Introduction
PubMed is the free public interface to the database MEDLINE, created by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). PubMed comprises more than 32 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links directly to full-text content.
PubMed Central® (PMC) is very similar to PubMed. It is a smaller collection of citations for free biomedical and life sciences literature. However, it is best to not rely solely on PMC. As a Rush associate, you have access to many journals, books and other media that can be found in PubMed - but as they are a paid subscription, not found in PubMed Central.
Searching in PubMed
Analyze your research question and identify what your main key concepts are. Remember to add as many similar terms or synonyms with an OR to each concept to help broaden your search results. This example will search on individual key concepts then combine searches to get the the final search.
Example: Does caffeine have an effect on children?
Step-by-Step:
1. Start with your first concept. Identify all keyword(s) or phrase(s). Remember to build your search using Boolean Operators. Check out our Guide to the Basics for more information on how to use them.
2. You will search on all your concepts individually. You can create your directly in the search bar, or go back into the Advanced Search Builder page. Your Search history will be stores in the Advanced Search Builder page.
If you don't identify any field codes, Ovid will default to searching [All Fields]. This will search for articles where your words appear in several specific fields, including the title, abstract, subject heading, author keywords, and more. This will be a much broader search. You can also try limiting the search to title and abstract only by using [Title/Abstract] or [tiab]
Please see Searching Tips for more information on the different field code options.
3. Next you will combine your key concepts. You will click on "..." and hit Add to Query. This will add the first search to your Query Box. Next you will do the same with the second search. Here you will the more options. This is where you will want identify what operator you want to combine with AND or OR.
Remember:
- Use AND to find results that contain all of the specified search terms.
- Use OR to find results that contain at least one of the specified search terms, including synonyms or variations of a concept.
4. Once you have combined your searches, you can hit "Search". You can also combine searches by simply typing the combined search in the search box #1 AND #2
And that's it! Search 3 in the image below combined two different concepts to create a more advanced search.
