WVU Libraries: Tutorials

PubMed

Description:

PubMed is a datatbase National Library of Medicine that includes over 17 million citations or article descriptions from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources.

Access:

In order to use PubMed, go to the following web page, http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/databases/. The databases page is arranged alphabetically; either scroll to PubMed or choose "P" from the menu and then select PubMed. This database is available on or off campus.

General Search Techniques:

Type the topic you want into the Search for box. Example: agent orange

Click the go button. Results will display in a summary format. To see which articles are available through the WVU Libraries (either full text online or as paper journals in the library) change the Display pull-down menu to Abstract. A full text icon with blue and white WV Full-Text indicates the article is immediately available by clicking on that button. Some articles may require signing into another database for access. The blue and white WV icon In Library indicates that the journal is available on paper in the Health Sciences Library.

Search terms may be truncated: Ethic* will retrieve all words beginning with the letters ethic, ethics, and ethical. Use quotes to search for phrases, and Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to join terms. For example, if you wanted articles about the economic impact of Medicare drugs, you would type "Medicare Drug*" AND economic* in the search box. If you find a useful article, click on Related Articles hyperlink to see other articles on the same topics.

Searches can be limited to a particular date, before a date, or within a range of dates. The default setting is to search the entire database from 1950s until present. The most current articles will appear first in the search results.

Your search results may be printed, e-mailed, exported into citation software (EndNote, ProCite, RefWorks, or Reference Manager) or compiled into a bibliography.

Special Search Tips:

Under Limits, you can narrow your search by publication type (review),language, age groups, humans or animals, and publication date. There is a tutorial available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_tutorial/m1001.html

Contact:
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact:
Jean Siebert
Learning Services Coordinator/Reference Librarian
Health Sciences Library
304 293-1920
jean.siebert@mail.wvu.edu