how to search research paper on pubmed

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Basic Search

Advanced search, search techniques.

• My NCBI in PubMed
• Utilizing Search Results
• Scenarios in PubMed
• Identifying Articles

Basic searching in PubMed   is straightforward. Enter your keyword term(s) in the search box at the top and click the Search button.

PubMed may suggest topics for you, and if you like any of them you can simply click on one. It's usually a good idea to start with a broad search, then narrow your results.

Please note, PubMed is not like Google! You cannot use full sentences. Use keywords, author names, or journal titles to begin your searching. 

An Advanced Search in PubMed allows you to narrow your search and find specific resources. By selecting "Advanced" under the search bar, you are taken to the PubMed Advanced Search Builder .  From here, you can "add terms to the query box" and search by the specified field you choose. You can search by fields such as (but not limited to): 

• Title 
• MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) 
• Field Descriptions (tags) 

There are many techniques to refine your search in PubMed, including Boolean Operators, truncation, and search filters. 

Boolean Operators are used to connect pieces of information within a search. You can use the operators AND OR and NOT to focus your search results. 

• Used to narrow your search 
• All terms connected must be present in the results 
• e.g. virus AND cell death AND influenza
• Used to broaden your search 
• Either of the terms must be present in the results 
• e.g. flu OR influenza 
• Used to exclude terms in your search 
• Ignoring terms that may typically be present in your search 
• e.g. virus NOT influenza 

Truncation in PubMed is used with an asterisk (*). It builds on the asterisked word from the right. 

• Broadens your search
• Searches for multiple variants of a word (singular/plural/conjugations etc)
• this would search for words such as: gene, genetic, genetically, etc

Often, you may want to find a particular citation in PubMed. There are a couple of quick and easy ways to do this, so that you don't have to go through a formal search.

One way is the PubMed ID (PMID) . It is a series of number and appears with each citation. If you have that, simply type (or copy and paste) it into the search box and the citation appears.

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How to Search in Biomedical Databases

• Getting Started with your Search

PubMed Search Tips

• Cochrane Search Tips
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• Why Use PubMed?
• How to Access PubMed at NEOMED
• Before You Start Searching . . .
• Step 1: Identifying Key Search Concepts Using PICO
• Step 2: Locating Relevant MeSH Terms
• Step 3: Locating Relevant Keywords & Synonyms
• Step 4: Combining MeSH & Keywords Pt. 1
• Step 5: Combining MeSH & Keywords Pt. 2
• Step 6: Combining Search Elements Using AND
• Step 7: Applying Filters
• Step 8: Accessing Full-Text, ILL & Exporting Results
• More Info . . .
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Contact Your Librarian for Help!

We encourage students, researchers, and faculty members throughout NEOMED's campus and at our clinical sites to use this overview of how to search in PubMed for their research and instruction needs.

Contents (click on items to jump ahead)

Overview: When should I use this database?

How to access PubMed at NEOMED

Before you start searching, keep in mind . . .

Keywords  

Automatic Term Mapping 

How to Find & Use Keywords

Controlled Vocabularies 

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Explode vs. No Explode

Subheadings

Combining Searches Using Boolean Operators (OR, AND, NOT)

Applying Filters

How to Access Full Text

More Information

PubMed Tipsheet (pdf)

Overview: when should I use this database?

PubMed comprises more than 27 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. The public database is maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information, and this tip sheets applies to this public-facing version, not the version of Medline supported by Ovid. It offers a fairly broad overview of existing literature on a particular topic, but it should not be seen as a complete overview.

How to access PubMed at NEOMED

Please note that to access full text for articles located within PubMed, authentication with your NEOMED Library credentials  is required both  on- and  off-campus to  PubMed. The NEOMED instance of PubMed can be located from our landing page searchbox or via the following link:  PubMed . Do not simply google PubMed; it will not provide NEOMED full text links. Learn more about  how to Access Full Text  within a specific PubMed record.

Save your search in a document, citation management software (Endnote, Refworks, etc.), and/or the database

By saving your search, your strategy will be reproducible for another time and properly documented.

Explore options and instruction for citation management here , and find tips on how to export results.

To save searches in PubMed, create an NCBI account by clicking on the sign in to NCBI link in the upper-right corner of the screen (sign up for a My NCBI account by clicking here ). Once you complete a search, click on "Create an alert" underneath the search box. From here you can create a search alert or save your search strategy.

Automatic Term Mapping

PubMed uses Automatic Term Mapping (ATM) when you search with keywords. This means that the search terms you type into the search box are automatically mapped to controlled vocabulary (MeSH) terms. To see ATM in action, scroll to the "Search details" box on the left hand side of the results page. Warning: ATM is not always correct. For example, if you search for “cold AND zinc,” PubMed will include the controlled vocabulary for "cold temperatures" in the search.

Using quotes around a phrase or truncation turns off Automatic Term Mapping. The terms are instead searched as keywords.

Keywords — How to Find & Use

Keyword terms can be single words or phrases.

Use quotes around all phrases to ensure that the phrase is searched instead of each word individually. (e.g. “public health”)

For more possible search terms, visit the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) database and look at the "entry terms" listed for each MeSH record . MeSH is NLM’s controlled vocabulary of biomedical terms used to describe the subject of each journal article in MEDLINE. The entry terms are synonyms, alternate forms, and other closely related terms generally used interchangeably with the preferred term.

Consult controlled vocabularies in other subject databases for additional help. For example, the Embase has a controlled vocabulary called Emtree . Emtree records contain synonym lists similar to the "entry terms" in a MeSH record.  The Emtree synonym list often contains European spellings/variations.

Controlled Vocabularies -- How to Find & Use

Locate controlled vocabulary (mesh).

MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) is NLM’s controlled vocabulary of biomedical terms used to describe the subject of each journal article in MEDLINE. These are a standardized set of terms that are used to bring consistency to the searching process. In total, there are approximately 26,000 terms, and they are updated annually to reflect changes in medicine and medical terminology. Using MeSH terms helps account for variations in language, acronyms, and British vs. American English.

MeSH can be searched from a NCBI interface: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh

Terms are arranged hierarchically by subject categories with more specific terms arranged beneath broader terms. MeSH terms in PubMed automatically include the more specific MeSH terms in a search.

To turn off this automatic explode feature, click on the button next to, "Do not include MeSH terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy" in the MeSH record or type [mh:noexp] next to the search term, e.g. neoplasms [mh:noexp]. See next page for additional information on no explode.

Once MeSH terms have been searched, terms will appear in a box labelled “Search details,” located beside the list of the results on the right side of the screen. This box will display how each term has been searched, and can be useful for editing your search. Corrections can be made directly within this box, and once corrections have been made, the search button beneath the box will re-run your search.

Difference between “Explode,” “No Explode,” and “Major Heading”

“Explode” will search with all subheadings beneath the main heading included and bring up all results listing any of these terms subject heading subheadings combinations. PubMed will default to explode any MeSH you search.

Choosing to focus (also referred to as “not exploding”) will only search for your chosen MeSH term. Terms are chosen by MeSH indexers to be the primary focus of an individual article. Command to search: [Mesh:noexp] will only find the term specified, not the terms beneath it (for example: “diarrhea”[Mesh:noexp] only finds records indexed with diarrhea, not acute diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, etc.)

Searching for “major headings” will narrow your search to only find MeSH terms listed as a major topic of an article. Command to search: [majr] (e.g. “diarrhea”[majr] will find articles with diarrhea as a major topic. Major topic MeSH terms will have an asterisks (e.g. Diarrhea*), while non-major topics will not have one.

MeSH can be made more specific by the addition of  subheadings such as "therapy" and "prevention and control"

When in the MeSH record, add subheadings by clicking on the boxes next to the desired subheadings. Then click "Add to Search Builder." Warning: Adding too many subheadings may lead to missing important articles.

MeSH/Subheading Combinations: You can manually add subheadings in the search box by using the format MeSH Term/Subheading, e.g. neoplasms/diet therapy. You can also use the two letter abbreviation for subheadings rather than typing out the full phrase, e.g. neoplasms/dh. Click here for the abbreviations of other MeSH subheadings. ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/table/pubmedhelp.T.mesh_subheadings/ )

For a MeSH/Subheading combination, only one Subheading at a time may be directly attached to a MeSH term. For example, a search of hypertension with the subheadings diagnosis or drug therapy will appear as hypertension/diagnosis or hypertension/drug therapy.

As with MeSH terms, PubMed search results, by default, include the more specific terms arranged beneath broader terms for the MeSH term and also includes the more specific terms arranged beneath broader  Subheadings .

Combining Searches Using Boolean Operators

A comprehensive and systematic search of PubMed includes both controlled vocabulary and keyword terms (i.e. free text, natural language, and synonyms).

Boolean operators are used to combine search terms. In PubMed, you can use the operators AND, OR, and NOT.

Go to the “Advanced Search” page to combine searches. This is where your search history is located during your search session.

Boolean operators MUST be used as upper case (AND, OR, NOT).

OR --use OR between similar keywords, like synonyms, acronyms, and variations in spelling within the same idea or concept

AND —use AND to link ideas and concepts where you want to see both ideas or concepts in your search results

NOT —used to exclude specific keywords from the search, however, you will want to use NOT with caution because you may end up missing something important.

You can use field tags to specify where the database looks for the search term. In PubMed, first type the search term and then the field tag in brackets. e.g. Cardiology [TIAB] looks for cardiology in the title and abstract.

[All Fields] or [ALL] – Untagged terms and terms tagged with [all fields] are processed using  Automatic Term Mapping . Terms enclosed in double quotes or truncated will be searched in all fields and not processed using automatic term mapping.

[Text Words] or [TW] – Includes all words and numbers in the title, abstract, other abstract, MeSH terms, MeSH Subheadings, Publication Types, Substance Names, Personal Name as Subject, Corporate Author, Secondary Source, Comment/Correction Notes, and Other Terms.

[Title/Abstract] or [TIAB] – Words and numbers included in the title, collection title, abstract, and other abstract of a citation. English language abstracts are taken directly from the published article. If an article does not have a published abstract, NLM does not create one.

NCBI explanation of Field Descriptions and Tags  

Applying Filters

On the left side of the results are options to filter your search by Article types, Publication dates, Language, Age, Gender, etc. To access the complete list of filters, click on the “Show additional filters” link.

Use the PubMed built-in limits cautiously. Limits other than date or language will limit your search to indexed records only. In most cases it is best to develop another concept to use as a limiter.

For example, if you would like to limit your results to "human studies," use the following search to exclude animal studies instead of using the "humans" limit from the search results page. Simply add this to the rest of your search strategy using the NOT Boolean operator

(animals[MeSH Terms] NOT humans[MeSH Terms])

• In PubMed you can use a * at the root of a word to find multiple endings.  For example:

arthroplast* will return arthroplasty, arthroplasties, arthroplastic, arthroplastics, etc.

mobili* will return mobility, mobilization, mobilisation, mobilize, etc.

