PubMed Search Strategies

These MEDLINE searches are implemented in the PubMed database at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). PubMed provides access to bibliographic information that includes MEDLINE as well as additional life science journals. PubMed is a component of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)'s Entrez retrieval system that provides access and links to databases containing DNA and protein sequences and 3-D protein structure data.

PubMed has a powerful search engine which runs through several indexes as it processes search terms. This includes the MeSH controlled vocabulary, journal titles, keyword phrases and author names If a term is not found in the index, the engine searches each word or term as a text word.

Search strategies were constructed using both Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and text-words and are designed to optimize relevancy. The strategy can be examined by clicking the Details button on the PubMed search results screen.