Welcome to PubMed: The Basics with Galter Library and Learning Center. In this video we will discuss PubMed basics. We will learn a little bit of background on PubMed as a search engine, learn the best way to navigate PubMed as a Galter Library user, run a basic search, and navigate your search results.

What is PubMed - PubMed is a free search engine from the National Library of Medicine. It came online in the mid 1990s.

PubMed includes more than 30 million references to biomedical journal articles, dating back to 1940. It includes citations from the Medline database plus other citations, like those available openly in PubMed Central. 

It's important to note the public is not the full text database, you may find full text openly available but it primarily provides access to citations through the Medline database.

We recommend accessing PubMed through the Galter library website at galter.northwestern.edu. This will ensure you are viewing PubMed with all of the access and privileges offered to you as an FSM affiliate.

When you navigate through Galter Library, you will get results with links to ÒFind@Galter,Ó which can help you locate the full text in our catalog. This is helpful, even if we do not have access to the full text, because it allows you to place a request through Interlibrary Loan more easily.

You can find links to PubMed in our popular resources or by searching for PubMed on our website. Searching for PubMed on our website will give you the link to PubMed, as well as access to our GalterGuide on PubMed.
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Running a basic PubMed search.

PubMed is built for simple searching using a feature called Òautomatic term mapping.Ó

This means you are able to type just a few basic concepts, and let PubMed do the work of translating the search.
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LetÕs start with the question: ÒIs the anticoagulant Coumadin more effective than heparin for treating patients with an increased risk of pulmonary embolism?Ó
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We will type ÒPulmonary Embolism Heparin CoumadinÓ into our search box. When you search with a single string of terms like this, PubMed interprets the search to mean you are searching for records that contain ALL of the listed terms. The more specific we are with our terms, the more focused our results will be.
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You can build a greater understanding of automatic term mapping, by viewing your search details. Viewing your search details, while unnecessary, can be incredibly helpful in understanding exactly how PubMed interprets your terms and translates them for searching. 

You can view the search details using the Advanced Search view. 

Scroll down to your search history and click on Details. 

This will display your translated search. You will see that PubMed has translated your terms with variations for both British and American English and plural forms. You will also see instances of synonyms. For example, coumadin, which is the brand name, has been translated with warfarin as well, which is the generic term.
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You will also see that your terms are mapped to MeSH terminology. MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings and acts as a thesaurus of controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in PubMed.
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Checking on your search details will help you confirm PubMed is interpreting your search correctly. 

Once you check your details, you can click back to your results using the numbered link.
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The search results page will give you a list of results defaulted to PubMedÕs ÒBest MatchÓ order. You will see results in default of ÒSummary View,Ó which will preview a portion of the abstract. It will also use bold font to emphasize your terms in the search. You will automatically see 10 records per page. You can change your Display Options using the drop down box in the upper right hand corner. By changing to Abstract view, you can view the full article abstract as you scroll down the page, as well as MeSH terminology and links.
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If you prefer the summary view, you can access the full record and abstract by clicking into a record.

The individual results page will show us not only the abstract when available, but also lists of MeSH terms assigned to the record.  As well as any articles that have been cited by or similar articles. It also includes links to find the resource at Galter. 

You may also see links to few the text at the journal website. While this will sometimes work to locate the full text, it may also ask you to pay for an article. You do not need to pay for an article as a user of Galter Library, So we encourage you to use ÒFindIt@GalterÓ where you will be brought to the article in our catalog and asked to sign in for additional options.

Thank you for joining us for PubMed: The Basics with Galter Library and Learning Center.