PubMed

By default, all terms entered next to each other are searched in all search categories (every term must be found), but if necessary, the search is carried out in the background with other word forms and linked thematic terms (MeSH-terms), this is visible in the unfolded details on the Advanced page, see screenshot after the search with prostate cancer:

In general, search strings with OR links, brackets and placeholders/truncation are possible, e.g. term1 (term2 OR term3*). Phrases (exact word order) can be searched by using quotation marks ("term term*"), whereby only the last word can be truncated.

Note:

• Placeholder/truncation: * for 0-n random characters on the right, enter at least 4 characters before the *!
• The automatic search with MeSH-terms is prevented when searching with wildcards, hyphens or quotation marks.

Using field identifiers behind each term or phrase, you can specify in which field you want to search, e.g. term[ti] in the title or "term term"[tiab] in Title, Abstract and Author keywords - but then MeSH-terms will no longer be searched automatically.

The search with field identifiers is conveniently done via the Advanced search mask, e.g. by Journal (abbreviations can also be entered). Automatic term suggestions are displayed for selection (autocomplete), Show Index also shows the number of hits before the search. The search is started via ADD and then from the "Query box" with Search or Add to History. See screenshots.

You can use the History table to execute previous search steps again (Results column) or you can change or combine them in the Query box after using ... > Add in the column Actions, see screenshot. The combination also works with the row numbers of the searches, for example, with #1 AND/OR/NOT #2 in the Query box.

Note: For our literature searching services we usually combine MeSH-terms and title/abstract terms per search aspect.

Authors can be searched for in many different ways: via Last Name Initial(s) - Last Name, Initial(s) - Last Name [au] - First Name Last Name - Last Name First Name - Last Name, First Name or by selecting the Author field in the Advanced Search. If an initial is entered, the system automatically searches with any other existing initials and with the full first name.

But CAUTION: Searching with the full first name only finds articles from 2002 onwards, e.g. sergij goerdt only finds 178, goerdt s on the other hand finds 318 hits.
Furthermore, author ambiguity is a problem that can be solved partly with Web of Science, but even better with the use of author identifiers.

See also PubMed-Help.

Via the page navigation on the detail page there are some functions that can be used to select further articles:

The Similar articles function leads to 50-150 similar hits in relation to the selected one. If the selected article contains MeSH-terms, this is advantageous.

References are displayed if the article is also available as full text in PubMed Central or publishers deliver these data.

Sometimes articles that cite this article are displayed via Cited by. The data are from PubMed Central or publishers.

For each hit, select the hyperlinked title to view the details or abstract.

By default, the hits in the hit list are sorted by relevance (best match), but this can be re-sorted by date using the setting wheel. The display format can be changed to abstract. (See screenshot)

Square brackets around the translated title mean that the original language of the article is not English, the language is shown at the journal information.

Below the authors are the fold-out affiliations (since 2014 for all authors, before that only for the first author), followed by the PubMed-ID (PMID, unique number for each article reference, which can also be used for searches) and often the DOI (digital object identifier), a permanent URL that links to the publisher's website. This is usually followed by the English abstract. (See screenshot)

Further contents can be accessed via the page navigation, see screenshot and section "Search options".

Hit lists

Hit lists can be exported via Save in the PubMed format (.txt file), among others, see screenshot, or with Send to > Citation manager (.nbib file), which can then be imported or opened directly with literature management programs such as EndNote.

Single hits

Individual hits can also be saved as .nbib files via '' Cite or copied in one of four formats (including APA).

Favorites saves the hit in your own NCBI account (see section below) under Collections.

Individual hits can be checked in the hit list and then added to the wath list via Send to Clipboard, see screenshot. From there they can be saved or emailed again.

In addition to Twitter and Facebook, there is also a so-called permalink with attached PubMed-ID for copying (chain symbol).

MeSH terms can be expanded or directly viewed in the abstract or detail view, see screenshot. The categories humans/animals, male/female and age groups such as adult are assigned by default if the assignment is possible.

These thematic terms may contain certain subheadings, which are placed after the slash. A * at the end means that this term is a major aspect of the work (Major topic).

On the start page of the MeSH database (see also Pubmed homepage under Explore), you can search for these terms, which are hierarchically arranged as a tree structure.

The search with prostate returns Prostatic Neoplasms as 4th hit, see screenshot. Often the search with wildcards is useful, here e.g. with prostate*.

After selection, numerous subheadings are displayed (suitable selection from about 80 possible ones, see https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/subhierarchy.html), which allow a closer search.

The following selection is possible:

The restriction to Major Topic means: find only articles where the MeSH term is a major aspect of the work (search with term [majr]).

The second point refers to the MeSH hierarchy, which is then displayed further down (one or more trees with linked terms for browsing): by default, all terms below a MeSH term are used for the search, unless you explicitly exclude this (term [mesh:noexp]).

The MeSH-term can be used for searching via the Search Builder box, see screenshot.

The following entry terms are synonyms that can be helpful when searching for title/abstract terms (the combinations of terms that contain a comma can be ignored).

Pay attention to Year introduced at the top of the definition and, if necessary, Previous Indexing below the Entry Terms - sometimes it is useful to search with previous MeSH terms.

Note: PubMed Online Training includes a tutorial and short videos on how to use MeSH.