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PubMed @ UMSL: Basics

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

Limiters / Filters

 A   Filters can be found on the left side of the Results page. They can be used to narrow your results.

 B   Customized filters can be set up by logging into a free account. For more information, see the Using My NCBI page of this guide.

 C   You can select a date range either by using the Results by Year slider or selecting one of the Publication Date radio buttons.

 D   The text availability options allow you to choose items that include an abstract, are available as full text for no charge, and are available as full text behind a paywall (which can be requested through Interlibrary Loan for no cost).

 E   Many other filters can be found by expanding the Additional filters section near the bottom of the column; these include article language, sex, and age. 

 F   Clicking the information button for a subset heading will open a page that offers more information on the category.

 G   When you’ve applied a filter, you’ll see a blue check mark in the list, and a note will appear at the top of the results page. Filters are “sticky”; they’ll remain until you clear them. 

 H   Some categories offer more options than those shown by default. To see the full list, click the See all link. If you make selections from this expanded list and click Apply, your selections will be made visible along with the default options, but you’ll still need to select them to apply them to your results.

  I    To clear applied filters, either the button near the bottom of the filters panel or select the link in the top-of-page note (see  G ).

 J   To reset the filters back to their default settings, click the button at the bottom of the filters panel.

Screenshot of filter examples. Sections are circled and labeled A-J. A: Default filters on left side of page. A also encompasses B, C, and D. B: My Custom filters box at top of A. C: Results by year filter just under B. D: Text availability filters just under C. E: Additional filters button, below A on the page, with an arrow pointing to what the extended filters after clicking the button look like. F: Age range for results filter, near the middle of extended E. G: Child: birth-18 years filter just under E. Filter is selected. An arrow points to a notification with text: Filters applied. Child: birth-18 years. Clear all. H: See all age filters, below G near bottom of E. I: Clear applied filters button, below the box section of E. J: Reset filters menu directly below I.

Nurse as Author / Field Tags

Unlike CINAHL, PubMed does not have a filter that limits results to authors who are nurses. Instead, you’ll need to use field searching instead. You can either follow the instructions for the Advanced Search Builder, or you can use the following shorthand:

topic keywords AND nurs* [ad]

 K   In the search box below, blood draw babies is our topic, and nurs* [ad] will find items that contain nurse, nurses, or nursing as part of the author’s affiliation. These two pieces are combined with AND, which means they must both be present for an item to come up as a result.

Screen shot of search bar. Example search with text blood draw babies AND nurs* [ad] is circled and labeled K.


Field searching is a great way to narrow your results. Here’s a list of some of the most useful fields and their tags:

  • Affiliation [ad] — Choose part of a title or institution
    • nurs* [ad]
    • Mayo [ad]
  • Author [au] — Last name or last name first initial
    • O’Brien J [au]
  • Journal [ta] — Journal title abbreviation, full journal title, or ISSN/eISSN number 
    • Am J Nurs [ta]
    • American Journal of Nursing [ta]
    • 1538-7488 [ta]
  • MeSH Major Topic [majr] — Choose a term that appears in the MeSH Database
    • infusions, intravenous [majr] 
  • MeSH Terms [mh] — Choose a term that appears in the MeSH Database
    • infusions, intravenous [mh]
  • Text Words [tw] — Words you want to find in the text of an item, but not necessarily in the Title or Abstract
    • venous catheter [tw]
  • Title [ti] — Words you want to find in the title 
    • venous catheter [ti]
  • Title/Abstract [tiab] — Words you want to find in either the Title or the Abstract
    • venous catheter [tiab]

Boolean Operators AND and NOT

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

To narrow results, use the Boolean operator AND (in capital letters). In PubMed, as in many databases, the default operator is AND—so a keyword search of marijuana academic performance will look for results that contain all three words. To narrow the search even further, consider a phrase search for “academic performance,” as discussed in the Search Basics section.

It’s risky to use the NOT operator. Eliminating all results that mention the second term will also eliminate results that mention both terms.

Additional Tips

  • Choose the most specific subject headings or most significant key words.
  • Increase the number of search concepts that are ANDed together.
  • Search for fewer synonyms or related terms.
  • Limit your search to specific types of articles (such as reviews), age groups, publication years, languages, etc., by using filters.
  • Use MeSH subheadings to narrow the focus of the subject heading if appropriate.
  • Make a term from the thesaurus (i.e., MeSH or subject heading list) the main focus of the article ([Majr] in PubMed).
  • Ask for significant words to be in the title of the article (field searching).