The most important part is the item information. On the Results page, you will get a brief snapshot of each item. Highlights include:
Article/Item Title
Author Names
Citation Information: includes the journal title abbreviation, volume and issue, page numbers, and article publication date
PMID: the unique PubMed Identification Number for each item
A portion of the abstract with your search terms highlighted (if available)
Study type “tags”: describes the article type
Examples: Randomized Control Trial, Review article, Clinical Trial, etc. (if available)
These tools allow you to narrow the results to a more manageable number and more relevant results.
Advanced Search: Click this link to see your search details, modify your search, or enter new search terms.
Save, Email, Send to: A somewhat easy way to export your search results
Save: Save all or selected results in various formats--all results are saved as a TXT file (super basic text)
Email: Email all or selected results to someone else or yourself
Send to: a free Clipboard that saved items for 8 hours or other options that require creating a free account
Sorted by Best Match: The default sorting of results is Best Match (displaying the most relevant results). You can sort results by Publication Date or Most Recent (items most recently added to the database).
Results by Year graph: Shows the number of records by date of publication. The slider allows you to select your range of interest.
Filters: Available where you’d expect, in the left column. You can add more filters by clicking on the Additional Filters option at the bottom of the list.
Abstract snippets with highlights: Snippets from the abstract where your search terms appear.
Filters can limit the number of search results to bring you fewer results.
Keep in mind that these information categories are terms added by indexers. When you use filters you may be removing very recent articles that have not been indexed yet. Always look at the most recent search results before adding these filters.
Results by year
Publication date
Text Availability
Article Type
At the bottom of the filters list, click the plus sign next to Additional Filters
Select a filter. The filter will be applied instantly.
All filters you have selected will be displayed at the top of the page in a box. If you need to remove a filter, uncheck the box from the filters column on the left side of the page.
While on the results page, you saw a brief snapshot of each item. Once you open an item record you will see a full citation and much more information.
Basic citation info, including journal, issue, and page number (if applicable)
Tags indicating what type of article the citation is for. (Not every type of article has a tag)
Article title
Author information (expand to see the authors’ institutional affiliations, if present)
PMID or PubMed ID (the unique identifier for each PubMed citation)
Full abstract text
Includes our UHSP Library link to the full-text article or Interlibrary loan request form
A publisher link (possible paywall)
If available a PubMed Central (PMC) link
Cite: Save the citation information in AMA, APA, MLA, or NLM format
Favorites: Save the citation to your My NCBI account
When you are building a search it can be helpful to search for each term individually; then go back and combine each term with boolean operators AND/NOT/OR. This allows you to see results for each term and helps you determine if the term you choose is what you are looking for.
On the PubMed main page, click the Advanced link under the main search box.
Add each completed concept to your Search History using the Add to History link.
After entering a term click the down arrow under the Search button to select the Add to History link.
Then go to the History and Search Details section to add the completed concepts in the History section.
Click the three dots under the Actions column to Add query
Then select Add with AND (or select Add with OR or Add with NOT as needed).
Once all terms are added, then click the down arrow on the Add to History button to search.
The Search Details section shows how PubMed interpreted your search and applied Automatic Term Mapping. To see how your search was interpreted:
In the History and Search Details section, click on the arrow under the Details column
You should now see the search details.
In the image below, you can see that we entered the term "acid reflux", but PubMed searched for the term "gastroesophageal reflux".
PubMed applied automatic term mapping to expand your search to the correct medical term -- gastroesophageal reflux. Automatic term mapping is helpful when you know the common term, but not the correct medical term. PubMed also searches for the original term, just in case.
