PubMed Tutorial: Constructing a Simple Subject Search in PubMed <!-- page title here --> Health Sciences Library System banner

Table of Contents
Overview of PubMed | Constructing a Simple Subject Search in PubMed |  Modifying a Search |  Creating a More Involved Search |  Using the Cubby to Save and Reuse Searches |  Using PubMed Features |  Getting From PubMed to Full Text Articles |  Using the Books Link

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PubMed Tutorial

Online Literature Sources for Evidence-Based Medicine

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Formulating a Question
Entering a Simple Search
Details (how PubMed interprets a search statement)
Saving Articles to the Clipboard
Viewing Search Results and Changing the View
Saving and Printing Results
Searching for an Author
 

Email the instructors:

Barbara Folb
Patricia Friedman


Constructing a Simple Subject Search in PubMed


Formulating a Question

 PubMed searches can be down in simple ways or more complicated ways. It is usually worth trying a simple approach first and evaluating the results before constructing a more complicated search.

Principles:

  1. The most important step before searching is clarifying exactly what you are looking for.
  2. Develop a statement that covers all concepts you want to include in the briefest and clearest manner.
  3. Most searches with only a few concepts will get results without doing anymore than typing your search terms into the search box.

Example:

Steps in formulating a search:

  1. State your question concisely:

    What are the economic issues in prescribing antibiotics for upper respiratory infections in children?

  2. Extract the important concepts, throw out the connecting words:

    Economics  /  Antibiotics  /  Upper respiratory infections  /   Children

  3. If a comprehensive search is needed, or you are unsure of the exact vocabulary used for each concept, think of synonyms for those concepts and consider using them in the search, too. See the section Creating a More Involved Search for details on how to use them effectively.
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Entering a simple search

Principles:

  1. Choose a word or phrase to represent each concept in your question.
  2. Enter them in the search box in any order.
  3. Use the Limits feature to apply limits such as age group or publication type.
  4. PubMed will try to separate your statement into words and phrases it recognizes.

Example:

  1. Enter this search: economics antibiotics upper respiratory infections
  2. Either press the Enter key on your keyboard or click on Goto run the search. You now have search results, but without the concept Children included.
  3. Click on the word Limits below the search box. At in the next screen Click on the drop down box labeled Ages Choose All Child:0-18 years by clicking on it.
  4. Click Go next to the search box to rerun the search with the chosen limit.
  5. Look at some of the records retrieved. Are they what you expected to find? In most searches you will get a mixture of relevant and off subject citations.
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Details (how PubMed interprets a search statement)

Principles:

  1. You can see how PubMed has interpreted your search statement by clicking on the Details button.
  2. PubMed uses Automatic Term Mapping to interpret your search. For more detail on how automatic term mapping works, see PubMed Help : Automatic Term Mapping, .
  3. Automatic Term Mapping is designed to maximize the chance that a casual search will retrieve some useful citations.
  4. If mapping fails to find a match for a phrase it searches for records containing all the words entered, but not necessarily adjacent to each other.
  5. From the Details display you can save your search strategy as a URL, bookmark it, and run it at a later time.

Examples:

Example 1

  1. With the search results from the search economics antibiotics upper respiratory infections displayed, click on the Details button.
  2. Look at the area with the gray highlighting to see how each term or phrase was mapped by the Automatic Term Mapping feature.
  3. Save the search as a URL and bookmark it:
    1. In Netscape 4.0 and higher:
      1. Click on the URL button. Notice the new URL in the browser location box.
      2. Click on Bookmark/Add bookmark. The URL has been added.
      3. Change the name of the URL from Entrez PubMed to a name that you will remember by:
        1. clicking on Bookmark then Edit bookmark.
        2. Right click on the URL name Entrez-PubMed.
        3. Click on Bookmark Properties.
        4. Highlight the name and change it.
    2. In Internet Explorer 5.0:
      1. Click on the URL button. Notice the new URL in the browser location box.
      2. Click on the Favorites icon.
      3. Click on the word Add to the left of the screen.
      4. In the pop-up box that appears, enter a name for the bookmark that you will remember.
Example 2

  1. Type this search in the search box: rational prescribing.
  2. Look at the search results. Note that there are some records in which rational prescribing appears as a phrase, and some in which the words are not adjacent.
  3. Click on the Details button. Note that PubMed did not search for the words as a phrase. This is because rational prescribing is not a phrase it recognizes from any of its translation tables.
  4. PubMed does not have true adjacency searching. If a string of words does not appear in its phrase index, then it searches for your words individually. For more information on phrase searching, see PubMed Help : Phrase Searching.
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Saving Articles to the Clipboard

The Clipboard is a place where you can save selected records from multiple searches run during the same session, then print of save them as a group.

