Laika's MedLibLog: 10+1 PubMed Tips

To think I had dared to even contemplate writing a blog post on some tips for searching good ole PubMed…

Here at ‘Life In The Fast Lane’ we have preached the virtues of some of the alternatives to PubMed, but in many ways the old warhorse is still the gold standard. Thankfully, however, I didn’t waste my time, or yours for that matter, because @laikas has done the job definitively with her blog post titled 10 + 1 PubMed Tips for Residents (and their Instructors).

This is essential reading for any doctor who wants to effectively search the medical literature using PubMed (I’m not just saying that because of my affinity for all things Dutch… other than herrings, that is).

Her tips are:

Tip 1 : Look before you leap.

Tip 2: A review article from PubMed.

Tip 3: PubMed is just one NCBI-database.

Tip 4: Looking up Citations

Tip 5: Saving your search and making alerts: RSS and MyNCBI

Tip 6: Stop Googling PubMed: why you find too much or too little

Tip 7: Use Details to see how PubMed interpreted (mapped) your search

Tip 8: MeSH or textwords?

Tip 9: Searching for Evidence: Clinical Queries or other search filters

Tip 10: Search Logic (and Boolean operators)

Extra Tip (10+1): Use your library and librarian