• Note: In PubMed you cannot combine phrase searching with truncation. Either use quotes, e.g. " early childhood mobility ," or use truncation, e.g. early childhood mobili*

In PubMed, the “Northeast Ohio Medical University” icon (pictured above) will often appear within an item record. To access the full text, click the pictured icon to go to an external page listing available full-text options. If the full text is not available, you will see a heading that says, "ILLiad - Request this item through interlibrary loan." When prompted, enter your ILLiad login and password and then submit the request via the pre-filled in template. The article will be emailed to you free of charge (only available for NEOMED students, faculty, and staff).

General principles on searching in any database

PubMedTutorials

Additional tips on exploring journal table of contents, subject filters, and topic alerts

Detailed information about MeSH ( https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/intro_retrieval.html )

This content was adapted from “PubMed Search Tips” by Simon Robins, which is licensed under  Creative Commons 4.0 License, CC BY , and content found on Welch Medical Library's  Nursing Resources Guide  which is licensed under  a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License   attributable to the Welch Medical Library

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How to use PubMed: the ultimate guide

What is PubMed?

Pubmed id (pmid), pubmed search results page, pubmed advanced search interface, tips for searching pubmed, 1. pubmed searches are not case-sensitive, 2. use boolean operators for better search results, 3. search by author, 4. search by journal, 5. sign up for email alerts, 6. find similar articles & cited by, 7. use mesh (medical subject headings), limitations of pubmed, how to access full-text articles, how to export citations from pubmed, pubmed alternatives, other helpful resources, related articles.

PubMed is a free search engine primarily accessing the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. It is maintained by the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) .

PubMed provides access to millions of citations from biomedical literature sources such as biomedical journals, including articles, clinical guidelines, systematic reviews, case reports, and more. It covers a wide range of topics, including medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, health care systems, preclinical sciences, and more.

➡️  The best academic research databases [Update 2024]

➡️  The best academic search engines [Update 2024]

The PubMed ID (PMID) is a unique numerical identifier assigned to each article indexed in PubMed. PMIDs are typically found at the end of a PubMed citation and can also be used to construct direct links to specific articles. They provide a convenient way to reference and cite individual articles in academic publications, presentations, and other scholarly works.

PMIDs are widely used by researchers, healthcare professionals, students, and others who rely on PubMed for accessing biomedical literature.

First, identify your search keywords and enter them into the search box to start a search. In the example below, our search query is “gender differences in autoimmune disease”.

Citations are organized with 10 items per page and initially sorted by “Best Match”. To view the abstract for an individual citation, simply click on its title to navigate to the abstract page. To change the search results display to “Abstract” format, use the “Display” options button located in the upper right corner of the search results page.

You can sort your search results by:

• Best match: This algorithm evaluates each PubMed citation within your search terms to determine the most relevant match.
• Most recent: This refers to the date a record was first added to PubMed, not its publication date.
• Publication date: Results are arranged in reverse chronological order, from newest to oldest.
• First author: Citations are alphabetically sorted by the name of the first author.
• Journal: Citations are alphabetically sorted by the name of the journal.

Often, a straightforward search like the one above can yield the desired results without requiring any special tags or syntax. PubMed employs machine learning to place the most relevant citations at the top of your results. Additionally, it has features such as autocomplete and spellchecking to help you get to your results faster.

If you need to limit the number of search results, consider replacing broad search terms with more precise ones or adding additional terms to your query.

You can also use the sidebar filters to restrict results by publication date, full-text availability, article type, and more by clicking “Additional filters”.

In the “Additional filters” pop-up menu, you can use filters to narrow your search results by article type, species, article language, sex, age, and other. A checkmark will appear next to the activated filter(s), and subsequent searches will be filtered until the search filters are turned off.

PubMed also offers many advanced search features that you can access by clicking “Advanced” below your search results.

The Advanced Search page can help you search for terms in a specific field and combine searches to build large, complex search strings. Use the “All fields” dropdown menu to select the field you want to search.

The Advanced Search Builder includes the “Show Index” feature, which provides an alphabetical display of terms appearing in selected PubMed search fields. This feature allows you to browse through all fields or focus on specific ones. The “Show Index” button can be found on the right side of the pop-up menu below the “Add” button.

Although PubMed is a fairly easy-to-use search engine for biomedical and life sciences literature, searching in a structured manner and knowing some tips and tricks will help you get to your search results faster.

PubMed is not case-sensitive, so a search for “Autoimmune Disease” will produce the same result as a search for “autoimmune disease”.

To narrow down your search, you can use Boolean operators like “AND”, “OR”, and “NOT”:

• AND  requires both words or phrases on either side to be somewhere in the record.
• NOT  can be placed in front of a word or phrase to exclude results that include them.
• OR  will give equal weight to results that match just one of the words or phrases on either side.

To search for an author in PubMed, simply input their last name followed by their initials, without punctuation, into the search box and click "Search." If you only have the last name, use the author search field tag [au], such as carr[au]. You can also enter the full name in either natural or inverted order, without punctuation, and it will be searched as both the author and collaborator if applicable.

Note that before 2002, full author names were not included in PubMed citations, so searches for full names will only retrieve citations from 2002 onward. While a comma following the last name for searching is optional, it may be necessary for certain names to distinguish the last name.

Including initials and suffixes is optional, but if included, citations will only be retrieved for articles published with those specifications.

To search by journal, input one of the following in the search box:

• The complete journal title (e.g., "macromolecular reaction engineering").
• The title abbreviation (e.g., "macromol react eng").
• The ISSN number, which is a standardized international code (e.g., 1862-8338).

If you are interested in a topic or want to stay up-to-date on the research about your search term, you can click “Create alert” on the results page and follow the steps to sign up for a PubMed account. Once you have created an account, you can sign up for email alerts so that anytime something that matches your search term becomes available, you can get notified.

