What is PubMed?
Free search interface to the bibliographic database MEDLINE and other NCBI resources. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) developed this interface at the National Library of Medicine. PubMed/Medline Fact Sheet is a full description about PubMed and its development to the biomedical literature. Access PubMed using the library web site quick link. |
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PubMed Search Strengths:
Includes most recent information; articles will appear in PubMed before being added to Ovid MEDLINE
Examples include ahead of print, publisher supplied citations, and in-process citations which are records with basic citation information and abstracts before the citations are indexed with NLM's MeSH Terms and added to MEDLINE.
Uses keyword and Medical Subject Headings automatically in search which will increase results. This is useful for new literature.
“Related Links” is a PubMed feature which using a computer algorithm to find similar articles based on the article being displayed. The “related links” link can be found in the abstract view or the abstract-plus view using the display drop-down menu
Ability to search MeSH Headings only, under PubMed services click on MeSH Database to construct your searching strategy. The MeSH Database allows you to build a subject heading search using subheadings, limit search to a major topic or narrow search by turning off the automatic explosion feature.
An extensive Limits feature. Includes subject areas such as nursing, dentistry; publication date ranges, language, human/animal, publication types such as randomized control trials, practice guidelines, meta-analysis, and a broad range of age limits from newborn to 80 and over.
Links to PubMed Central which is the National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.
Use the 
icon to locate the full-text availability of a journal article
Clinical Queries, a PubMed feature allows you to filter for systematic review articles and find only clinical study articles in the areas of etiology, diagnosis, therapy, prognosis, and clinical prediction guides.
Clipboard to save citations from multiple searches
Includes life sciences articles from general science and chemistry journals and older MEDLINE citations (pre-1966)
My NCBI is a personal account to save searches, set up e-mail alerts, display links to Web resources, and choose specific filters
PubMed Search Cautions
Must use Search History tab to view previous searches
Limits are continually on/off; must go to separate page to apply or change limits
No method to browse for journal table of contents as the Ovid interface provides
EBM features more basic than options available in Ovid
Advance searching using the MeSH tree and its available subheading is time consuming with multiple drop-down menus and clicks.
The automatic inclusion of keyword and MeSH headings could result in a larger set containing some less relevant articles.
In the MeSH Database when choosing more than one Subject Heading term the default option for searching is OR;
Search results may lead to articles with no common relationship between the Subject Headings. For example, selecting the two Subject Headings terms, Hypertension or Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced will include articles from different genders and both types of hypertension
For a complete tutorial on how to use PubMed see the Tutorials and User Aids page.
