Medical Information on the Internet

Module 3: PubMed and NLM Gateway

Module Objectives

Know and understand the database MEDLINE
Understand the difference between MeSH and textword searching
Effectively perform a simple search in PubMed and NLM Gateway

Summary

Effective MEDLINE searching involves the proper use of Boolean logic, an understanding of medical terminology, proper spelling, and an understanding of the database structure.

Myths/Common Mistakes

PubMed has the full text of all medical journals
PubMed indexes books
PubMed indexes book chapters
PubMed will show the best articles first
PubMed indexes all the medical journals that ever existed

Background

For more information about MEDLINE, NLM Gateway and PubMed (links open new windows), the National Library of Medicine has a number of fact sheets available.

Factoids/Popular Statistics

MEDLINE indexes over 4,600 biomedical journals.
MEDLINE contains over 12 million citations back to 1966.
MEDLINE indexes the medical literature from over 70 countries.

When to Hit the Books

MEDLINE on PubMed currently only indexes materials back to the 1950s, although more information is being added to it on a regular basis. However, for those citations not yet incorporated through OLDMEDLINE, you will need to use the print Index Medicus for the required years.