Pubmed Particulars

Special Queries

As of April 29, 2005 a new service has been available from the blue side bar of the PubMed page: Special Queries.

Special Queries provides access to a directory of topic-specific PubMed queries.

Special Queries is another access point to some well-known PubMed features and, in my opinion, is designed to help users become aware of search options that may have been overlooked previously.

But, it also provides links to some features that may be new to many PubMed users.

The old favorites that Special Queries links to are:

• The three options currently residing on the Clinical Queries page
  -Search by Clinical Study Category
  -Find Systematic Reviews
  -Medical Genetics

• Subsets found on the Limits page
  -AIDS
  -Bioethics
  -Cancer
  -Complementary Medicine
  -History of Medicine
  -Space Life Sciences
  -Toxicology
  -Core Clinical Journals
  -Dental Journals
  -Nursing Journals

Some of the links on the Special Queries page, then, take searchers to a specified section of the Clinical Queries page or automatically turns on specific Limits.

What's new, then? There are 5 options listed on the Special Queries page that may be new to some PubMed users although all of these have been around for awhile:

(1) HSR (Health Services Research) query filters

This selection takes users to search filters developed by NICHSR

You can read more about these filters at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/db.html

(2) Cancer Topics

This links to an NCI page where pre-formulated PubMed searches are available for certain cancer topics. Users start by choosing a broad category:

Once the broad category has been chosen, a new page opens with additional, narrower search options. Here, for example, is the page for breast cancer:

When the searcher is satisfied with the choices, they click on Search and PubMed results are displayed. Give it a try and see what you think.

(3) CAM on PubMed

This choice takes searchers to the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) where there is an option to search PubMed.

Using this search option, searches will be automatically limited to the Complementary Medicine subset in PubMed.

(4) History of Medicine in PubMed

Again, this selection will take the searcher to the History of Medicine web page where there is an option to search PubMed.

Using this option for searching PubMed automatically limits the search to the History of Medicine subset in PubMed.

(5) MedlinePlus Health Topics

Selecting this option from the Special Queries page takes the user to MedlinePlus. One of the features on each MedlinePlus Health Topics page is a pre-formulated PubMed search. Here, for example, is the section of the Health Topics page for eczema:

Clicking on the link runs the following search in PubMed:

Conclusion

So, what's to be said about Special Queries? Will librarians use it? Will clinicians and researchers use it? Will students use it? Only time will tell. The important thing is that this resource exists as another access point for finding information in PubMed. Librarians need to know that it's there, how to use it, and point it out to their user groups. So, take some time to poke around in there and see what you think.

Donna Berryman, Outreach Coordinator