Skip to Main Content

Using Project Muse: Project MUSE

This guide demonstrates searching techniques in the Project Muse database. Includes how to use filters (facets), Boolean operators, and accessing permalink and citation information.

Project Muse

Searching Project Muse

This is the search box for Project Muse. You can search by author or by the title of the work you are writing on. Here is a basic search for "The Waste Land." I am using quotation marks around the title and including the author's last name to provide more specificity to the query. 

Project Muse search box

Once you perform the search you can adjust your number of results using the filters at the left-hand side of the screen. Set the Access filter to "Only content I have access to." This will force the results to include only items you have full, readable access to. If you need to clear any filters, click the X next to "Clear all facets." This unfortunately removes all filters at once, so you will have re-engage any filters that you still want to apply.

muse search

You can also use the extra search box to add in other terms to manipulate your results. These search boxes will use the Boolean operator dropdown to establish the query parameters. Using the "And" Boolean will reduce your number of results by asking the system to return only results that contain all the added terms. 

filters

If you are looking for several concepts/words at once, you can use the "Or" Boolean to increase your number of results. If you need to add more fields, you can do so by clicking the "add field" button. 
If you need to remove certain words or concepts, you can activate the "None" Boolean. 

Activate the Access Filter

For best results, immediately set the Access filter to "Only content I have access to." You may also want to go ahead and set your Content Type to "Journals/Articles" to specifically see academic journal articles (and not reviews).

More Info on Boolean Operators in Muse

From their Help pages: Project MUSE's advanced search options allow you to search using as many search boxes as you need to find the content best suited to your project. These search fields are logically combined together. The Boolean operators AND, NONE, or OR, selected from the right hand drop down menu in each field apply to each term entered in the box.

  • AND specifies that the content you are looking for should contain references to the each term entered in the search box.
  • OR specifies that the search results should contain references to any of the terms entered in the search box.
  • The NONE operator allows you to exclude any results that contain terms in the search box.

Where is the permalink?

Unlike many of our other databases, the URL does function as the permalink. The link at the top of the browser window will also be what you use in your citation.

Why Don't I See a Citation Button?

Project Muse sometimes links directly to PDF documents, which don't contain the "View Citation" option. To access that citation feature, click the "View Summary" button under your chosen resource. Within the summary page, you should be able use the "View Citation" menu. Please make sure to check the citation information against our writing and citing guide!