Alternatively, you can sign up for PubCrawler , a free “alerting” service that scans daily updates to the NCBI Medline (PubMed) and GenBank databases. You can set up alerts and have PubCrawler do your searches for you.

You might need to expand your search if you are not finding enough relevant articles. Some useful features in PubMed are the “Similar articles” and “Cited by” sections that you can find at the bottom of the Abstract page of an entry.

Clicking the "See all similar articles" link will retrieve a pre-calculated set of PubMed citations that are closely related to the selected article. "Cited by" is generated using data submitted by publishers and from NCBI resources, when available. Working your way through these suggestions might provide you with more articles relevant to your topic.

MeSH terms are standardized keywords used to index articles in PubMed. Use the MeSH Database to find relevant terms and incorporate them into your searches for more precise results.

PubMed might not return all the resources you may get when searching your local library catalog. PubMed returns books and documents, clinical trials, meta-analyses, randomized control trials, reviews, and systematic reviews. Yet, in comparison, a library database could also return podcasts, videos, articles, statistics, or special collections.

While PubMed provides access to many abstracts, full-text articles might not always be freely available. You can access full-text articles through institutional subscriptions, open access repositories, or by contacting authors directly.

A great source for full-text articles is PubMed Central (PMC), a free digital repository maintained by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) that archives full-text scholarly articles in the biomedical and life sciences, providing open access to peer-reviewed research and supporting long-term preservation of scientific literature.

There are multiple ways you can save citations from PubMed. On the abstract page, you can click the “Cite” button in the right panel and copy & paste the citation directly into a document.

On the search results page, you can use the checkboxes to select items from the list and click the “Send to” button to save them to your Clipboard.

Another possibility is to click “Send to - Citation manager” to save your references as a .nbib file that you can import into a reference manager.

Pro tip: Use a reference manager like  Paperpile  to keep track of all your sources. Paperpile integrates with PubMed and many popular academic research engines and databases, so you can save references and PDFs directly to your library using the Paperpile buttons and later cite them in thousands of citation styles:

With over 35 million citations and abstracts spanning from 1966 and occasionally reaching back to 1809, PubMed is a massive repository of biomedical literature. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) leases the MEDLINE information to several private vendors such as Embase , Ovid , Dialog , EBSCO , and many others. Many of the PubMed alternatives rely on PubMed/MEDLINE data.

Alternatives to PubMed include:

• Google Scholar
• Web of Science
• IEEE Xplore
• PubMed Central (PMC)
• arXiv (preprint repository)
• PubMed user guide
• PubMed online training
• How to import a .nbib file into Paperpile
• How to use Google Scholar: the ultimate guide
• The best research databases for healthcare and medicine [Update 2024]
• How to efficiently search online databases for academic research

• Expert Searching
• Literature Searching Services
• Literature Review Process
• Formulating Your Research Question
• Which Databases to Use
• Choosing Search Terms
• Combining Search Terms
• Finding Spelling Variations
• Search by Parts of a Citation
• Limiting a Search with Filters
• Saving Your Search
• Finding Related Articles
• Systematic Reviews
• Searching with Google
• Other Types of Reviews
• PubMed Search Tips

1. When to Use PubMed

2. pubmed cool tools, 3. how to use mesh: medical subject headings, 4. how to use keywords, 5. pubmed pro tips, 6. combining search terms and concepts, 7. saving your searches, 8. pdf printable handout, 9. pubmed practice, 10. more information.

• Embase Search Tips
• Cochrane Search Tips
• More Welch Guides

New PubMed Video

Accessing Full Text

Find it @ jh.

In most databases, the FIND IT icon will often appear within an item record. Clicking the FIND IT icon will take you to a catalog page showing a list of full-text options.

You can also search FIND IT directly.

Interlibrary Loan

If the full-text is not available, you will see a heading that says, "Request a copy from Interlibrary Loan." Click on "Welch Medical Library Borrowers" link to request the article free of charge (available for Hopkins affiliates).

You can also submit an Interlibrary Loan request manually.

• New PubMed FAQs and User Guide
• New PubMed: Highlights for Information Professionals
• New PubMed: Trainer's Toolkit
• When to Use PubMed
• PubMed Cool Tools
• How to Use Medical Subject Headings
• How to Use Keywords
• PubMed Pro Tips
• How to Combine Search Terms and Concepts
• How to Save Your Searches
• Printable PDF Handout
• PubMed Practice
• More Information
• Access PubMed (Hopkins affiliates)
• Access PubMed (non-Hopkins affiliates)

PubMed is a platform that indexes journal articles and more back to 1947. It covers the areas of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, health care systems, preclinical sciences, and related areas. PubMed is developed and maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), both at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. As of December 2020, PubMed contains over 30 million records. PubMed is a platform that contains MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and additional PubMed records.

Clinical Queries

Use Clinical Queries to enable pre-made filters applying to different clinical research areas. Results are delineated into clinical studies, systematic reviews, and medical genetics. Enter your search exactly as you would in the PubMed search box.

For more information, see:

• Documentation on the Clinical Studies filters
• Documentation on the Medical Genetics filters
• Documentation on the COVID-19 filters

Journals in NCBI Databases

Use Journals in NCBI Databases to limit your search to a specific journal or to find out more information about journals indexed in MEDLINE. text

Single Citation Matcher

Use the Single Citation Matcher to find citations in PubMed. You may enter or omit any field.

Special Queries

Searchers at the National Library of Medicine have created search filters for multiple common topics. See and enable them on the PubMed Special Queries page .

