PubMed Explained Improve your PubMed search skills & strategies Deb Werner Director of Library Research in Medical Education [email protected] Agenda Search PubMed effectively and efficiently through use of: An understanding PubMed’s search process MeSH Clinical Queries Manage search results with: Find It for full text My NCBI Reference managers What is the difference b/w PubMed and MEDLINE? PubMed 24M citations MEDLINE PMC 21M citations 5,600 journals Back to 1940s 3.3M citations with full text Back as far as 1800s NIH-funded manuscripts NCBI Bookshelf Over 1,300 e-books Out-of-scope citations Access PubMed from the hospital intranet page Access PubMed from the Crerar Library home page Finding Full Text Accessing PubMed from Crerar or the hospital provides access to the Find It button, linking citations to the library’s full text subscriptions. Searching PubMed – two ways 1. A quick search to find a few good articles 2. An in-depth search to find comprehensive information on a particular topic The quick search 1. Search all relevant terms at once 2. Review results 3. Edit search if necessary Review Search Details Use different search terms Apply Filters What is MeSH? Acronym for Medical Subject Headings A controlled vocabulary used to index and search biomedical information Provides uniformity and consistency Developed & maintained by National Library of Medicine MeSH Pros Synonyms searched Disambiguation of terms Targeted results Cons Newest citations do not have MeSH terms and so not searched Some concepts (esp. newer diseases, treatments, etc.) do not have MeSH terms Examples Cold could mean temp or virus; MeSH uses “Cold Temperature” and “Common Cold” “Nursing” is the field of nursing, not breast feeding “Drinking” is term for consumption of liquids, if looking for consumption of alcohol, use “Alcohol Drinking” Keywords (aka text words) Pros Retrieve newest citations Use natural language Use current terminology Useful when MeSH term does not exist for concept Useful when MeSH term does not precisely represent concept Cons Ignore context Homonyms Negating expressions (but, except, never…) Treat all words with equal importance Synonyms and spelling variations not searched Some information based on a presentation by Rachel Adams, University of Salford at http://www.slideshare.net/racheladams/mesh-3773489 Accessing MeSH database Clinical Queries Accessing Clinical Queries The in-depth search 1. Break question into individual topics or concepts 2. For each concept, identify MeSH terms and keywords 3. Combine MeSH and keyword searches to create a “set” for each concept 4. Combine sets 5. Evaluate results 6. Broaden or narrow search as needed Identify individual topics What are individual concepts our previous question: Do medical school graduates feel prepared for their first year being a resident? medical school grads/ perception / preparedness / 1st year resident Identify MeSH terms & keywords medical school grads/ perception / preparedness / 1st year resident In the MeSH database, find MeSH terms for each concept Students, Medical Self Concept Clinical Competence Internship and Residency Brainstorm ideas for keywords Medical students/undergraduate medical education Perceived/perception/self-assessment Preparedness/preparation/prepared/competent/competence Residents/interns/internship/residency Combine MeSH and keywords Create a “set” for each concept by combining MeSH and keywords: 1. 2. 3. 4. Students, Medical/undergraduate medical education Self Concept/perception Clinical Competence/preparedness Internship and Residency/residents How should these terms be combined? Combine MeSH and keywords Create a “set” for each concept by combining MeSH and keywords for each concept 1. 2. 3. 4. Students, Medical OR undergraduate medical education Self Concept OR perception Clinical Competence OR preparedness Internship and Residency OR residents Combine sets Combine the sets to complete the search Medical students set AND Perception set AND Preparedness set AND Residency set Review your results Do your results appear to answer the question: Do medical school graduates feel prepared for their first year of being a resident? How many results did you get? Too many or too few? Improving your search Too many results? Narrow focus or use Filters: date, language, publication type, etc. Too few results? Expand search with additional synonyms, broader search terms or by removing some Filters Find an article right on target? Look at its MeSH terms to identify other potential search terms Searching is an iterative process; revise your search until you are satisfied with the results or satisfied you’ve done all you can Caution on using Filters Some Filters are actually MeSH terms, including: Many of the publication types Age groups Species Sex These Filters restrict results to that parameter and to indexed articles only (i.e. eliminates the newest citations) Filters remain activated for subsequent searches My NCBI My NCBI is a personal account: Save searches Save citations (not full text) Set up search alerts; receive emailed results Accessing My NCBI account Account options Sign in with an existing Google, NIH or eRA Commons account. Register for an NCBI account. Managing your results Export results to Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, or other reference manager to store and organize citations Library holds quarterly workshops Register at https://training.uchicago.edu/ Individual or small group consultations available Email me at [email protected] Questions?
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