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In the late summer of 2003, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) incorporated the OLDMEDLINE database of citations into
the PubMed search system.
What is OLDMEDLINE? OLDMEDLINE is a set of articles that predate the creation of the online MEDLARS system for
indexing and providing access to article citations and abstracts. It is assembled from the print records in several
different medical indices of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Cumulated Index Medicus and the Current List of
Medical Literature. The online database now includes:
- 1.5 million article citations
- Covers years from 1950-1965
- No MeSH terms or other indexing, including publication type, age, gender, or language
- No abstracts
- Available in PubMed as a "subset" in the Limits screen
How do I search OLDMEDLINE in PubMed?
Because OLDMEDLINE does not use MeSH terms or other indexing codes, such as language or publication type, you must set
up your search slightly differently than a standard PubMed search. In particular, you have to put in several synonyms
for each concept so that you cover all possible iterations of your term. Mapping to MeSH or using MeSH terms will not
get you complete results.
- In the Limits screen, set "Subset" to "OLDMEDLINE for Pre 1966"
- DO NOT SET ANY OTHER LIMITS
- Do a keyword search in the search box, connecting synonyms using the Boolean operator "OR"
- Example: (kidney OR kidneys OR renal) AND (cancer OR neoplasm OR carcinoma) retrieves 952 articles, but
"kidney cancer" only retrieves 10
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