Databases and Journals

Combine keywords using "AND" or "OR" - "AND" finds the intersection of the concepts. "OR" finds any one of the concepts.

• smoking cessation AND evaluation studies

• pregnancy AND substance abuse AND program evaluation

• needs assessment AND health promotion 

• (environmental design OR organizational culture) AND (health promotion OR health behavior)

TIP: Searches can be combined or used in subsequent searches using Advanced - Search History.

One way to limit your search to particular fields is by using field tags, such as [ti] to search a title word, [au] to search an author name word, [ta] to search a journal title word, etc.

Example: "food desert"[ti] searches for this phrase in the article title.

A complete list of all PubMed field tags as well as description of each is available from PubMed Help

Different results displays give you different information. Click on Summary for additional formats (above the results list).

• Summary—default display showing citation information--author, title, source, PMID#

• Abstract—citation, plus author affiliation, abstract, and  (to find full text)

• Medline—format for bibliographic management software such as EndNote.  

Save useful citations as you search. Just check the box to the left of the citation you want to save. Then, use the drop down menu "Send to" above the results list to the right to save temporarily to the "Clipboard", or permanently to one of your "Collections" (requires login to My NCBI).