Controlled Vocabulary: MeSH

• MeSH Database
• NLM's MeSH Tutorial
• MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings . It is a controlled vocabulary of terms assigned to records to make them discoverable.
• These are a standardized set of terms that are used to bring consistency to the searching process. In total, there are approximately 29,000 MeSH terms , and they are updated annually to reflect changes in terminology.
• Use the MeSH database to identify Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) which will help you to find literature indexed with the MeSH term.
• Using MeSH terms helps account for variations in language, acronyms, and British vs. American English.
• MeSH can be searched from the MeSH Database
• Terms are arranged hierarchically by subject categories with more specific terms arranged beneath broader terms. MeSH terms in PubMed automatically include the more specific MeSH terms in a search. This is called "explode."
• To turn off this automatic explode feature, click on the button next to, "Do not include MeSH terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy" in the MeSH record or type [mesh:noexp] next to the search term, e.g. neoplasms [mesh:noexp] . See next page for additional information on no explode.
• Use the PubMed Search Builder on the right side of the screen to add your selected MeSH term to the box, and click Search.

Explode, No Explode, and Major Heading

• Explode will search with all narrower headings beneath the main heading you have chosen. PubMed will default to explode any MeSH term you search.
• No Explode will only search for your chosen MeSH term without including any of the narrower headings in the MeSH hierarchy. You can select this option from the MeSH record.
• Major Heading will narrow your search to only find MeSH terms listed as a major topic of an article. You can select this option from the MeSH record. Major headings are shown in the article record with an asterisk.

Subheadings

MeSH terms can be made more specific by the addition of correlated or free-floating subheadings .

• When in the MeSH record, add subheadings by clicking on the boxes next to the desired subheadings. Then click "Add to Search Builder." Warning: Adding too many subheadings may lead to missing important articles.
• MeSH/Subheading Combinations: You can manually add subheadings in the search box by using the format MeSH Term/Subheading, e.g. neoplasms/diet therapy . See abbreviations of MeSH subheadings, which can also be used. ( MeSH Subheadings ).
• For a MeSH/Subheading combination, only one subheading at a time may be directly attached to a MeSH term. For example, a search of Hypertension with the subheadings Diagnosis or Drug Therapy will appear as Hypertension/diagnosis [mesh] OR Hypertension/drug therapy[mesh] .
• As with MeSH terms, PubMed search results, by default, include the more specific terms arranged beneath broader terms for the MeSH term and also includes the more specific terms arranged beneath broader subheadings .

Automatic Term Mapping

• PubMed uses Automatic Term Mapping (ATM) when you enter terms in the search box.
• Automatic Term Mapping means that the search terms you type into the search box are automatically mapped to MeSH terms.
• To see Automatic Term Mapping in action, click on the Details arrow in your Advanced > History and Search Details box.
• Using quotes around a phrase or truncation turns off Automatic Term Mapping. The terms are instead searched exactly as entered, with no mapping applied.

Using Keywords

• Keywords can be any words used to describe your idea or concept.
• Keywords can be single words or phrases.
• Use quotes around all phrases to ensure that the phrase is searched together.
• For more ideas, visit the MeSH database and look at the entry terms listed in the MeSH record.
• Also consider using synonyms, acroynyms, initialisms, variations in spelling, and other closely-related terms used interchangeably to describe the topic.

Keyword Generation

Keywords can be generated by:

• browsing entry terms in PubMed's MeSH, and synonyms in Embase's Emtree to add additional keywords to a concept;
• looking at a few key articles and seeing how the terminology is used; and by
• doing a few preliminary searches and browsing the results to see how the terminology is used.

You can use filters to narrow your search results by article type, text availability, publication date, species, language, sex, subject, journal category, and age. See more on Filters on PubMed's Help guide .

• On the left side of the results are options to filter your search.
• You can access additional filters through the link at the bottom of the filters bar.
• "Text availability" is for users who are not affiliated with an institution. You do not need to limit by text availability since you have access to the JH Catalog and Interlibrary Loan.
• Use filters cautiously. Limits other than date or language will limit your search to MeSH-indexed records only.
• For example, if you would like to limit your results to "human studies," use the following search to exclude animal studies instead of using the "humans" limit from the search results page. Simply add this to the end of your search:

Phrase Searching

Surround phrases with double quotes to search as a phrase to use a more specific search with more precision, and not as disparate words, which will result in a more sensitive search with higher recall. See more on Phrase Searching on PubMed's Help guide.

In PubMed you can use a * at the root of a word to find multiple endings.  For example:

Note: In New PubMed, you can now truncate a phrase inside quotes. "catheter infection*" will return catheter infections. See more on on Truncation on PubMed's Help guide .

Use search field tags to specify in which field the database queries for the search term. In PubMed, first type the search term and then the search field tag in brackets. e.g. Cardiology [tiab] searches for cardiology in the title and abstract.

• [All Fields] or [all] – Untagged terms and terms tagged with [all fields] are processed using  Automatic Term Mapping . Terms enclosed in double quotes or truncated will be searched in all fields and not processed using automatic term mapping.
• [Text Words] or [tw] – Includes all words and numbers in the title, abstract, other abstract, MeSH terms, MeSH Subheadings, Publication Types, Substance Names, Personal Name as Subject, Corporate Author, Secondary Source, Comment/Correction Notes, and Other Terms.
• [Title/Abstract] or [tiab] – Words and numbers included in the title, collection title, abstract, and other abstract of a citation. English language abstracts are taken directly from the published article. If an article does not have a published abstract, NLM does not create one.
• NCBI explanation of Field Descriptions and Tags  

Boolean Operators

• A comprehensive search of PubMed will include both controlled vocabulary (MeSH) and keyword terms.
• Boolean operators are used to combine search terms. In PubMed, you can use the operators AND, OR, and NOT.
• Go to the  “Advanced Search” page  to combine searches. This is where your search history is located during your search session.
• Boolean operators MUST be used as upper case (AND, OR, NOT).
• OR —use OR between similar keywords, like synonyms, acronyms, and variations in spelling within the same idea or concept
• AND —use AND to link ideas and concepts where you want to see both ideas or concepts in your search results
• NOT —use to exclude specific keywords from the search; however, you will want to use NOT with caution because you may end up missing something important

To save searches and create alerts in PubMed, you must first create an account.

