Phrase Searching in PubMed

When you search PubMed for a phrase, or multi-word concept, its powerful search features jump into action to retrieve relevant results. Sometimes, however, you may want to use advanced search techniques to look for exact phrases or variations on a phrase. This tutorial will address the questions:

What happens when I search PubMed with a phrase?

I get no results or irrelevant results when I search PubMed with a phrase. What should I do next?

How do I search for variations on a phrase, like alternate spellings or the words within a specific proximity of each other?

With hands-on exercises and quizzes, this tutorial will walk you through how to construct PubMed searches with phrases to locate the most relevant results possible.

Resource URL: https://www.nnlm.gov/training/class-catalog/phrase-searching-pubmed

Learning Objectives

By the end of this tutorial, students will be able to answer the following questions:

• What happens when I search PubMed with a phrase?
• I get no results or irrelevant results when I search PubMed with a phrase. What should I do next?
• How do I search for variations on a phrase, like alternate spellings or the words within a specific proximity of each other?

Agenda

• Introduction
• What happens when I search PubMed with a phrase?
• I get no results or irrelevant results when I search PubMed with a phrase. What should I do next?
• How do I search for variations on a phrase, like alternate spellings or the words within a specific proximity of each other?
• Conclusion

MLA CE Credits: 1