The Griffin, Link to the Bioscience Library Home Page

PubMed: Quick Guide

Click here for a printer-friendly version of this guide.
Use this URL to access the UC-customized version of PubMed: http://uclibs.org/PID/17708

PubMed contains all of MEDLINE (1966-present), OLDMEDLINE (1949-1965), PubMed In-Process records (new citations not yet fully indexed), and some additional non-MEDLINE citations.

Basic Search Techniques

PubMed searching is easy. Just enter search terms in the query box and press Enter or click Go. The Tabs directly beneath the query box provide access to additional search options. The PubMed query box and Tabs are available from every screen, so you don't need to return to the start page to enter a new search.

PubMed Query Box andFeatures bar

Author Search

Enter the author's last name first, followed by initials (e.g., koshland me). Initials are optional. However, to search for an author in the author field when only the last name is available, it's best to qualify the author name with the author search field tag [au], e.g., yang [au].

Subject Search

Enter one or more subject terms (e.g., molecular motors) in the query box and click Go. PubMed automatically combines (ANDs) significant terms together using automatic term mapping. If PubMed finds a phrase, it automatically searches the terms as a phrase rather than simply combining them. If you enter molecular motors in the query box, PubMed searches "molecular motors" as a phrase. If you do not want this, enter each term separated by the Boolean operator AND (use uppercase), e.g., molecular AND motors.

Journal Search

To retrieve articles in a specific journal, enter the full journal title (e.g., Current Biology) or use the MEDLINE title abbreviation (e.g., curr biol) in the query box. Qualify single word journal titles using the Journal Title [ta] search field tag. (e.g. Cell [ta]). Note: In the query box, an author's name or journal title can be combined along with subject terms, such as thorner protein kinase or curr biol protein kinase. If you only know part of the journal title, go to the Journals Database, located in the menu on the left side of the page. Enter the title words and click Go.

Truncation

Use an asterisk (*) at the end of a search term. For example, bacter* retrieves bacteria, bacterium, bacteriophage, etc. Truncation turns off automatic term mapping and the automatic explosion of a MeSH term.

Limits

Click on the Limits tab to go to the Limits page. You can restrict the search to English language or Entrez date (the date when a citation was added to the PubMed system). Limits remain in effect until you remove the check on the Limits tab. Limits other than language or date will exclude "in-process" records (new records that have not yet been fully indexed).

Boolean operators

Use to combine terms or phrases. AND, OR, and NOT must be entered in UPPERCASE. PubMed processes all Boolean connectors in a left-to-right sequence. To change the order in which search statements are processed, enclose a concept in parentheses, e.g., common cold AND (vitamin c OR zinc). Terms inside a set of parentheses are processed as a unit and then incorporated into the overall strategy.

History

The History tab holds all your search strategies and results. Combine searches or add additional terms to an existing search by using the pound sign (#) before the search number, e.g., #2 AND (#6 OR #3) AND microarray.

Related Articles

Clicking on the "related articles" link next to a citation will retrieve closely related citations. The original citation is always displayed first in the new list.

Clipboard

The Clipboard is a place to collect selected citations from one search or several searches. Citations are added to the clipboard by selecting Clipboard from the "Send to" pulldown menu. Once you have added items to the Clipboard, you can click on the Clipboard tab to view your selections. Within the Clipboard you can Sort results by author, journal title, or publication date.

Back to top

Advanced Searching Techniques

Field Tags

Use PubMed's search field tags to refine your search strategy. Enter the specific term qualified with the appropriate search field tag. Below is a list of some of the more frequently used PubMed search field tags with examples of how to use them. A complete list of search field tags is available in the Search Field Descriptions and Tags section in PubMed's Online Help.

Common Field Tags:

Affiliation [AD]
Author [AU]
Journal Title Abbreviation [TA]
Language [LA]
MeSH Terms [MH]
Personal Name as Subject [PS]
Publication Date [DP]
Publication Type [PT]
Subset [SB]
    AIDS = aids [sb]
    Bioethics = bioethics [sb]
    Complementary and
    Alternative Medicine = cam [sb]
    History of Medicine = history [sb]
    Toxicology = tox [sb]
Text Words [TW]
Title Words [TI]

MeSH Terms [mh] or [majr:]

NLM's Medical Subject Headings, a list of biomedical terms which are used to describe the subject of each journal article indexed in MEDLINE. The [majr] tag retrieves all MeSH terms that are marked as being of major importance in an article. Use either search field tag to search.

Note: Searching with only MeSH terms will exclude  "MEDLINE record in process" citations as they have not yet been indexed with MeSH.

Explode Feature

MeSH terms are automatically exploded by PubMed; that is, all terms which are logical subsets of the term entered are also included. For instance, vision disorders includes blindness. MeSH terms found using the "All Fields" search, however, are NOT exploded. If you want to turn off the automatic explosion, enter the MeSH term in the query box and qualify it with [mh:noexp].

MeSH Database

Another approach to advanced searching. Look up official MeSH terms to view hierarchical relationships to other subject headings and subheadings.

Back to top

Finding Full Text and Call Numbers

In the Abstract and Citation formats there are links to many publishers' web sites and links to the UC-eLinks service. The publisher's icon may take you to full text of the article.  The UC-eLinks service will provide access to the full text links, campus holdings and links to Request if the item is not available electronically. Click here for more information about using UC-eLinks in PubMed.

Back to top

Viewing, Printing, E-mailing or Saving Citations

PubMed Action bar

PubMed citations are initially displayed in Summary format. Documents can be viewed in 5 other formats; you may select another format and/or show more than 20 citations per page by using the pull-down menus on the action bar and clicking Display.

Click on the author name link of an individual citation to display the Abstract Plus format. Click on the check boxes to the left of each author name to select specific citations. The checked citations can be saved as a file, e-mailed, displayed in a different format, displayed as plain text without the sidebar menu and toolbars, or added to the clipboard by clicking on the appropriate button on the action bar.

Back to top

Exporting to RefWorks or EndNote

U.C. Berkeley Library Web
Copyright © 2008 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Comment Form. Last update: 05/07/08

Home
Information and Services
Electronic Resources
Instruction
Academic Resources
Campus Links
Contact Us
News