• Create an NCBI account* by clicking on the "log in" button in the upper-right corner of the screen (sign up for a My NCBI account ).
• Once you complete a search, click on Create alert underneath the search box. From here you can create a search alert or save your search strategy.

*NLM changed the way you need to log into NCBI in 2021.  Information and updates can be found in NCBI Insights.

• PubMed Searching Tips
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If you would like to practice comprehensive searching in PubMed, use the links below to access PubMed, and the three worksheets to achieve steps within the search process. See also the National Library of Medicine's Training Module on Using PubMed in Evidence-Based Practice .

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• Use of MeSH in Online Retrieval
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• Open Educational Resource: PubMed in Evidence-Based Practice

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1. Filter (Limit) to Article Type

Most citations in PubMed are for journal articles. However, you may limit your retrieval based on the type of material the article represents. Use the Filters on the Results page sidebar and look at the Article Types checklist which contains a list of frequently searched publication types.

For example, choose Randomized Controlled Trial or Clinical Trial or Meta-Analysis from the list.

2. PubMed Clinical Queries  

Enter your search terms and evidence-filtered citations will appear under Clinical Study Categories. Systematic Reviews or Medical Genetics. The Clinical Queries link is found on the PubMed home page or under the More Resources drop-down at the top of the Advanced Search page.

The resulting retrieval in PubMed Clinical Queries can be further refined using PubMed's Filters, e.g., English language, humans.

3. Limit to Articles with Structured Abstracts

Many abstracts that are added to PubMed include section labels such as BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVE, METHODS, RESULTS, and CONCLUSIONS. These 'structured' abstracts appear in many different article types such as review articles, original research, and practice guidelines and facilitate skimming of citations for relevance and specific information such as research design within the Methods section.  The presence of structured abstracts in citations are a searchable feature in PubMed.  To limit to citations containing structured abstracts, include the term hasstructuredabstract in the search box.

For example: valerian AND sleep AND hasstructuredabstract

NOTE: Click here to discover how to find Full-Text Articles on PubMed .

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Searching PubMed: Filters and Narrowing Searches

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You can use field tags in PubMed to limit your search to only the specified fields of the citations. For instance, you can add a title field tag and only search for a word or words in article titles. Without field tags, PubMed defaults to searching every field of a citation. This means you're searching the article title, abstract/summary, author-supplied keywords, PubMed indexing terms, and other fields like author names, authors' institutions, journal names, etc.

If your search seems to have too many irrelevant results, using field tags can help narrow your search. To use field tags, add the code in brackets immediately following the search term. For instance, to only search for dogs in the titles of articles, you'd search for dogs[TI] in PubMed.

A list of common field tags is below: 

• Learn more about PubMed Field Tags

Use the filter options available in the left sidebar of the search results page to focus the search.

Important : The "Free full text" filter does not include UNC-CH journals subscriptions. The "Full text" filter is not an accurate limit to UNC-CH journal subscriptions. Use the Find @ UNC button to find full-text articles.

Show Additional Filters

The default list of filter categories in the left hand sidebar does not include all options. Click on the link labeled "Choose 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. Click on the boxes to activate the filters. For more filter options click on the additional filters option.

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.

Activated Filters Display on Search Result Pages.  Filters stay selected during the current search session until you change or clear them.

Once the filters are selected on the above screenshot they appear as boxes on the left hand of the screen on the results page. Tick those boxes to show the changes in the search results.

Go to PubMed Help to learn more about using filters. 

Research Study Filters

Add options to the "Article types" list by clicking on the "Additional Filters" link on the left of search result screen and selecting ones you want to use.

Therapy, intervention, and prevention search results can be limited to articles reporting clinical research by selecting Clinical Trial, Meta-Analysis, Randomized Control Trial or Systematic Reviews from the "Articles types" list.       

You can then select the filter you want. Following that check the left hand box to have it appear in the search results.

• Clinical Trial : "Work that is the report of a pre-planned clinical study of the safety, efficacy, or optimum dosage schedule of one or more diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic drugs, devices, or techniques in humans."
• Meta-Analysis : "Works consisting of studies using a quantitative method of combining the results of independent studies (usually drawn from the published literature) and synthesizing summaries and conclusions which may be used to evaluate therapeutic effectiveness, plan new studies, etc. It is often an overview of clinical trials."
• Randomized Control Trial : "Work consisting of a clinical trial that involves at least one test treatment and one control treatment, concurrent enrollment and follow-up of the test- and control-treated groups, and in which the treatments to be administered are selected by a random process, such as the use of a random-numbers table."
• Systematic Reviews --retrieves "citations identified as systematic reviews, meta-analyses, reviews of clinical trials, evidence-based medicine, consensus development conferences, guidelines, and citations to articles from journals specializing in review studies of value to clinicians." Systematic Review Filter Search Strategy

Other Research Article Type Filters

• Comparative Study --"comparison of outcomes, results, responses, etc for different techniques, therapeutic approaches or other inputs."
• Evaluation Studies --"studies determining the effectiveness or utility of processes, personnel, and equipment."
• Research Support , ...--"organizational source for funding of research activity"

Quoted definitions are from the PubMed MeSH Browser

Clinical queries makes it easy to find research-based articles in Pubmed.   Click on "Clinical Queries" from Pubmed homepage.

