Read the text in the text box 'Filters - limiting the number of search results'.
try a simple search in PubMed for leukemia[Title/Abstract]. Then use filters to limit the number of results to search results about children (0-18 years) and in the Dutch language.
How many results do you get now?
(click on the question to view the answer)
Read the text in the text box 'Clinical Queries'.
Perform a search within 'Clinical Queries' using the terms vaccination AND H1N1 and click on 'Search'. Next select at 'FILTER' the domain 'therapy' (this is the default setting), and select at 'SCOPE' a sensitive search ('broad') and have a look at the number of hits. How many are there?
How many results do you get now?
(click on the question to see the answer)
Read the text in the text box 'Finding a known article'.
With the help of the Single Citation Matcher’ search the following article in PubMed:
(click on the picture for a larger view)
(author, journal, year, volume, issue, page numbers respectively)
What is the title of this article?
(Click on the question to view the answer)
If you get too many hits, despite the use of the right search terms, you can limit your search further via 'filters'. To do so you must first perform a search. Next you will see in the list of results a number of filters in the left hand side of the screen which you can click on (you can click on the image to make it bigger).
You can now set PubMed to only search for certain types of publications, or within a particular period. Via the option 'Additional filters', more filters are available, for instance for age groups ('Ages') or language (languages). You can also set a time period very easily by dragging the dots in the bar chart!
In general, be careful in the use of these filters: it often leads to a too strong limitation of your search results. Besides, in many cases you will lose the recent, not yet indexed articles. This is because most filters (with the exception of Languages and Publication dates!) are based on MeSH terms.
Please note: once you have set up filters, they will also be used in your next searches until you untick them.
A completely different way of searching is to use search filters offered by PubMed. Click on 'Clinical Queries' under 'FIND' on the homepage of PubMed. You have to copy your whole search string from PubMed into the search bar of 'Clinical Queries'.
Only after entering the search you will be shown two different kinds of filters: 'COVID-19' and 'Clinical Studies'. In this tutorial we will focus on the second one.
At 'Clinical Studies' you can indicate the kind of study you are interested in (e.g. etiology, diagnosis, therapy, prognosis or clinical prediction guides). You can also indicate whether your search must be 'broad' (sensitive: many references of which a large part non-relevant) or 'narrow' (specific, fewer but more relevant articles, some relevant articles can be missed though). If you click on 'Filter information' at the bottom of the column you see how these filters are constructed.
Please note: Searching with filters is a quick way to limit the number of search results. However, using this search option also means that you rely on the ideas of others. Keep critically on whether the used filters are optimized for your particular query.
If you are looking for an article of which you know the data, for instance because you have seen the reference in a handbook or the article was recommended by your tutor, you can use the 'Single Citation Matcher' on the homepage of PubMed, under 'Find'.
In the 'Single Citation Matcher' you can enter the data of the publication. Often you only have to enter journal title, volume and page number: a useful tool if your reference is incomplete!