PubMed® Advanced Search, Limits, and Homepage Revised
[Editor's note: These changes were implemented in PubMed on February 2, 2010.]
Changes coming to PubMed in early February include:
- Advanced search page will be streamlined
- a link to Clipboard will be added to the homepage, if applicable
- a new Limits page with additional limits for dates and search field tags
PubMed Limits
The Limits page is available from a link above the search box on all PubMed pages, including the PubMed homepage. The homepage will also include a link to the Clipboard if citations have been added (see Figure 1).
The Limits page includes limit selections previously available on the Advanced search page as well as additional limits for dates and search field tags. The functionality of Limits will not change; subsequent searches will include Limits until they are removed. Limits are not activated for Related Article results; however, Limits will be retained for searches that are run after displaying Related Article results. The search box on the Limits page retains the search from other PubMed pages (see Figure 2).
The "Limits Activated" message has moved from the discovery area on the right to display above the results summary line on search results, and under the search box on the homepage and Advanced search page. Users may click either the Change link or the Limits link to return to the Limits page. The Remove link will deactivate selections for the current and subsequent searches (see Figure 3).
PubMed Advanced Search
On the Advanced search page, a Search Builder replaces the Search by Author, Journal, Publication Date, and more and Index of Fields and Field Values sections. The Limit by Topics, Languages, and Journal Groups section was removed — replaced by the new Limits page. The Search History section will not change (see Figure 4).
The Advanced search box does not retain previously run searches, i.e., the search box always defaults to "Clear." Previous searches are available from the Search History section and can be entered into the Search box using the Options menu on each Search number (#).
The Search Builder allows users to create a search using Boolean operators. Retain the All Fields selection to run your search through the Automatic Term Mapping process, or select a specific field to apply to your search term. An Index button is available to display the specified search field index and number of citations for each term within the search field. You may select multiple terms (ORed together) from the Index display.
A link to the Search Builder instructions is provided under the Boolean operator buttons (see Figure 5).
The Author, First Author, Full Author Name, Last Author, and Journal fields include an autocomplete feature. Date fields include two search boxes to accommodate date range searching (see Figure 6).
Please send any comments or questions using the Help Desk link at the bottom of every PubMed page.
Canese K. PubMed® Advanced Search, Limits, and Homepage Revised. NLM Tech Bull. 2010 Jan-Feb;(372):e7.
