Health & Life Sciences Librarian
Coordinator of Electronic Resources & Discovery
Step-by-Step PubMed Search Tutorial
We encourage students, researchers, and faculty members throughout UD's campus to use the following detailed tutorial explaining how to search in PubMed according to EBM/EBP standards. Each of the following pages go in-depth with screenshots and how-to instructions for completing a search from start to finish. Whether you are aiming to find a relevant set of articles for an assignment or embarking on a comprehensive literature review, the following steps should help ensure that you find a relevant and comprehensive set of articles on your topic.
Please don't hesitate to contact Jason Wardell (jwardell1@udayton.edu) if you have any questions or need any guidance on using this tutorial, or if you would like to meet for a consultation to go over your search topic.
Contents (click on items to jump ahead)
-
Overview: Why should I use PubMed for evidence-based medicine and evidence-based practice?
-
Before you start searching, keep in mind . . .
-
Citation Management
-
My NCBI Account
-
PubMed's "Outside Tool" feature
-
Saving you search strategy in a word document
-
-
Search Steps:
-
Step #2: Controlled Vocabularies -- How to Locate & Use MeSH Terms
-
Locate the Controlled Vocabulary (MeSH term) for your concepts
-
Important notes to keep in mind when using MeSH terms
-
Hierarchical Arrangement
-
Focus vs. Explode
-
Major Headings
-
Subheadings
-
-
Adding MeSH terms to the search box
-
-
Step #3: Locating & Using Keywords
-
How to find synonyms and be comprehensive
-
Applying field tags to keywords
-
Applying Boolean operators to keywords
-
-
Step #4: Combining MeSH & Keywords with the Boolean Operator OR (Part 1)
-
Adding field tags and Boolean operators to search for Atorvastatin using MeSH terms and keywords at the same time
-
-
Step #5: Combining MeSH & Keywords with with the Boolean Operator OR (Part 2)
-
Quick run-through for building a search string for memory loss using keywords and subject headings
-
Quick run-through for building a search string for females using keywords and subject headings
-
-
Step #6: Combining all Search Elements (PICO) Using the Boolean Operator AND
-
Step #8: How to Access Full Text, Use Interlibrary Loan & Export Results to a Citation Manager
-
Accessing Full Text at the University of Dayton
-
Accessing Interlibrary Loan (ILL) from PubMed at the University of Dayton
-
Exporting Multiple Results from PubMed to citation management softwares, My NCBI & PubMed's Clipboard Feature
-
This content was adapted from “HOW TO SEARCH IN BIOMEDICAL DATABASES” (created in 2021 at NEOMED Library) by Simon Robins, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