Enter a search term/search terms in the box.  Click the Search button.

Clinical Study Categories displays results by diagnosis,etiology, therapy,etc. Use the drop-down menus to change the category or scope.  Select a Category: Therapy, Diagnosis, Etiology, Prognosis, or Clinical prediction guides.  Then, select a Scope: Narrow (specific search) or Broad (sensitive search).

Systematic Reviews displays citations identified as systematic reviews, meta-analyses, reviews of clinical trials, evidence-based medicine, and/or guidelines.

Medical Genetics displays citations focused on diagnosis, management, genetic counseling, and related topics.

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How to improve your PubMed/MEDLINE searches: 1. background and basic searching

Affiliation.

• 1 School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
• PMID: 24197398
• DOI: 10.1177/1357633X13512061

PubMed provides free access via the Internet to more than 23 million records, of which over 19 million are from the MEDLINE database of journal articles. PubMed also provides access to other databases, such as the NCBI Bookshelf. To perform a basic search, you can simply enter the search terms or the concept that you are looking for in the search box. However, taking care to clarify your key concepts may save much time later on, because a non-specific search is likely to produce an overwhelming number of result hits. One way to make your search more specific is to specify which field you want to search using field tags. By default, the results of a search are sorted by the date added to PubMed and displayed in summary format with 20 result hits (records) on each page. In summary format, the title of the article, list of authors, source of information (e.g., journal name followed by date of publication, volume, issue, pages) and the unique PubMed record number called the PubMed identifier (PMID) are shown. Although information is stored about the articles, PubMed/MEDLINE does not store the full text of the papers themselves. However, PubMedCentral (PMC) stores more than 2.8 million articles (roughly 10% of the articles in PubMed) and provides access to them for free to the users.

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How to Search Pubmed

Last Updated: March 14, 2021 References

This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff . Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 18,862 times.

PubMed is a database of academic articles and books focused on medical issues. Because it is an academic journal, you must learn how to search it to get the best results. Start with a simple search, and then learn how to use Boolean searching and field tags. Advanced search will help you employ all your search knowledge together.

Performing a Simple Search

• For instance, if you want to research older people who need colonoscopies, you might search "colonoscopies seniors." Don't worry about picking the "perfect" term the first time. You'll need to use multiple searches to find different materials.
• PubMed also has an autocomplete feature that can help you choose search terms.

• Just searching one search term isn't going to help you find everything you need. Try using synonyms and different combinations of search terms to help you find what you want.
• For instance, if you are researching colonoscopies in older generations, you can't just search "colonoscopies and seniors" and expect to find everything you need. Try other combinations, such as "colonoscopies and the elderly," "colonoscopies and aging populations," and "colon health and seniors."

• You can also filter by type of article (review, clinical trial, etc.), as well as how much of the article is available (abstract, free full-text, full-text).
• All the buttons to filter the articles are on the left side of the page.

Using Boolean Search Operators and Punctuation

• For instance, if you search for "apples AND oranges," the document must have both. That means it makes the results narrower than if you just searched "apple."

• For instance, if you search just "apples," you'll only get results with apples in it. However, if you search "apples OR oranges," you get results that have either apples or oranges in it, so you get more results.
• This type of search works well if you have synonyms or similar terms that you want to use, such as "colonoscopies OR digestive health."

• For example, if you want to search for just Apple products, you might search "apple NOT fruit." That way, you exclude any document that combines apples and fruit.

• For example, if you're searching for green apples, you could put quotation marks around it, "green apples." Otherwise, the results will have documents that contain the words "green" and "apples" but not necessarily together.

• For instance, if you want to search both "colonoscopy" and "colonoscopies," use this search term: colonoscop*

• For instance, you may want to search the related terms "colonoscopy" and "digestive health," as well as a second set of related terms, "aging populations," "elderly," and "seniors." You could express that query this way: (colonoscopy OR digestive health) AND (aging populations OR elderly OR seniors).
• You could even put quotation marks around the phrases: (colonoscopy OR "digestive health") AND ("aging populations" OR elderly OR seniors)

Adding Field Tags

• For instance, your search query could be the following: colonoscopy [ti]
• That search would bring up titles with the word "colonoscopy" in them.

• For instance, search with this query: Roberts [au]
• If you're using a common last name, combine this search with other search terms to narrow your results.
• If you want to narrow the results without combining with other search terms, try [fau] to search with the full author's name. Include the middle initial, as well, if you have it.

Using Advanced Search

• Advanced search lets you use all of the techniques included in this article, and it provides the framework for you to do it more easily. However, you still need to understand how they work to use advanced search.

• Combining searches can help you narrow results.

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/#pubmedhelp.How_do_I_search_PubMed
• ↑ http://library.northeastern.edu/get-help/research-tutorials/effective-database-searches/top-ten-search-tips
• ↑ http://guides.library.harvard.edu/PubMed
• ↑ https://library.uaf.edu/ls101-boolean
• ↑ http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/publichealth/pubmed
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/#pubmedhelp.Combining_searches_using_Hist
• ↑ http://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=282760&p=1888635
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/#pubmedhelp.Search_Field_Descriptions_and

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How To Write A Research Paper Abstract | Steps And Examples

Published by Alvin Nicolas at September 23rd, 2024 , Revised On September 23, 2024

An abstract is written to pique a reader’s interest and if necessary, motivate them to leave the comfort of their home and get the full article or paper.

In simpler words, an abstract is a well-structured summary of your academic work, such as an article, research paper , thesis or dissertation. It outlines the most important aspects of your work and is about 300-500 words. Although the structure may vary from discipline to discipline, it is still a necessary part of academic writing.

