PubMed
PubMed is a freely accessible citation database for biomedical literature.
It is a product of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). PubMed is built on the NLM's long history of indexing and providing researchers access to the nation's biomedical literature.
PubMed itself does not contain the full text of an article, but in most cases each article will include a link to the full text, either in PubMed Central or on the publisher's website if the article publisher has an embargo (a period of time before an item becomes available). If an article citation includes an abstract but not the full text, look for the article title in the Library search bar or search for the journal in the Journal Finder to see if Stevens has access to it through subscription.
PubMed is a rich resource. Users are encouraged to check out the tutorials and help documents linked below to learn more about what it offers and how to use it.
What's In It
The database was created in 1996 and now contains more than 30 million references, primarily from the following components:
-
MEDLINE
The National Library of Medicine's original journal citation database, going back to the 1960s and including millions of citations to articles from 1946-present. A journal's inclusion in MEDLINE is based on stringent standards to guarantee quality and relevance to the fields of biomed and life sciences. All MEDLINE entries are indexed using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) taxonomy. -
PubMed Central (PMC)
Since 2000, PMC has been a free archive for full-text articles that comply with the National Institute of Health's Public Access Policy, which was made a requirement for research funded by the NIH in 2008. To meet this requirement, authors or publishers must deposit some version of the final publication in PMC. Some journal publishers retain copyright on the work and make it publicly available only after an embargo period of some kind. There is some overlap between PMC and MEDLINE in that journals that are indexed in MEDLINE are also among those who deposit articles in PMC. - NCBI Bookshelf
Full text books and documents in life sciences and healthcare from the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
PubMed Guides and Tutorials
BASICS
-
Tips for Using PubMed Factsheet (NLM)An info sheet from late 2019 on how to use PubMed, a good basic intro to the vastness of the database.
MORE EXPLANATION
-
PubMed FAQs and User GuideThorough guide on how to use PubMed. Have a question about it? Start here!
-
How PubMed Works (NLM)"How PubMed Works" is a 4-part series of webinars which are offered throughout the year. These sessions explain the features of PubMed and the best ways to use it, as well as MeSH.
EVERYTHING
-
PubMed and MEDLINE Resources GuideEverything you could ever possibly want to know about PubMed and MEDLINE, including news, overviews, journal selection info, and technical info.
MeSH
MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings, and is the NLM-controlled vocabulary thesaurus used for indexing articles in PubMed (specifically, articles from journals in the MEDLINE collection).
MeSH makes sure that every new and old medical term is referred to in one single, controlled way, so if you're looking for publications related to a term, you know you're getting the most accurate results.
-
Medical Subject Headings HomeEverything you need to learn about and use MeSH, all in one place.
How to Use It
You can access MeSH through the browser to explore the terms on their own, which can be useful in knowing how to dig deeper in PubMed to find what you need. PubMed now incorporates MeSH terms automatically in a search but check the browser if you need to exhaustively search the literature to make sure you're finding everything.
-
MeSH BrowserUse the MeSH Browser to find what to look for in PubMed using MeSH terms and the PubMed Search Builder.
MeSH Help and Tutorials
BASICS
-
What is MeSH?A tutorial to help users "understand the purpose and structure of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and use MeSH to search MEDLINE/PubMed for medical literature and information."
-
Learn About MeSH (NLM)All of the collected help material produced by the NLM about MeSH, including webinars, factsheets, and tutorials.
MeSH + PUBMED
-
PubMed Subject Search: How It Works (2020)This interactive tutorial shows you how MeSH subject searching works in PubMed, and how to utilize MeSH terms to better search the database.
-
Searching PubMed Using MeSH Search TagsThis part of the "What is MeSH?" tutorial explains how to use MeSH terms to search in PubMed: "Untagged terms that are entered in the PubMed search box are automatically mapped to the MeSH vocabulary when a match is found. However, you may choose to search the MeSH headings specifically using search field tags (also called qualifiers)." But please note that searching with MeSH terms will exclude from the results articles that are not (yet) indexed with the terms.
The Vocabulary
-
MeSH: Download the VocabularyDownload the whole vocabulary! The current version of MeSH is available to download should that be of use to you.
Using My Bibliography with a MyNCBI Account
-
MyNCBI (NLM)If you use PubMed a lot but haven't created a MyNCBI account yet, consider doing so - it helps you save citations of interest, assemble a bibliography, and set up alerts for new posts.
Tracking an Article from PubMed to the Library
PubMed + Library Databases = Full Text!
If you can't find full-text of an article through PubMed, you might be able to find it through Library database subscriptions. As seen in the image below, take the full title of an article from PubMed and put it in the Library search bar on the Library homepage, in quotation marks to search for the exact title. The catalog will show if we have full text through another database or not.
If we do have access, you'll be able to read it (if you are off campus, you'll be prompted to log in with your myStevens username and password). If we do not have it, click the button on the record to "Request item from Interlibrary Loan" to submit the request form for the article.
More Neat Stuff from the National Library of Medicine
-
National Library of Medicine (NIH)"The world’s largest biomedical library, NLM maintains and makes available a vast print collection and produces electronic information resources on a wide range of topics”; includes databases PubMed, Medline, MeSH, etc.
-
ClinicalTrials.govA "registry and results database of publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants conducted around the world." Also links to the resulting publication when applicable.
-
MedlinePlusMedlinePlus, as opposed to MEDLINE, is the NIH's database of health information for patients. MedlinePlus covers treatments, medications and supplements, medical terminology, and links to recent research on medical topics.
PubMed and its Predecessors
The National Library of Medicine has been collecting and organizing citations of biomedical literature since its founding. For more on the history of these systems, see the articles below.
Image: IBM magnetic tape drives of the IBM 370/155 with NLM staff
Source: The development of the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS). Journal of the Medical Library Association, 95(4), 416–425. http://doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.95.4.416
-
An Account of an Abscess of the Mediastinum, Mistaken for an Aneurism. (London Medical Journal, 1781)One of the oldest records in PubMed! An article from 1781 written "[b]y an ingenious Surgeon and teacher of Anatomy lately decea[s]ed. Communicated by a member of the Society. Read December 10, 1781."
-
A Brief History of the National Library of Medicine (NIH)The National Library of Medicine, in which PubMed is housed, has been working to collect and provide access to biomedical literature in the U.S. since 1836. Read about the organization's founding, the creation of the Index Medicus (predecessor of MEDLINE), and the evolution of the technology used to make the biomedical materials available to anyone who needs it.
-
The development of the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS) (C. Dee, Journal of the Medical Library Assocation, 2007)The history of the National Library of Medicine's work cataloging and computerizing citations of biomedical literature from the 1940s to the 1970s, the predecessors of PubMed.
Full citation: Dee, C. R. (2007). The development of the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS). Journal of the Medical Library Association, 95(4), 416–425. http://doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.95.4.416 -
PubMed celebrates its 10th anniversary! (K. Canese, NLM Technical Bulletin, 2006)A 2006 look back at the previous decade in the life of PubMed.