This document provides a tutorial on using the biomedical literature database PubMed. It begins with an overview of PubMed, explaining that it contains over 27 million citations and is maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The tutorial then covers various topics for searching PubMed effectively such as using controlled vocabularies, Boolean operators, field tags, and filters. It also discusses accessing full text articles and getting help via library contacts or additional PubMed resources. The overall aim is to teach researchers how to search PubMed and retrieve relevant citations for their topics of interest.

1. Using
PubMed
A
tutorial

2. Table of Contents

3. When to use PubMed
Before Searching
Accessing Full Text
PubMed
Overview
PUBMED OVERVIEW

4. PubMed comprises more than 27 million citations for
biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals,
and online books.
This tutorial applies to this public-facing version, not the
version of Medline supported by Ovid.
The public database is maintained by the U.S. National
Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for
Biotechnology Information
It offers a broad overview of existing literature on a
particular topic, but it should not be seen as a complete
overview.
PUBMED OVERVIEW| USING PUBMED

5. PUBMED OVERVIEW| BEFORE SEARCHING
Save your search in a document, citation
management software, and/or the database.
By saving your search, your strategy will be
reproducible for another time and properly
documented.
Explore options and instructions for citation
management on the Citation Management
LibGuide.
NEOMED LIBGUIDE LINK

6. CITATIONMANAGEMENT
SOFTWAREOPTIONS ZOTERO
Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you
collect, organize, cite, and share research.
REFWORKS
RefWorks is a web-based commercial
reference management software package.
END NOTE
EndNote is the industry standard software tool for
publishing and managing bibliographies, citations and
references on the Windows and Macintosh desktop.
MENDELEY
Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social
network that can help you organize your research, collaborate
with others online, and discover the latest research.
PUBMED OVERVIEW| BEFORE SEARCHING

7. To save searches in PubMed, create a NCBI account
by clicking on the sign-in to NCBI link in the upper-
right corner of the screen
Sign up for a My NCBI account or login to an existing
account.
PUBMED OVERVIEW| SAVING PUBMED SEARCHES & VIDEO
Once you complete a search, click on “Create an alert”
underneath the search box. From here you can create a search
alert or save your search strategy.

8. PUBMED OVERVIEW| ACCESSING FULL-TEXT
In PubMed, the “Northeast Ohio Medical University”
icon will often appear within an item record.
To access the full text click the FIND IT icon to go to an
external page listing available full-text options.
If the full text is not available, you will see a heading
that says, “ILLiad – request this item through
interlibrary loan.” When prompted, enter your ILLiad
login and password and then submit the request via
the pre-filled in template.
The article will be emailed to you free of charge (only
available for NEOMED students, faculty, and staff).

9. Automatic Term Mapping
Finding & Using Keywords
MeSH Terms
Keyword
Searching
KEYWORD SEARCHING

10. KEYWORD SEARCHING| AUTOMATIC TERM MAPPING
Using quotes around a phrase or truncation turns off
Automatic Term Mapping. The terms are instead searched as
keywords.
PubMed uses Automatic Term Mapping (ATM) when you
search with keywords. This means that the search terms you
type into the search box are automatically mapped to
controlled vocabulary (MeSH) terms.
Automatic Term Mapping
To see ATM in action, scroll to the “search details” box on the
left-hand side of the results page. Warning: ATM is not always
correct. For example, if you search for “cold AND zinc,”
PubMed will include the controlled vocabulary for “cold
temperatures” in the search.

11. KEYWORD SEARCHING| FINDING & USING KEYWORDS
Keyword terms can be single words or phrases.
Finding & Using Keywords
Consult controlled vocabularies in other subject databases
for additional help. For example, the Embase has a
controlled vocabulary called Emtree. Emtree records contain
synonym lists similar to the “entry terms” in a MeSH record.
The Emtree synonym list often contains European
spelling/variations.
Use quotes around all phrases to ensure that the phrase is
searched instead of each word individually. (e.g. “public
health”)
For more possible search terms, visit MeSH (Medical Subject
Headings) database and look at the “entry terms” listed for
each MeSH record. MeSH is NLM’s controlled vocabulary of
biomedical terms used to describe the subject of each
journal article in MEDLINE. The entry terms are synonyms,
alternate forms, and other closely related terms generally
used interchangeably with the preferred term.

12. KEYWORD SEARCHING| MESH TERMS
Searching for a term
with MeSH selected will
return a MeSH term.
The controlled
vocabulary term will
display with a
definition below.

13. The entry terms are
synonyms, alternate
forms, and other
closely related terms
generally used
interchangeably with
the preferred term.
KEYWORD SEARCHING| MESH TERMS

14. Locate Controlled Vocabulary
Explode, No Explode, & Major Headings
Subheadings
Controlled
Vocabularies
CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES

15. CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES| LOCATE CONTROLLED VOCABULARY
Using MeSH terms
helps account for
variations in language,
acronyms, and British
vs. American English.
MeSH (Medical Subject
Headings) is NLM’s
controlled vocabulary
of biomedical terms
used to describe the
subject of each journal
article in MEDLINE.
These are a standardized
set of terms that are used
to bring consistency to
the searching process. In
total, there are
approximately 26,000
terms and they are
updated annually to
reflect changes in
medicine and medical
terminology.

16. CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES| LOCATE CONTROLLED VOCABULARY
To turn off this automatic
explode feature, click on
the button next to, “Do
not include MeSH terms
found below this term in
the MeSH hierarchy” in
the MeSH record or type
[mh:noexp] next to the
search term e.g.
neoplasms [mh:noexp].
See the next section for
additional information on
no explode.
MeSH can be searched
from a NCBI interface:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.ni
h.gov/mesh
Terms are arranged
hierarchically by subject
categories with more
specific terms arranged
beneath broader terms.
MeSH terms in PubMed
automatically include
the more specific MeSH
terms in a search.

17. CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES| NCBI VIDEO
Use MeSH to Build a Better PubMed Query (3:02)

18. CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES| SEARCH DETAILS BOX
Once MeSH terms have been
searched, terms will appear in
a box labelled “Search details,”
located beside the list of the
results on the right side of the
screen.
This box will display how each
term has been searched and
can be useful for editing your
search. Corrections can be
made directly within this box,
and once corrections have
been made, the search button
beneath the box will re-run
your search.

19. CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES| EXPLODE, NOT EXPLODE, MAJOR HEADINGS
EXPLODE
“Explode” will search with all MeSH
terms below the chosen MeSH term
in the MeSH hierarchy. A visual of
the hierarchy is located at the
bottom of each entry term page.
PubMed will default to explode any
MeSH terms you search.
MAJOR HEADINGS
Searching for “major headings” will
narrow your search to only find
MeSH terms listed as a major topic
of an article. Command to search:
[majr] (e.g. “diarrhea”[majr] will
find articles with diarrhea as a
major topic. Major topic MeSH
terms will have an asterisks (e.g.
Diarrhea*), while non-major topics
will not have one.
NOT EXPLODE
Choosing to focus (also referred to
as “not exploding”) will only search
for your chosen MeSh term. Terms
are chosen by MeSH indexers to be
the primary focus of an individual
article. Command to search:
[Mesh:noexp] will only find the term
specified, not the terms beneath it
(for example: “diarrhea”
[Mesh:noexp] only finds records
indexed with diarrhea, not
diarrhea, infantile.)

20. CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES| SUBHEADINGS
MeSH/SubheadingCombinations
You can manually add
subheadings in the search
box by using the format
MeSH Term/Subheading.
E.g. neoplasms/diet therapy.
You can also use the two-
letter abbreviation for sub-
headings rather than typing
out the full phrase,
e.g. neoplasms/dh.
Click here for the
abbreviations of other MeSH
subheadings.
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bo
oks/NBK3827/table/pubmedhelp.
T.mesh_subheadings/)
MakingMeSHtermsmorespecific
MeSH can be made more
specific by the addition of
subheadings such as
“therapy” and “prevention
and control”
When in the MeSH record,
add subheadings by clicking
on the boxes next to the
desired subheadings.
Then click “Add to Search
Builder.”
Warning: Adding too many
subheadings may lead to
missing important articles.

21. MeSH/SubheadingCombinations
Only one Subheading at a time may be
directly attached to a MeSH term.
For example, a search of hypertension
with the subheadings diagnosis or
drug therapy will appear as
hypertension/diagnosis or
hypertension/drug therapy.
As with MeSH terms, PubMed search
results include the more specific terms
arranged beneath broader terms for
the MeSH term and includes the more
specific terms arranged beneath
broader Subheadings.
CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES| SUBHEADINGS

22. CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES| ADVANCED SEARCH BUILDER
Past searches will appear here
and stay for 12 hours.
Follow the link to see a video
tutorial on how to use the
advanced search builder.
Select MeSH Terms for a more
effective search.

23. CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES| NCBI VIDEO: ADVANCED SEARCH BUILDER

24. Using Boolean Operators
Combining
Searches
COMBINING SEARCHES

25. COMBINING SEARCHES
A comprehensive and systematic search of PubMed
includes both controlled vocabulary and keyword
terms (i.e. free text, natural language, and synonyms).
Boolean operators are used to combine search
terms. In PubMed, you can use the operators AND, OR,
and NOT.
Go to the “Advanced Search” page to combine
searches. This is where your search history is located
during your search session.
Boolean operators MUST be used as upper case (AND,
OR, NOT).

26. COMBINING SEARCHES| BOOLEAN OPERATORS
OR NOTAND
Using NOT will exclude
terms from your
search resulting in a
narrower search.
Example: disease NOT
heart returns 126,722
results.
Using AND will narrow
your search results
It tells PubMed that you
want ALL the terms
included in the results.
Example: disease AND
heart returns 4,065
results.
Using OR will connect two
or more similar concepts,
synonyms, or entry terms
(MeSH synonyms).
OR will also broaden your
search results by allowing
any of the search terms
to appear in the resulting
articles.
Example: disease OR
heart returns 662,270
results.

