PubMed

PubMed FAQs

Last Updated: April 18, 2001

Note: Most of the FAQs answers link to Help.

• How do I find articles about a disease or condition?
• How can I import citations into my reference manager program?
• Why when I print my results is right side of the text cut off?
• What is a cookie  and why do I see error messages about my system not accepting them?
• What is LinkOut?
• Why isn't there a link to the full text for the citation I've retrieved?
• Why is the link to the full-text not working?
• I found a citation in PubMed. How can I order the full article?
• What order are the citations displayed in PubMed, and can I sort my results?
• How do I limit my retrieval to a specific date range, age group, language, type of article, etc.?
• Where can I get a list of the journals indexed for MEDLINE and why isn't my journal included?
• I can not find a journal, issue, or citation for a specific article?
• How do I save my search results or search strategies?
• I found a misspelling/typo in the citation. Can this be corrected?
• My name is misspelled on a citation in MEDLINE. Can this be corrected?
• I am looking for a specific article. I have the journal name, title, and author's name. Is there a quick way to retrieve citations?

How do I find articles about my disease or condition?

Please be aware that it is not the intention of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to provide specific medical advice, but rather to provide users with access to sources of information to better understand their health and their diagnosed disorders. Specific medical advice cannot be provided and NLM urges you to consult a qualified health care professional for answers to your personal questions. NLM does not have pamphlets or other materials to mail.

The National Library of Medicine provides access to its MEDLINE database FREE of charge using PubMed to help you conduct your own research. NLM's MEDLINE database has more than 10 million references to articles published in over four thousand biomedical journals.  To retrieve citations to articles discussing a specific disease or condition follow the steps below.

A Quick PubMed Search:
1. Enter your search term(s) in the PubMed query box (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis) and click on the Go button.
2. PubMed will display an initial batch of citations in the Summary format. You can browse these results to determine which citations you may want to display in other formats, or you may be able to retrieve a copy of the full-text of the article. In addition, if you find a citation that is "on-target," click on the "Related Articles" link to the right of the citation to retrieve citations to other articles that are closely related to the "on-target" article.

Additional Resources:

In addition to accessing PubMed for citations to journal articles, the following consumer health information resources are also very helpful:

• NLM's MEDLINEplus is an easy-to-understand resource for the public which includes MEDLINE as well as links to self-help groups, access to National Institute of Health consumer-related organizations, clearinghouses, health-related organizations, and clinical trials. Click on Consumer Health under Related Resources on the PubMed sidebar to access MEDLINEplus.
• The healthfinder web site can lead you to selected online publications, clearinghouses, databases, web sites, and support and self-help groups, as well as the government agencies and not-for-profit organizations that produce reliable information for the public.
Your local public, medical, or university library to learn about health services that may be available in your local area. If you would like to have someone do a search for you (for a fee), and you are in the United States, please contact your Regional Medical Library at 1-800-338-7657. They will refer you to a local medical library that may be willing to perform a search for you. There may be a charge for this service.

PubMed provides access to citations in MEDLINE, as well as additional life science journals, which contain bibliographic citations and abstracts (if abstracts are available in the journal). PubMed does not include the full-text of articles, however, the following options are available to obtain a copy of an article:

Full-Text Links:

Publishers who supply their data to PubMed electronically may include an icon link to a site providing the full-text.  The provider's icon is displayed on the Abstract and Citation formats.  For example, enter a search for the Journal of Biological Chemistry (J Biol Chem) and display the results in the Abstract format. Next, click the "JBC Online" icon to go to the publisher's web site.  These web sites may require a subscription or fee in order to view the full-text of an article. The list of journals with links to full-text is available from PubMed's Journal Browser.

All other links to providers are displayed on the LinkOut display for a citation.  A "LinkOut" link is available on the Abstract and Citation formats, and there is also a LinkOut display format.

Document Ordering via Loansome Doc:

The Order button allows you to order documents from a library in your area using the Loansome Doc feature of PubMed.  You can order any PubMed citations.

Prior to using this program you must establish an agreement with a Loansome Doc participating library, and register online. Please note, there may be applicable fees. For information on the medical libraries in your area (or country) that can provide the Loansome Doc service and to register, click on the Go button from the Loansome Doc Registration screen.

Once you have registered with Loansome Doc, you can order citations, by clicking on the check box to the left of each citation. When you have finished marking your selections (you may move to other pages within your results), click Order.  You may also use the Clipboard to collect items from multiple searches before ordering.

I found a misspelling/typo in the citation. Can this be corrected?

Error in a MEDLINE Citation:

If you find an error in a MEDLINE citation please report this to the NLM Help Desk and include the information below (or as much as possible).

Citations that carry the tag, [PubMed - in process] or [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] have not yet gone through NLM's quality control procedures and indexing process. It is during this process that errors are identified and corrected. On the average, it takes approximately 4-6 weeks for a citation to go through the indexing process and become a full MEDLINE record. It is not necessary to notify NLM of an error at this stage. However, if the error is still present when the above tags are no longer on the citation, please report it to the NLM Help Desk.

1. The journal name, volume, issue, and page number.
2. The title the of article, or the PMID number (e.g., PMID: 1234567).
3. A description of the error.
Your report will be forwarded to NLM's Quality Assurance for further investigation. If a change to the database is warranted, the MEDLINE citation will be corrected. Please understand that due to the large volume of requests we are unable to answer individual error reports.

NLM leases its data to vendors around the world. Other products and services containing MEDLINE data will not necessarily reflect corrections made to records at NLM right away. If you search MEDLINE through a vendor's system, please contact the vendors about their maintenance schedules.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) takes the author's name as it appears in the article at the time of publication, and only uses the last name plus the first two initials for MEDLINE (e.g., Fauci AS). Corrections for the misspelling of author names are handled as follows:

NLM's Typographical Error:

If the author's name is cited correctly in the journal and the error is NLM's typographical mistake, please report the finding to the NLM Help Desk with the following information (or as much as possible):

Citations that carry the tag,[PubMed - in process] or [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] have not yet gone through NLM's quality control procedures and indexing process. It is during this process that errors are identified and corrected. On the average, it takes approximately 4-6 weeks for a citation to go through the indexing process and become a full MEDLINE record. It is not necessary to notify NLM of an error at this stage. However, if the error is still present when the above tags are no longer on the citation, please report it to the NLM Help Desk.

1. The journal name, volume, issue, and page number.
2. The title of the article or the PMID number (e.g., PMID: 1234567).
3. The correct name using the format, last name initials (e.g., Jones JA).
After our investigation, if a change to the database is warranted, the MEDLINE citation will be corrected. Please understand that due to the large volume of requests we are unable to answer each individual error report.

NLM leases its data to vendors around the world. Other products and services containing MEDLINE data will not necessarily reflect corrections made to records at NLM right away. If you search MEDLINE through a vendor's system, please contact the vendors about their maintenance schedules.

Author's Name Printed Incorrectly in the Publication:

If the author's name was printed incorrectly at the time of publication, then the journal in which the article appeared must publish an erratum before NLM will make the correction in MEDLINE. If this is the case, please contact the journal's publisher.

It is NLM's policy that errata will be acknowledged only if they are printed in a citable form; that is, an erratum notice must appear on a numbered page in the journal that originally published the article. Error notices that are inserted unbound into a journal issue or "tipped in" will not be considered part of the permanent bibliographic record. NLM does not make changes in the database in response to letters from authors or editors, unless such letters indicate that a substantive published erratum is forthcoming.

For additional information on how NLM handles errors in MEDLINE, please review the NLM Errata, Retraction, Duplicate Publication, and Comment Policy fact sheet.