Basic Searches
- State your research interest as specifically as possible. Shaping it as a question may help your thinking:
Should basketball players wear mouthguards?
- Identify the key concepts in your question:
basketball; mouthguards
- Enter the search words with an AND between the different concepts
basketball AND mouthguards
Note: PubMed usually automatically puts AND between two words entered in the search box, so typing in the AND is not always necessary. However, the best practice is to type in the AND where you want it to go. Doing so can be particularly important when you construct more complicated searches. Using all caps for the AND helps you to easily see how you are combining your terms and clearly tells the database what you intend.
- Remember, PubMed is searching words in the article title, abstract, and subject headings. PubMed does not search the text of the complete article.
Author names should be entered as: Last name(space)1st initial2nd initial
Example: slade gd
Note:
- No comma or periods are necessary
- Adding the second initial helps focus the search on a specific person
For more information about author searching see PubMed Quick Start
- Click the Limits tab on any PubMed screen.
- Click Add Journal next to Search by Journal
- Enter the journal title or abbreviation
For more information about journal name searching see PubMed Quick Start
Use the Single Citation Matcher search form when you know various pieces of information about the article such as journal name, publication date, author name, or title words.
Select the link to Single Citation Matcher in the left hand blue sidebar found on most PubMed screens. You only need to fill in a few data points. Author Name and First Page often bring up a single result.
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