27. COMBINING SEARCHES| BOOLEAN OPERATORS
AND
Using AND, this search
would only retrieve results
with disease and heart.
NOT
Using NOT, this search
would retrieve results with
disease, and exclude those
with heart or disease with
heart.
OR
Using OR, this search would
retrieve results with disease,
with heart, and with both.

28. AND • 4,065 results
OR
• 662,270
results
NOT
• 126,722
results
heart,
disease
Terms
Operators
COMBINING SEARCHES| BOOLEAN OPERATORS

29. Field Tags
Applying Filters
Truncation
Additional
Search Options
ADDITIONAL SEARCH OPTIONS

30. ADDITIONAL SEARCH OPTIONS| FIELD TAGS
Words and numbers
included in the title,
collection title, abstract, and
other abstract of a citation.
English language abstracts
are taken directly from the
published article. If an article
does not have a published
abstract, NLM does not
create one.
[Title/Abstract] or [TIAB]
Includes all words and
numbers in the title, abstract,
other abstract, MeSH terms,
MeSH Subheadings,
Publication Types, Substance
Names, Personal Name as
Subject, Corporate Author,
Secondary Source,
Comment/Correction Notes,
and Other Terms.
[Text Words] or [TW]
Untagged terms and terms
tagged with [all fields] are
processed used Automatic
Term Mapping. Terms
enclosed in double quotes or
truncated will be searched in
all fields and not processed
using automatic term
mapping.
[All Fields] or [ALL]
Field Tags
You can use field tags to specify where the database looks for the search term. In PubMed, first
type the search term and then the field tag in brackets. e.g. Cardiology [TIAB] looks for cardiology
in the title and abstract.
NCBI explanation of Field Descriptors and Tags
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/pdf/Bookshelf_NBK3827.pdf

31. ADDITIONAL SEARCH OPTIONS| APPLYING FILTERS
ApplyingFilters
On the left side of the results are options to filter your
search by Article types, Publication dates, Language,
Age, Gender, etc. To access the complete list of filters,
click on the “Show additional filters” link.
Use the PubMed built-in limits cautiously. Limits other
than date or language will limit your search to indexed
records only. In most cases it is best to develop
another concept to use as a limiter.
For example, if you would like to limit your results to
“human studies,” use the following search to exclude
animal students instead of using the “humans” limit
from the search results page. Simply add this to the rest
of your search strategy using the NOT Boolean operator
(animals[MeSH Terms] NOT humans[MeSH Terms])

32. ADDITIONAL SEARCH OPTIONS| NCBI VIDEO: THE FILTERS SIDEBAR

33. ADDITIONAL SEARCH OPTIONS| TRUNCATION
TRUNCATION
In PubMed you can use a * at the root of a word to find
multiple endings.
For example:
Arthroplast* will return arthroplasty, arthroplasties,
arthroplastic, arthroplastics, etc.
Mobili* will return mobility, mobilization, mobilisation,
mobilize, etc.
Note: In PubMed you cannot combine phrase
searching with truncation. Either use quotes, e.g. “early
childhood mobility,” or use truncation, “e.g. early
childhood mobili*

34. Library Contact
NEOMED LibGuides
PubMed Resources
Contact
Us
CONTACT US

35. CONTACT US| LIBRARY CONTACTS
Reference Librarian
Office L215
srobins@neomed.edu
330.325.6378
Located on the second floor of Building “A” in the
Aneal Mohan Kohli Academic and Information
Technology Center.
library@neomed.edu
330.325.6600
NEOMED Library
Simon Robins

36. CONTACT US| LIBGUIDES
RESEARCH SERVICES OVERVIEW
https://libraryguides.neomed.edu/re
search-support-and-
collaboration/service-overview
DATABASES A-Z
https://libraryguides.neomed.edu/
az.php
RESEARCH & COURSE GUIDES
https://libraryguides.neomed.edu/
NEOMED-medical-library-
guides/explore-all-guides
EBM & COURSE GUIDES
https://libraryguides.neomed.edu/ebm
ONE SEARCH
https://libraryguides.neomed.edu/home
Search for articles, books, & more in one
convenient place.
TEXTBOOKS
https://libraryguides.neomed.edu/c.php?
g=831456&p=6490293
LITERATURE SEARCH SERVICES
https://libraryguides.neomed.edu/li
terature-search-services/overview
PUBMED SEARCH TIPS
https://libraryguides.neomed.edu/library
-tutorials

37. PubMed FAQ’s Page
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
/books/NBK3827/#pubmedh
elp.FAQs
PubMed Guidebook
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
/books/NBK3827/
PubMed Video Tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/playlist
?list=PLBD13A2628C7A9965
PubMed Tutorials
https://learn.nlm.nih.gov/
documentation/training-
packets/T0042010P/
CONTACT US| PUBMED RESOURCES

38. Template features: By Showeet.com
CONTACT US| CREDITS
Using PubMed: A Tutorial by Laura Levy is licensed under
a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License. Based on a work at
https://libraryguides.neomed.edu/plagiarism
Fonts used in this presentation: Poppins, by Indian Type
Foundry & Cabin, by Pablo Impallari.
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