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Pubmed Particulars

(1) Picky, Picky, Picky: Caps or No Caps? That is the question.

The all-time, most popular question to land in my email in-box is whether or not Boolean connectors (AND, OR, NOT) in PubMed searches really need to be capitalized. This has been particularly true the last two months as it appears that non-capitalized connectors also work. After checking with the PubMed people at NLM, please be advised that it is still necessary to capitalize your Boolean connectors. Yes, NLM is looking into changing that. But, it hasn't changed yet, so save yourself some headaches and use capital letters. Believe me, when it does get changed, NLM will be the first to let you know. They'll be excited about it, too!

(2) Missing MeSH terms? The case of the crazy citation.

Another question that is commonly asked has to do with MeSH terms. The question usually goes something like this: "When I displayed this [insert PMID # here] in the Citation Format in PubMed, I didn't see any MeSH terms. Isn't the Citation Format the one that should show the MeSH terms?" The answer is yes! The Citation Format in PubMed will show the MeSH terms but only if that citation has been indexed. There are several different types of citations in PubMed, you'll recall. They are:

1. [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
2. [PubMed - in process]
3. [PubMed]
4. [PubMed - OLDMEDLINE for pre1966]
5. [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Of these five types, only the [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] citations have been indexed. So, for example, look at a citation such as the following:

There are no MeSH terms associated with this citation. It hasn't been indexed yet. Therefore, even if you choose to display this information in the Citation Format in PubMed, you won't see MeSH because there ain't no MeSH.

Please note this applies to the OLDMEDLINE citations, also. If you look at one of the OLDMEDLINE citations in the MEDLINE format, you'll see that there are no entries in the MH fields. Take a look at this one, for example:

It's from a JAMA 1964 article. Display the information in the MEDLINE format, and here's what you'll see:

Instead of showing an MH field for MeSH terms, this OLDMEDLINE citation has OT fields - Other Term. No MeSH headings.

(4) What's new in PubMed?

* There's going to be a change in the way Automatic Term Mapping works in PubMed. Please see the Technical Bulletin article for an explanation:

* New journals participating in PubMed Central:

* There have been some changes to the check tag Human and the term Hominidae. Read all about it in the Technical Bulletin:

* Want tutorials? The Bibliographic Services Division of NLM has produced some terrific tutorials. Find them at:

* Interested in UMLS (Unified Medical Language System)? There's a tutorial for that, too. See:

Donna Berryman, Outreach Coordinator