PubMed: an introduction Louise Simon Wellcome Library

What we’ll be covering What is PubMed? Why is it useful? Simple searching Saving, emailing or printing results Other features Searching using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) PubMed Central

What is PubMed?

Why is it useful?

Simple searching

Saving, emailing or printing results

Other features

Searching using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

PubMed Central

Practical exercise 1 Use PubMed to carry out a search on: Food advertising on TV aimed at children or Articles on the history of plastic surgery

Use PubMed to carry out a search on:

Food advertising on TV aimed at children

or

Articles on the history of plastic surgery

Tips for refining your search AND - retrieves articles that contain all the words you specify e.g. coffee AND health OR – retrieves articles that contain any of the words you specify e.g. coffee OR caffeine NOT – excludes the word(s) you specify (use with caution) e.g. coffee NOT tea Combine using parentheses E.g . coffee AND (health OR benefits) Phrase-searching e.g. avian influenza Truncation ( * ) – use after the stem of a word to retrieve all words with this stem e.g. ethic* (retrieves ethic, ethics, ethical etc.)

AND - retrieves articles that contain all the words you specify

e.g. coffee AND health

OR – retrieves articles that contain any of the words you specify

e.g. coffee OR caffeine

NOT – excludes the word(s) you specify (use with caution)

e.g. coffee NOT tea

Combine using parentheses

E.g . coffee AND (health OR benefits)

Phrase-searching

e.g. avian influenza

Truncation ( * ) – use after the stem of a word to retrieve all words with this stem

e.g. ethic* (retrieves ethic, ethics, ethical etc.)

Other search features Searching for authors Searching for journals Combining searches

Searching for authors

Searching for journals

Combining searches

Printing, emailing, saving Printing, emailing, saving Clipboard

Printing, emailing, saving

Clipboard

Practical exercise 2 Find articles on food advertising on television aimed at children by the author LM Powell Or Find articles on the history plastic surgery in the journal “Annals of Plastic Surgery”

Find articles on food advertising on television aimed at children by the author LM Powell

Or

Find articles on the history plastic surgery in the journal “Annals of Plastic Surgery”

Using Medical Subject Headings A controlled vocabulary used to describe the content of articles Arranged hierarchically from broad to narrow Why should you use them? Overcomes deficiencies of keyword searching Enables a more focused, precise search

A controlled vocabulary used to describe the content of articles

Arranged hierarchically from broad to narrow

Why should you use them?

Overcomes deficiencies of keyword searching

Enables a more focused, precise search

Other features My NCBI Save searches Build ‘collections’ Set up alerts Single citation matcher

My NCBI

Save searches

Build ‘collections’

Set up alerts

Single citation matcher

Summary Plan your search before you begin Use “operators” to refine your search Set limits to your search (e.g. date, language) Use MeSH headings for precision and focus Make use of alerts and saving searches

Plan your search before you begin

Use “operators” to refine your search

Set limits to your search (e.g. date, language)

Use MeSH headings for precision and focus

Make use of alerts and saving searches

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