Principles:

  1. You can save up to 500 records on the Clipboard at a time.
  2. Records remain on the Clipboard until you are inactive for 1 hour.
  3. You can save or print from the Clipboard once you have accumulated all the records you need.

Example:

  1. Choose several records from the currently displayed search results by clicking in the check box next to each one. If none are checked, all records in the set up to 500 will be added to the Clipboard.
  2. Click on the Add to Clipboard button in the gray bar under the search entry box. Note the text highlighted in pink that appears.
  3. The numbers of all the records you choose are now green instead of black indicating they have been added to the Clipboard. They will be green if they are retrieved by any further searches done during the same PubMed session.
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Viewing Search Results and Changing the View

Principles:

  1. PubMed defaults to displaying search results 20 documents per page, in Summary format, which includes the citation and a related documents link.
  2. You can change the display to:
    1. Show just one record with the abstract included by clicking on the authors' names.
    2. Show from 5 to 500 records per page.
    3. Display the records in a different format.

Examples:

  1. With the results of a search on the screen, click on the authors' names for a record.
    1. Only that record is displayed.
    2. The abstract is now visible.
    3. Note the links that appear to the right of the citation. They will be used later in the lesson.
  2. Click the browser Back button to return to the previous display. Change the number of records displayed by:
    1. Clicking on the drop down arrow next to Show
    2. Choose another number in the list by clicking on it.
    3. Click on the Display button above the word Show
  3. Other formats are available from the Display drop down box. To change the format, click on the drop down arrow next to the Display button and click on the format you want. The most useful of these are:
    1. Abstract, which includes the citation and abstract
    2. Citation, which includes the citation, abstract, and MeSH indexing
    3. MEDLINE, which includes the entire record with all field tags displayed. Use this if you want to down load a record into a bibliographic software package such as EndNote or ProCite.
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Saving and Printing Results

Principles:

  1. To save search results as a text file, use the Save button to the right of the Display button.
  2. There are two ways to print search results:
    1. As displayed with the PubMed heading and buttons. To do this, use your browser's Print function.
    2. As a text file without the PubMed heading and buttons using the Text button first and then your browser's Print function.

Steps in Saving Search Results:

  1. Decide which record display you want to save, and choose it in the Displaydrop down box.
  2. Decide if you want to save all the documents retrieved or selected documents only. If selected documents only, click in the check box next to each record you want to save. If you don't, all documents in the set will be saved whether they are currently displayed in the browser window or not.
  3. Click on the Save button.
  4. A Save as dialog box opens. Change the suggested name of the file from query.fcgi to a name you will understand ending in .txt such as antibiot.txt.
  5. Choose which directory to save the search in using the save in drop down box.
  6. Click on Save in the dialog box.
  7. Your search is now saved. You may open it in a word processor or Notepad.

Printing Results as Displayed:

  1. Decide which record display format you want to print, and choose it in the Display drop down box.
  2. If you want to print more than the twenty citations that show in the default display, or to choose from a larger number than is currently displayed,click on the Show drop down box arrow and choose a larger number.
  3. Decide if you want to print all the documents currently displayed or selected documents only. If selected documents only, click in the check box next to each record you want to print. If you don't, all documents displayed will be printed. Documents in the set, but not currently displayed, will not be printed in either case.
  4. Click on your browser's Print button or on File/Print
  5. Follow any Print dialog steps given.

Printing Results Using the Text Button:

  1. Decide which record display you want to print, and choose it in the Display drop down box.
  2. If you want to print more than the twenty citations that show in the default display, or to choose from a larger number than is currently displayed, click on the Show drop down box arrow and choose a larger number.
  3. Decide if you want to print all the documents currently displayed or selected documents only. If selected documents only, click in the check box next to each record you want to print. If you don't, all documents displayed will be printed. Documents in the set, but not currently displayed, will not be printed in either case.
  4. Click on the Text button.
  5. The browser will display the results as plain text.
  6. Use your browser's print function to print the page.
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Searching for an Author

Principles

  1. PubMed recognizes author names as such when formatted last name plus initial(s).
  2. If only one initial is entered, PubMed automatically truncates the name and searches for it with all possible second initials.
  3. To turn off author name truncation, put quotation marks around the name and follow it with the author field tag [au], like this: "Carter J"[au]
  4. If you don't know the author's initials, and are just entering a last name, you must use the [au] in order for PubMed to recognized it as an author search, like this: Carter[au].

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This page was updated on April 23, 2001.
Pages maintained by Barbara Folb folb@pitt.edu