CHEM 474 (Kollalpitiya) - Advanced Biochemistry

PubMed has a single search box. Because this database is so large, you may be overwhelmed with results initially.

1. Without limits (filters) and effective search strategies, you may be overwhelmed with results.

In PubMed, you must click into the article title to see the Find It link and try to link out to full text. 

If you need a reminder of how to use the Find It link, please check out the Full Text Linking page on this guide.

1. Remember, click on the Find It link to try to link to full text.
2. Look out for Publisher's links. They may ask you to buy the article.

In PubMed, use the Send to option.  

The easiest thing to do is select Send to, and then select File.  

The file type that is easiest to work with is Summary (text).  

You will then click on Create File, and a Notepad (text) file with a citation will be generated.  

Open the Notepad file, and update the citation to the desired citation style, such as APA.  

The default citation style from PubMed is National Library of Medicine (NLM), not APA!!

1. Click on Send To

2. Select File

3. Select Summary (text)

4. Click on Create File

5. A NLM Citation Style citation will appear in Notepad

6. Update citation to desired style

Quote marks force words to be searched side-by-side. (This works in most databases, including Google!) 

1. When you want your words to be searched as side-by-side words, try using quote marks. 
2. In search results using quote marks for "quality improvement" and "health care", the results list is only 35% of the original search which searched for the words without quote marks.
3. Using quote marks to have words searched side-by-side yielded fewer and more on-topic results.

After you run a search, filters will display to the left of your results. 

After Search Fields is added, it will show up in the left-hand filters. 

1. Click on Show Additional Filters and select Search Fields. 
2. Then click Show.
3. Select Choose under Search Fields. 
4. Select Title and then Apply. 
5. Finding keywords in the article title makes the article more likely to be on topic.