Enter your search terms into the search box
Be specific
No search tags or ANDs needed
Avoid quotation marks
Find articles by entering the...
Citation: enter the citation parts you have (ie: author, article title, journal name, volume, year, etc.) and let PubMed’s citation sensor find the article for you (e.g., Neale Science 2019).
Author: enter the author’s last name and initials (e.g., Fagerness, Jj).
Journal: use the complete journal title, ISSN, or title abbreviation (e.g., lancet oncol).
The basic search box is on the top of the PubMed home page. Type your search term(s) into the search box and click the Search button.
Don't worry about using MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) terms, unless you already know them. PubMed will attempt to match (or "map") your search word(s) to appropriate MeSH terms.
Results are sorted by Best Match--which lists the most relevant and current results at the top of the page.
Results include the following information about each item:
Article Title
Author Names
Citation Information: the journal abbreviation, journal volume and issue, page numbers, and date published
PMID: the unique PubMed Identification Number for each item
Article type “tags”: Identifying the type of article; such as a Randomized Control Trial, Review article, Clinical Trial, etc. (if available)
A portion of the abstract with your search terms highlighted (if available)
If you are seeing too many results or want to narrow your search, PubMed has tools to refine your search. We will explore these tools in the next sections.
The Advanced Search Builder can be used to construct a more complex search using a combination of searches, MeSH terms, and keywords.
Search one concept at a time, specifying fields, i.e. Title/Abstract, or subject headings, e.g. MeSH Major Topic
Add each completed concept to your search History using the Add to History link
Use the Search Builder to combine the completed concepts from History, using the Add link (change to OR or NOT as needed)
Search Details shows how PubMed is interpreting your search, using Automatic Term Mapping. In the History and Search Details section, click on the arrow under the Details column to see how your search was interpreted.
In the example below, you can see that we entered the term "acid reflux", but PubMed is actually searching for the term "gastroesophageal reflux".
What this means is that, even if we don’t know that the medical term for acid reflux is actually “gastroesophageal reflux,” PubMed knows what we’re looking for, and will search for any citations with that term. PubMed also searches for the original search string we entered: “acid reflux.”
The default filters include:
The default list of filter categories in the left-hand sidebar does not include all options. Click on the link labeled "Additional filters" to add categories to the list. Filters are available to focus your search results by article types, text availability, publication dates, species, languages, sex, subjects, journal categories, ages, and search fields.
Type of Article, Species, Sex, and Ages filters are based on terms added by indexers. When these filters are selected they remove very recent articles that have not yet been indexed. Always look at the most recent search results before adding these filters.
*Text Availability Note: the "Free full text" filter does not include UHSP journal/database subscriptions.
Medical Subject Headings are the standard terms added by indexers to PubMed records to help improve search results. PubMed works "behind the scenes" to match your search words to the related MeSH term. The actual search used is displayed in the Search Details accessible through the Advanced Search.
To see 
an example of how MeSH works try searching for heart attack. Use the Advanced link under the Search Box and scroll down to the History and Search details section. Click on the arrow in the details column to see what PubMed searched.
PubMed is telling you the preferred MeSH term is myocardial infarction.
Articles are examined and assigned the most specific MeSH headings that describe the concepts discussed. MeSH terms help assure that search results will include the articles about a topic, even when different words are used to describe the topic in the title and abstract.
You can find MeSH terms through the MeSH database. This database is accessible on the Pubmed homepage under the Explore heading.
The best way to search PubMed is through the link on the library homepage. 
Through our link, you have free access to all the articles in journals that the library has a subscription for.
If you use our link, you should always see the UHSP Library button. Clicking that button will take you either to the full text of the article OR a page where you can submit a request to get the article (for free!) through interlibrary loan.
PubMed Central: PMC is a free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature by NIH. Click on the “PMC Free Full text” icon to link to the article.
Publisher: Free from the publisher: Ocassionly you will see an Open Access or Free Full-Text link from the journal publisher, click the publisher free full-text icon to check for access to the article.
Publisher: (NOT RECOMMENDED): There will always be a publisher link on every abstract where you can purchase the article from the publisher.
reate a My NCBI account to save searches, create search alerts, and customize your PubMed search experienceSetting up an account in PubMed (called My NCBI), allows you to:
To signup for an account, go to PubMed and click "Log in” in the top, right corner of the screen. At the bottom of the page click "Sign Up". We recommend either:
