PubMed <pubmed.gov> shortcuts

• “quotes” around phrases is not as it is in Google; in PubMed, quotes turn off automatic mapping to MeSH (see here)
  
• using quotes information posted here: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/viewlet/search/subject/subject.html
• all[sb] to determine # of references in PubMed (As of April 2010, there were 19,743,909 citations in PubMed)
• PubMed Searching by command language, 2010 [comprehensive handout]

OvidSP shortcuts

1. Explode subject heading — exp eye (searches main heading and all narrower terms underneath or lower in MeSH tree/hierarchy (eyelids, oculomotor muscles, anterior eye segment, retina, etc, etc)
2. exp heart diseases [retrieves all heart diseases (i.e. arrhythmia, endocarditis, etc.]
3. exp *heart diseases [retrieves all heart diseases (*as focus)]
4. exp *heart diseases/di,et [retrieves diagnosis or etiology of all heart diseases (as major descriptor/focus)]
5. Apply subheadings — smallpox/ep,th (limits to MeSH heading with epidemiology or therapy)
6. Explode subheading — th.xs. (retrieves articles with subheadings in “therapy” family)
7. Search for words in title — cardiotoxic.ti.
8. Adjacency in title — heart adj5 attack.ti. (where 5 refers to number of words away from each other)
9. purge a set – ..pg n (where n is the set number)
10. cardiotoxic.ab. — searches for words in abstract
11. taylor c.au — searches for author of articles
12. taylor :.au. — searches for author’s name with any combination of first initials
13. taylor a:.au. — searches for author’s name with any second initial
14. lancet.jn. — searches for exact journal title
15. lancet.so. — searches for exact journal source
16. obstetrics.jw. — searches for word in journal title; use for partially remembered journal titles
17. myocardium.sh. — searches for exact medical subject heading (MeSH)
18. ulcer.me. or ulcer.hw. — searches for the single word in medical subject headings (MeSH)
19. stress.tw. — searches for words in title or abstract
20. stress.mp. — searches for word or words in the title, abstract, MeSH headings (happens when “map term to subject heading” is turned off)
21. exocrine glands.xm. or exp exocrine glands/ — retrieves a term and all of its subsidiary terms in the MeSH tree; includes pre-explodes
22. toronto.in. — searches for words in institutional address of corresponding author
23. 1989.yr. — searches for date of publication; must be 4 digits
24. fre.la. or jpn.lg. — searches for non-English language articles (here French or Japanese)
25. 237.pg. or 44.vo. or 6.ip. — searches for numbers in page, volume or issue; if number is same as number of search set within session, put number in parenthesis: “6”.vo.
26. 21373447.mi. — searches for MEDLINE/PMID identifier; used for interlibrary loan
27. 11480094.ui. — searches for unique identifier