First think about your question. Be as specific as possible. Identify a problem (eg. obesity or myocardial infarction). Next identify the intervention used to treat or prevent the problem (eg. diet, exercise, a specific drug or type of drug). Are you interested in comparing the effectiveness of 2 or more possible interventions (appetite depressants vs exercise)? What is the outcome you are looking for (weight loss or increased longevity)?

If combining all these concepts retrieves too few articles, try your search again using only those that are most important.

Not necessarily. You can do a search by just typing your search in natural language,
Eg. “Does losing weight prevent heart disease"?
PubMed will follow a pre-programmed set of instructions to interpret your question. If you click on the “details" button you will see the actual search that was run.

Look through the search results. If you find a good article and would like additional similar articles, click on the “Find Related" button on the right side of the screen.

Use the Full Power of PubMed: A searcher can more precisely determine his search results by selecting the appropriate search techniques himself rather than by relying on the PubMed search system to do it for him. PubMed can be searched using MeSH database, author names, title words, text words or phrases, journal names, or any combination of these. Detailed instructions and tutorials can be found in PubMed “Help" in the blue frame on the left of the search screen.

To take full advantage of PubMed’s functionality you may want to make an appointment for a research consultation with your medical librarian. At Brown, email Frank Kellerman or Janet Crager or call 863-1532.

• Search using natural language but be sure to click on the “Details" button to see how PubMed interpreted your search.
• Select search terms from the MeSH Database
• Use Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT to combine any number of search terms. You can also include previous searches by simply referring to each by its statement number. Click on the "History" tab to view numbered search statements.
• You may have to evaluate your results and reformulate your search several times before finding the best articles.
• For instructions and search tips, see PubMed and MeSH tutorials and the PubMed Basics flyer.

1. First type author's last name, space, first initial.
2. Then follow the name with "[au]" or Click limit / scroll down to “Tag Terms"/ open the “Default Tag" drop down menu / click "author"

• A searchable list of the vocabulary used for indexing PubMed articles
• A definition for most terms
• Suggestions of older terms to use for searching earlier years of PubMed
• Suggestions of related MeSH terms
• The "MeSH Tree Structures", a conceptual grouping of terms which enables the searcher to easily find broader or more specific terms. Choose the most specific term you can find. PubMed automatically searches not only any term you select but also searches all the terms found indented under it in the Tree. You may cancel out this function by clicking on the box next to the phrase “Do Not Explode This Term" in the middle of the screen.

• How did you find out about this article?
• Was it hand written? If yes, think about handwriting misinterpretations. A number 1 could look like a 7, a 3 could look like an 8.
• Was it typed? Look at what's close on the keyboard.
• Was it heard? A five could sound like 9.

• To email results – select "email" in the drop down box, then complete the form and send
• To print a list – select "text" in the drop down box, then use your browser ( Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.) to print
• To download into EndNote or RefWorks (bibliographic managers), display references in MEDLINE format, then send to text, then save as .txt file. At this point, follow your bibliographic manager’s instructions for importing the file.

• As you review the results of each search, select references by clicking in the small box to the left.
• Open the “Send to" dropdown menu. Click “Clipboard". All of your selected articles will be stored there for up to 8 hours until you are ready to print, email them, download them to your desktop or transfer the to My NCBI Collections.

1. Which icon did you click on?
• If the left, try the icon on the right, the SFX icon.
• If you already clicked on the SFX icon, go to the next step.
2. Check JOSIAH for Library holdings. Does Brown own the year you need?
• If no, order the article through interlibrary loan.
• If yes, go to the next step.
3. Are you off campus?
• If no, first, wait 15 minutes and try again. There may be a limit on number of concurrent users. If it still doesn’t work, report the malfunction to the Library at 863-3333.
• If yes, then go to the next step.
4. Are you using the proxy server?
• If no, are you using the VPN? You need to use either the VPN or proxy from off-campus. But please note, the VPN may not work from computers that have another VPN already installed as, for example, in Lifespan hospitals.
• If yes, then go to the next step.
5. Does the word "proxy" appear in the URL on your current web page?
   • If yes, follow instructions in the first bullet under step c.
   • If no, then
     1. Use the back button until "proxy" appears in the URL
     2. Right click on the next link using the right mouse. From resulting drop down menu, use left mouse to select “Open Link in New Window".
     3. If it still doesn’t work, contact Frank or Janet at 863-1532 or Anne Nolan at 863-3577.