PubMed

Why create an account with My NCBI?   It can be helpful to create an account in PubMed.  Doing so allows you to 

• save search strings
• save sets of search results
• create an Alert so you when new results come in that meet your search criteria
• personalize the way your search results are displayed

To create an account, look for 'Log In' in the upper right area, and follow instructions to create your account.

After you’ve created a search string you’d like to save, click the ‘Advanced’ button on the main search page under the search box, then click the three dogs in front of the search you want to save. Choose 'Add Query."  In the future, you can access this search string by clicking your login name (upper right area) then 'Dashboard.'

On the next page you can:

• Name your search
• Specify if you want emailed updates, and if so, how often
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You can "Create an Alert' to have PubMed email you when new citations are added to PubMed that match your search criteria.  To do this, as shown above, click 'Create alert' and then on the next page, specify how often you would like to be notified of these new results.

You can have PubMed save the entire set of results returned by a search string.  Results will be saved in a Collection. To do so, on the page where you see you results, click 'Send to' and then 'Collections.'  You will be asked to name your collection.  In the future, you can access these results by clicking your login name (upper right area) then 'Dashboard.'

There are many ways to personalize the way your PubMed results are displayed.  To change yours, click on your login name (upper right area) then 'Dashboard.'  Next click 'NCBI Site Preferences.'

One popular way to change your display is to add a highlighted color to your keywords, wherever they show up in the title or abstract.  To do this, on the 'NCBI Site Preferences' page, click 'Highlighting' and change the color to whatever color you choose.