different functions without having to re-save them.
- If you want to remove a citation completely from your list of saved results, check the box next to the citation and click on "Delete Selected Entries."
Hints
How to Cite Articles from Project MUSE
The formats shown here are for citing articles in the "works cited" or reference list. For more detailed information, consult the official style guides cited below.
MLA Style
(For more detailed information, consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers or the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing)
Format:
Author Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Journal Name Volume.Issue if applicable (Year): page(s). Project MUSE Day Month Year of access < URL of article, break after a slash if needed >.
Example:
Browner, Stephanie P. "Writing American Science and Gender." American Literary History 16.3 (2004): 509-519. Project MUSE 12 March 2005 < http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_literary_history/v016/16.3browner.html >.
APA Style
(For more detailed information, consult the Publication Manual of the APA or one of the APA Style Guide books.)
Format:
Author Last Name, First Name. (Year). Article title. Journal Name, volume number(issue number, if applicable), page number(s). Retrieved Month day, year, from Project MUSE database.
Example:
Grady, Frank. (2003). Arnoldian Humanism, or Amnesia and Autobiography in the Schwarzenegger Action Film. Cinema Journal, 42(2), 41-56. Retrieved September 4, 2004 from Project MUSE database.
Project MUSE Mirror Site