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PubMed @ UMSL: Basics

Step-by-step guide to PubMed's basic features.

Similar Articles

 A   For each citation, PubMed provides a link to Similar articles. By default, it provides five articles.

 B   Below the fifth article is a See all similar articles link.

Screenshot of expansion of expanded Similar articles link under page navigation. Similar articles button and the expansion showing 5 similar articles have been circled and labeled A. Directly below A, See all similar articles button has been circled and labeled B.

Cited By

 C   When the citation you're viewing has been cited by others, you can follow the citation trail to locate other articles on the subject. 

Cited by button under page navigation and expansion showing 3 articles that have cited the citaiton being viewed. Both these are cirlced and labeled C.

Boolean Operator OR

Venn diagrams representing the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT using the two terms marijuana and academic performance.
 

To expand your results using Boolean operators, try adding synonyms or related terms with OR (in capital letters): for example, (marijuana OR cannabis) AND (academic performance OR grades). The parentheses in this search clarify we still have 2 concepts, and both must be present. Please speak with a Reference Librarian if you need help combining search terms with Boolean operators.

Additional Tips

  • Look for misspellings in your search terms.
  • Decrease the number of concepts searched.
  • Try a broader search term.
  • Remove terms that are unlikely to be used by an author.
  • Replace terms that are too specific.
  • Increase the number of synonyms or alternatives for a term.
  • Use a truncation symbol at the end of a term to pick up variant endings (see the Basic Search section).
  • Try the same search(es) in different databases.
  • Ask for significant words to be in the full text of the article (field searching).
  • Check for missing or incorrect field qualifiers.