Efficient searching strategies in pubmed

ABSTRACT

Literature search is a fundamentally important problem in research but become harder as the literature grows at a faster speed and broader scope. PubMed is a free Web literature search service developed and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information [NCBI]. It is as part of NCBI's Entrez retrieval system that provides access to a diverse set of 38 databases. PubMed currently includes citations and abstracts from over 5000 life science journals for biomedical articles dated back to 1948, therefore it serves as the primary tool for electronically searching and retrieving biomedical literature. Although PubMed provides a broad, up-to-date and efficient search interface, it has become more and more challenging for its users to quickly identify information relevant to their individual needs, owing mainly to the ever-growing biomedical literature. In present article several tools for efficient search are discussed, like Boolean operators ["AND", "OR", "NOT"], filters, search field tags, use of MeSH terms, wildcard [" * "] and search with key words. Aims: The purpose of this article is to assist general readers in the development of the basic skills required to use PubMed