PubMed …featuring more than 20 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books

Why use PubMed? PubMed is a free database maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). PubMed comprises more than 20 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

Search Options in PubMed The MeSH Database enables you to find and search with MeSH vocabulary terms. The NLM Catalog Journals search page enables you to find information about journals and search these journals in PubMed. Clinical Queries are prefabricated searches that can help you narrow your search to clinically relevant literature.

Search Strategy Tips Identify the key concepts Determine alternative terms for these concepts if needed Refine your search with dates, study groups, etc., as needed. Avoid “stopwords,” words so common they are not indexed. PubMed ignores “stopwords.”

Simple Searches on PubMed Simple searches on PubMed can be carried out by entering key aspects of a subject into PubMed's search window. PubMed translates this initial search, automatically adding field names, relevant MeSH terms, synonyms, Boolean operators, and ‘nests’ the resulting terms appropriately, enhancing the search formulation by routinely combining text words and MeSH terms.

Use MeSH for a Better Search MeSH, (Medical Subject Headings) a controlled vocabulary, is a distinctive feature for indexing PubMed citations, and is used by MEDLINE, providing journal access in PubMed. It imposes uniformity and consistency to the indexing of biomedical literature. While simple searches can be accomplished in PubMed using ordinary language, familiarity with MeSH vocabulary will allow faster and more relevant information retrieval.

A MeSH Example 'Heart Attack Aspirin Prevention‘: ("myocardial infarction“ [MeSH Terms] OR ("myocardial“ [All Fields] AND "infarction“ [All Fields]) OR "myocardial infarction“ [All Fields] OR ("heart“ [All Fields] AND "attack“ [All Fields]) OR "heart attack“ [All Fields]) and ("aspirin“ [MeSH Terms] OR "aspirin“ [All Fields]) AND ("prevention and control“ [Subheading] OR ("prevention“ [All Fields] AND "control“ [All Fields]) OR "prevention and control“ [All Fields] OR "prevention“ [All Fields]) (Example provided by on-line PubMed Tutorial)

MeSH Database Use the MeSH Database to find MeSH terms, including Subheadings, Publication types, Supplementary Concepts and Pharmacy Actions to build a PubMed search. PubMed searches may be launched directly from MeSH.

PubMed Searches from MeSH Run a search selecting terms using the check boxes, then click “Add to search builder” in the PubMed search builder feature. Continue searching, if needed, using “Add to search builder,” and the Boolean pull-down menu. When you are finished, click “Search PubMed.”

Using MeSH The MeSH Browser is an online Web application used to locate MeSH vocabulary. Start with specific words or short expressions. Use two or three terms to best describe the essential subject of your article, rather than whole sentences. Another approach is to search PubMed to find articles on similar topics, and review the MeSH headings assigned to those articles.

The NLM Catalog Journals The NLM Catalog has a special tool that allows you to look up information about a PubMed journal. Click Journals in NCBI Databases from the PubMed home page. You can search for a journal using: journal title MEDLINE/PubMed journal title abbreviation print and electronic International Standard Serial Numbers (pISSNs and eISSNs) subject terms

Clinical Queries Clinical Queries use Research Methodology Filters. Optimal search strategies for retrieving scientifically strong studies from PubMed use search filters developed by Haynes RB et al. Clinical queries group citations to a specific clinical study category and scope. A search can be “broad” or “narrow,” or it can be broken down by “Therapy,” “Etiology,” “Diagnosis,” “Prognosis,” or Clinical prediction guides.”

Search by Citation To find a specific citation using citation elements, such as author, article title, journal name, volume, issue, pagination, etc., simply type the available information into the Search Box. The Citation Sensor is a feature that assists searchers looking for a specific article. It looks for combinations of citation elements, and matches the search with citations in PubMed.

PubMed & Related Websites PubMed The MeSH Database PubMed Central, the NLM free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature MedLine The NLM Catalog Journals search page