PubMed: Searching and Search Features

PubMed, accessible for free from the NCBI, offers various search features including basic and advanced searches for efficient information retrieval. It is available free online from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM). While basic search is intuitive, advanced and specialized search features within PubMed give you more control over your search results, as what you are looking for will determine the best tools for you to use.

Basic Search and Query Translation

With Basic Search, just start keying terms into the search box. In PubMed, there’s no need for you to use quotes, ANDs, ORs, or any special formatting. In Basic Search, PubMed helps you choose search terms: when you enter a word, an automatic list will be generated listing possibilities. Just select the one that you want.

To combine concepts, simply string together any terms related to your search. PubMed automatically and properly ANDs your search terms, and ORs any synonyms. Do not use ANDs or ORs, as that interferes with how PubMed translates a search, and order does not matter.

Author and Journal Searching

No special commands are needed to search for articles by an author, just input the person’s name this way (punctuation unnecessary): lastname initials. PubMed recognizes that as the author format and auto-matically searches the author field. Note: PubMed finds an author, regardless of where he falls in the author list—first, middle, last.

Users can easily search for articles by author, title, or journal using specific formats. You can search for Journals by title using the complete title, the official Medline abbreviation, or well-known unofficial abbreviations.

TIP: You may get variations in your results as the official abbreviation is the preferred search method. Use the Journals Database from PubMed’s home page to find the official abbreviation and to retrieve the exact number of all articles from a particular journal.

Specialized Search Tools

Additional tools like clinical queries and the single-citation matcher further enhance the search experience. Clinical Queries automatically retrieves and sorts results into categories. If you have an incorrect or partial citation to an article, use the Single-Citation Matcher to search. Once you’ve identified the journal you want, click Links, then PubMed to activate a search.