PubMed Search Strategies

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PubMed Searches

There are a number of parameters that may be modified to refine PubMed searches.

Medical Subject Headings

MeSH provides standardized subject headings that are used to categorize articles. The MeSH database may be accessed under the 'PubMedServices' toolbar. MeSH headings can be further refined using 'subheadings'.

Searches are executed under the 'links' button on the MeSH page.

MeSH will miss papers that have not yet been mapped to; keyword searches are thus necessary to find the most recent papers.

To view the MeSh headings for a given paper, select 'citation' under the article's display tab.

Combining Searches

Performed searches are listed in the 'History' tab of PubMed. They can be combined to further enhance a search's specificity.

Clinical Queries

Clinical queries, under the 'PubMed Services' bar, allows for searches based on etiology, diagnosis, therapy, prognosis, or clinical prediction.

Systematic reviews may also be searched, with MeSH headings and combined searches allowing refinement of simple keyword searches.