Table of Contents:

PubMed overview

• Developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) in conjunction with publishers
• Provides access to bibliographic information including MEDLINE and additional life science journals and links to full-text of journal articles.
• Includes citations and abstracts to journal articles in:
  • MEDLINE - biomedical journals citations
    • back to mid-1960s
    • international coverage
    • updated weekly
  • In Process Citations
    • added daily
    • not yet indexed (no MeSH terms)
  • Publisher supplied citations - beyond MEDLINE
  • HealthSTAR journal citations and journals entries from other NLM databases
• Web access - no charge
• Part of a larger system, Entrez, a search and retrieval system that integrates information from genetics databases at NCBI
• Evolving System

PubMed:    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

Access, Navigation and Help

• Black horizontal bar - return to search screen by clicking on 'PubMed'
• Query Box
• Features Bar

HELP

• Entrez PubMed section   |  Overview  |  Help  |  FAQ  |
• Tutorial
• HealthLinks: PubMed
• Your local librarian

PubMed Services

• Journal Browser - identify journal indexed and abbreviated journal titles
• MeSH Browser - identify indexing terms
• Single Citation Matcher - identify journal article with incomplete citation information
• Cubby - store and update searches. Customize LinkOut display
• Clinical Queries - specialized search, for clinical questions, that has built-in search "filters" to retrieve research based citations.

Related Resources

• Order Documents - establish contract with a particular library to order full-text of journal articles. See Finding Full-Text for more information
• Consumer Health - Health information for patients

Clinical Alerts - 'news' items on significant NIH-funded clinical trial

Basic Search

• Single Search Query Box
• Features Bar - Limits, Preview/Index, History, Clipboard

• Author Search   [Slide1]  [Slide2] 

Format: lastname initial(s)

• first and middle names - initials only
• automatic truncation

HINT: Authors names differ by publication - some publications use first initial only; other include middle initials
If too many hits with one initial, add middle initial

• Basic Subject Search and Setting Limits  
  • enter the most significant words
  • 'automatic mapping' feature will interpret your search terms

Use Limit Feature to restrict search results

• Language
• Date
  • Entrez Date - date when entered into the database
  • Publication Date
• Field - eg title, indexing terms, abstract
• Human/Animal
• Publication Types - eg Review, Meta-analysis, Clinical Trial
• Ages
• Subsets - eg dental journals, nursing journals, AIDS subset
• Gender

NOTE: Limits in place until you removed. Check appears in Limit box

Search Results

• Click on author name link to view abstract
• Click in boxes to left of citations to view selected citations as a group or to add to clipboard
• In Abstract and Citation Format
  • Icon under citation information to Publishers site
    NOTE: Possible availability only. May charge or have delivery restrictions.
  • Related articles  [Slide3]  [Slide4] 
    • Displays closely related citations
    • PubMed compares words from the title and abstract of each citation as well as MeSH terms assigned, using a powerful word-weighted algorithm.
    • hints:
      • Original article is listed first.
      • Display is from the most to least relevant.
• LinkOut
  • Other content providers
  • Possible availability only
  • Customize display using Cubby
  • Evolving system - will change in future

Displaying, printing and saving results

Display Defaults

• Summary citations
• 20 citations per page
• Last In First Out (basically reverse chronological order)

Use features in gray bar to modify results display, save, print

• Citation Formats
  • Default is Summary format
  • To change format choose from pull-down list and
    • re-do search or
    • click display
  • Summary - default
  • Abstract
  • Citation - abstract format plus MeSH terms
  • MEDLINE - complete record. Needed for import into programs such as EndNote, Reference Manager
• Docs per page
  • Default is to display 20 documents per web page
  • To change page length choose from pull-down list and
    • re-do search or
    • click display
• Move through pages using page numbers at right-hand end of gray bar
• Print
  • Use Text button to redisplay before printing to remove framing and buttons.
  • use web browser print function
• Save
  • For saving to floppy or hard disk
  • Mac, PC, or Unix/ text or html.
  • Save button available at top and bottom of each results page.

