PubMed Basics
Enter Terms
Set Limits
Display Results
Connect to Fulltext
Print, Save, Clipboard, or Email Results
Refining or Improving the Search
Other Tools
Related Links
PubMed provides access to all of MEDLINE and OldMEDLINE back to the 1950s and to additional life sciences journals. It is updated daily.
Step 1: Enter Terms
Type any key word or phrase into the search box as shown in the image. Use an asterisk (*) to retrieve variations on a word, e.g., pregnan* retrieves pregnant, pregnancy, pregnancies , etc. [Flash video (50 sec)]
- For a Subject Search: Enter one or more words (e.g., asthma drug therapy) in the query box and click on Go. PubMed automatically "ANDs" (combines) terms together so that all terms or concepts are present, and it translates your words into MeSH terms (if they are available).
- For an Author Search: Enter the author's name in the format of last name first followed by initials (e.g., byrnes ca).
- For a Journal Search: To retrieve articles from a specific journal use PubMed's Journals Database or Single Citation Matcher features (available from the left hand navigation bar on PubMed's search screen).
- Combining concepts: Use Boolean operators (AND and OR) to combine topics in the search box if desired. [Flash video (45 sec)]
- Boolean operators must be entered in UPPERCASE
- To avoid inaccurate results, group terms that are OR'ed together in parentheses (e.g., (breast cancer OR ovarian cancer) AND drug therapy will retrieve results with either breast cancer OR ovarian cancer. All results will contain drug therapy.)
- To retrieve an exact phrase, use quotation marks (e.g., "heart disease")
- To increase flexibility, search for each term/phrase individually and then combine them in the History, which can be located by clicking the History tab underneath the search box. History holds your search strategies and results from your current search session. You may combine previous searches or add additional terms to an existing search by using the pound sign (#) before the search number in the search box.
Step 2: Click on the 
Button to Run Your Search
Step 3: Set Limits (optional)
The Limit feature allows you to refine your results in a variety of ways.
Click on Limits on the Feature tabs as shown in the image. You can select more than one option per limit (e.g., author, journal, language, publication type, or subset of PubMed, e.g. nursing journals, cancer or bioethics).
[Flash video (1 min 12 sec)]
Note: Once Limits are set, they will appear highlighted below the Limits tab. Those limits will remain in place until you change or remove them by unchecking the Limits box and clicking the Go button.
Step 4: Display Results
Display/Show/Sort options [Flash video (1 min 30 sec)]:
- Display format:
- Summary - Short bibliographic citation (default display). You must click on the author's name to see the abstract and any full-text buttons.
- Abstract - Bibliographic citation plus abstract of the article. Use also for links to full-text.
- Citation - Abstract format plus MeSH terms (useful for finding additional search terms)
- MEDLINE - Full citation tagged with field labels. Use for importing into bibliographic citation programs such as EndNote
- Show
- Choose to view 5 up to 500 citations on one page.
- Sort by
- Author
- Journal
- Publication Date
Filter tabs:
- All shows you the total number of citations retrieved
- Free full text contains citations with links to freely available full text articles
- Review contains review articles
- UNMC Library Holdings contains articles in which the library has access to electronically or in print (Note: Holdings notes are approximate. Check the Helix catalog for full holdings lists).
Step 5: Connect to Fulltext
Links to Fulltext Documents: Display references (either all of them or the marked citations) in Abstract or Citation format.
- GetIt!@UNMC - The library has linked a device into PubMed that allows you to automatically search the library’s online and print collections, in addition to linking to the Order Articles form that allows you to request a photocopy from a print journal in the library or interlibrary loan (if the library does not own or have access to a journal). Fees are associated with this service.
- All citations contain the GetIt!@UNMC button.
- Clicking that button will run a search of the library’s online journal collections.
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Choice A: If a link appears, it will take you either directly to the article or to the journal contents page where you must browse for the issue and article.
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- Unless a button says UNMC or Free Full Text, it is a publisher button. You will be asked to pay for the article from the publisher.
Step 6: Print, Save, Clipboard, or Email Results
[Flash video (1 min 55 sec)]
Print: Select the format of the references using the Display button's pull-down menu. Place all your references on one web page using the Show pull-down menu. Select Text or Print from the Send To pull-down menu. Then print from the browser.
Save: Select the format of the references using the Display button's pull-down menu. Place all your references on one web page using the Show pull-down menu. Select File from the Send To pull-down menu. When prompted by the operating system, provide a name for the .txt file.
Clipboard: Select Clipboard from the Sent To pull-down menu. These citations will now appear in the Clipboard and will remain there on the computer you are working on for approximately 8 hours. To access these citations, click on the Clipboard tab, which is beneath the search box.
Email: Select E-mail from the Send To pull-down menu. Select or fill in the options for format of the references, items to be sent, and email address. Note: if you select HTML format you will be able to view and use the links to full-text of the journal articles and related articles if your email is configured to read HTML. Note: UNMC Full-Text links, when emailed, will only work while on campus.
Order articles: This feature is not currently available for UNMC affiliates.
Refining or Improving the Search
MeSH Database (click link for further instruction)
MeSH terms or subjects, are assigned to each article in PubMed. By using MeSH terms, you can focus your search and increase the likelihood of retrieving meaningful results.
Other Tools
Clinical Queries Search
Uses filters to limit retrieval to systematic reviews or research-based citations on clinical topics.
Related Articles
Clicking on the 'related articles' link to the right of a citation will retrieve closely related citations. These citations are displayed by relevancy and may be reviewed and added to the clipboard, saved or printed.
Single Citation Matcher
Lets you fill in known pieces of information about a specific reference in order to retrieve the full citation.
My NCBI (formerly Cubby)
Provides a space to save and update up to 100 searches.
Additional Help
Use the side bar on left side of the PubMed screen to access special Help screens. Consult with library staff or use one of the Related Links listed below.
Related links
NLM PubMed tutorial
NLM PubMed Quick Tours
McGoogan Library of Medicine Education Department
UNMC College/Department Library Liaisons
Library Literature Search Service
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
The material on this page was adapted with permission from the University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries.