Abstract Research Paper Definition

A research paper abstract is the face of the research paper. This means that it is what creates the first impression of the paper. It is the summary of the research paper and communicates the content quality and relevance. They exist with one vital purpose, and that is to sell your research. A reader quickly scrutinises and scans the abstract to gain an idea of your research, the problem statement addressed, the methodologies used and the results gained from it.

An abstract most commonly has the following parts:

• Introduction

Types of Abstracts In Research Paper

One of the main purposes of an abstract is to describe your paper. It can either be informative, descriptive, structured or unstructured. Let’s develop a common understanding of how research paper abstracts are written based on content and writing style.

Structured Abstract

Structured abstracts are mostly written in journals and have a separate paragraph for each section. Each part is organised and has distinct headings such as introduction/background, objective, design, methodologies, material, results and conclusion.

Unstructured Abstract

An unstructured abstract is mostly used in social sciences and humanities disciplines and does not have separate paragraphs for each section. It consists of one whole paragraph that serves as the face of the research paper.

Descriptive Abstract

A descriptive abstract only outlines the crucial details of the researcher’s publication. They are mostly short, consisting of 75-105 words. They briefly explain the background, mission statement, purpose and objective but omit the research methodologies, results and conclusions.

Informative Abstract

This abstract can be both structured and unstructured and provides detailed information on the research paper. This means that it is an extensive paragraph on each aspect of research and provides accurate data on each section, especially results.

How to Make Abstract In Research Paper

The abstract part of the research paper summarises the main points of the article. Whether you are applying for research grants, writing a thesis or dissertation or studying a research problem , it is necessary to know how to make a good abstract for a research paper. Here are some of the details on how to write a research paper abstract.

General Topic In Study

This section serves as the introduction to the research paper. It answers the questions of what is being studied or what problem statement is being addressed here. The hypothesis and purpose are highlighted within this section, setting the context for the rest of the research paper.

It is recommended to never go into detailed information as this part only offers initial information regarding the research. Also, this part is always written in the present or past tense, and never in the future as the research has been completed.

Our study’s main objective was to assess the photoprotective capability of chocolate consumption, by contrasting a simple dark chocolate with a specifically made chocolate with preserved high flavanol. According to the study’s hypothesis, eating chocolate induced with HF can provide nutritional defence against skin damage by the sun.

Research/Analytical Methods

Next, it is important to write the research methods used in the research. Either qualitative or quantitative methods, every aspect of them should be mentioned to give the reader a good idea of what scale, survey and sample was used within the research. Some questions that need to be answered in this paragraph are:

• What was the research setting?
• What was the sample size, and how were the participants sampled?
• What was the research method used?
• What was the primary outcome of the initial test?
• What questions or treatments were administered to the participants?

A double-blinded in vivo study was carried out, where 30 healthy adults participated in it. It included 8 males and 22 females between the age of 10 years to 43 years. Fifteen subjects each were given either an HF or LF chocolate and were divided based on their skin phototypes.

Results/ Arguments

This section can be both in present and past tense and must include the main findings of the study. It should be detailed and lengthy, giving all relevant results. These are the following questions this section of the abstract research paper must answer:

• What did the study yield?
• What were the results in comparison to the hypothesis ?
• What were the predictions and were the outcomes similar to it?

In conclusion, our research revealed that eating chocolate high in flavanol shields humans from damaging UV rays, mainly because of its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. The research indicates that HF chocolate lessens the acute inflammatory response to UV rays, by regulating the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines and nitric oxide.

Discussions

Finally, you should discuss the conclusions and the author’s thoughts on the research. Whether the hypothesis proved to be right or not is mostly discussed here, along with the limitations or complications encountered during the research. It is necessary to mention this as a reader must be aware of the credibility and generalisability of the research.

Our research concludes by showing that cocoa flavanols have the potential to be a safe natural method of shielding skin from UV damage.

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Research Paper Abstract Example

Here is an abstract example for research papers to help you understand how abstracts are written:

Does the lockdown have a role in stopping COVID-19?

Every day the coronavirus is spreading, with deaths and fatalities increasing day by day. This has led to a nationwide lockdown all over the world. Our study aims to study the effect of lockdown days on the spread of coronavirus in countries. COVID-19 data from 49 countries was gathered from www.worldometer.com. As of May 5, 2020, there were 1440776 approved active cases of COVID-19 from the countries included in this study. Data on COVID-19 days and lockdown days was obtained from the websites of the official institutions of these 49 countries. Moreover, the correlation test was used to analyse the associations between total COVID-19 cases and the lockdown days. The lockdown days were seen to be correlated to the COVID-19 pandemic. The social-isolation phenomenon; the lockdown has been seen to prevent COVID-19 and the spread of this deadly virus. There are several concerns about the ability of the national healthcare system to effectively manage COVID-19 patients. To slow down the spread of this virus, it is necessary to take the strictest of actions. Even though Italy and Spain have the highest death rates because of COVID-19, there has been a sudden drop in the rates because of the strict measures taken by the government.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should i write an abstract.

You should write an abstract when you are completing a thesis or dissertation, submitting a research design or applying for research grants. You can also write an abstract if you are writing a book

What are things to avoid while writing an abstract?

You should avoid using passive sentences and future tenses. Avoid detailed descriptions as an abstract is supposed to be just a summary. Complex jargon and complicated long sentences should also be avoided as they take away the reader’s interest. Lastly, always address your problem statement in a good way. 

Should I cite sources in an abstract?

You should try to focus on showcasing your original work, rather than cite other work. Try to make your work as comprehensive and understanding so that your work is highlighted better. 

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