1.                  every citation of page;

2.                  select and redisplay in desired format then save; or

3.                  add to clipboard   [Slide5] 

• Order
  • Add items you want to order to the Clipboard.
  • Once you've got the set of citations for articles you want to order click the Order button in the Clipboard.
  • Uses 'Loansome Doc' system to electronically order from library with whom you have an agreement for services. See Finding Full-Text for more information.

Other PubMed features

• Clipboard  [Slide6]  [Slide7] 
  Area where you can place citations before printing, saving, or downloading.
  • You can store up to 500 citations to print or download from multiple searches.
  • Access 'Order' within Clipboard
  • Sorting available
  • Items remain in Clipboard for limited time (one hour of inactivity)
• Preview/Index
  Preview allows you to see number of search results without going to results page

Index allows you to:

• Allows you to view a listing of terms within a search field
• Select terms to build a search strategy

Using Preview/Index

• Type term or phrase in search box
• View index of all fields or limit to specific field
• Use 'Up' and 'Down' buttons to browse further
• Postings numbers in parentheses to right of term
• Hold down control key while highlighting to select multiple terms
• Click 'OR' button to add to query box
• History  
  • Holds all your search strategies and results
  • Available after you run your first search.
  • Access from Features Bar.
  • Maximum number of queries in history is 100.
  • Lost after 1 hour of inactivity.
  • 'Clear History' button at bottom of screen removes all queries in history.
  • Place # before search statement number.
  • Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT in caps
  • Can use parentheses, limits, etc.

   [Slide8]  [Slide9]  [Slide10] 

Saving searches

• Saving search url (Details Button)
  • see how PubMed translated search, including MeSH vocabulary term mappings.  [Slide11]  [Slide12] 
  • save url as bookmark (Netscape) or favorite (Internet Explorer
  • To print search strategy use web browser print command  [Slide13]  [Slide14]  [Slide15] 
• Cubby 
  • Provides 'personal area' - free registration  [Slide16]  [Slide17] 
  • Store search strategies  [Slide18]  [Slide19] 
    • Re-run search or
    • View new citations only  
  • Customize linkout display (still evolving)  [Slide20]  [Slide21] 

Obtaining Full-Text of Journal Articles

• Publishers Links
  • Abstract or Citation format of record
  • Leave PubMed and go to publisher site
  • Navigation, format, costs vary
• LinkOut
  • Far right in abstract or citation format of record
  • Information providers other than publisher
  • Navigation, format, costs vary
• Loansome Doc
  Access from Order Button on Clipboard Action Bar
  • UW HSL Lonesome Doc Service for non-UW affiliates outside of the U.S.
    http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl/docservices/lds-intl.html
  • U.S. Health Libraries Providing Document Delivery internationally
    http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/nnlm/docdel/intlserv.html
  • Non-U.S. Health Libraries Providing Document Delivery Internationally
    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ild/main.cfm
• UW HSL Document Delivery outside of Loansome Doc
  • Document Services and Fees
    http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl/docservices/services.html
    • Document Services Order Form
      http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl/forms/order.html
  • HSL Deposit Account Agreement
    http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl/forms/deposit.html

Other PubMed services

Journal Browser

• Search for journals by journal title, title abbreviation, or International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)  [Slide22]  [Slide23] 
• A list of journals with links to full-text is also included  [Slide24]  [Slide25] 

MeSH Browser  

• MeSH = Medical Subject Heading  [Slide26]  [Slide27] 
• View the official MeSH subject terms and to see their relationships to other terms   [Slide28]  [Slide29] 
• Access from navigation bar  [Slide30]  [Slide31]  [Slide32]  

Citation Indexing

• Subject specialists located worldwide look at citations and assign subject headings
• most specific term used for indexing
• 7-10 terms assigned per citation
• 2-3 terms are chosen as main points of article - major subject headings

Using MeSH Browser

• Type term or phrase in search box
• Next screen shows heirarchical relation to other terms
• Go to detailed display - options
  • Explosions - allows you to search for general and more specific search terms together search for 'children' terms indented below in tree)
  • limit to major emphasis
  • Subheadings
  • Click on Add button.

Single Citation Matcher

Fill-in-the-blank form that allows you to enter partial journal citation information to locate a record for a specific single article, or items indexed from a particular volume or issue of a journal to look for a single citation.  [Slide33]  [Slide34]