Research Guides: Health & Medicine Database Search Tips: PubMed

PubMed Links

PubMed This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Comprises more than 35 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Be sure to use this link to see full-text options available through Madigan Library.

PubMed Clinical Queries
Results of searches on this page are limited to specific clinical study categories and scope, as well as systematic reviews.
PubMed Special Queries
A directory of topic-specific PubMed queries.
Choose from several, including types (Clinical Queries, Comparative Effectiveness Research, etc.), subject (AIDS, Cancer, Population Health, etc.), journal collections (core clinical, dental, and nursing), and miscellaneous ones (MedlinePlus Health Topics, TOXNET, etc.).

Tips & Tools for Using PubMed

PubMed User Guide & FAQs
Explains how to do basic searches, as well as search by author, journal name, focusing your search, expanding your search, and search results.
PubMed Online Training
Includes tutorials, quick tours, webcasts, videos, and handouts.
PubMed Proximity Searching
Learn how to specify how close a search term appears in relation to another term contained in the of resources you find in PubMed.

Full-Text Articles

The library uses PubMed's LinkOut Outside Tool, which is the equivalent of the links you see in ProQuest and our other databases that say check for full-text. You should see a Madigan Library icon in every single result in PubMed. Just click on it and it will either give you links into our other databases for the full-text article, or it will give the button to request the article on interlibrary loan.

Search Tips

NEVER use quotation marks around phrases or Boolean operators (AND, OR, etc.); PubMed utilizes a smart-search technology called automatic term mapping, or ATM. ATM will "map" whatever terms you search in the broadest sense, so you will always get everything it finds on your terms, including the correct MeSH terms if you use plain language or laymans' terms
- e.g. a search on brittle bone disease will give you the following query translation:
  "osteogenesis imperfecta"[MeSH Terms] OR ("osteogenesis"[All Fields] AND "imperfecta"[All Fields]) OR "osteogenesis imperfecta"[All Fields] OR ("brittle"[All Fields] AND "bone"[All Fields] AND "disease"[All Fields]) OR "brittle bone disease"[All Fields]
Use limiters (filters), such as article type, publication date, etc.
To see additional filters, click the link to show additional filters, then check the box next to the ones you wish to see and click show. Once shown, you can select from those to narrow your results. Additional filters include:
- Article type
- Species
- Language
- Sex
- Age
To try and limit to nursing or dental journals, add one of the following to your search box, followed by AND and your search term(s):
- nursing[mh]
  - e.g., nursing[mh] AND prenatal care
- dentistry[mh]
  - e.g., dentristry[mh] AND early caries