Recent PubMed Enhancements

E-Mail Feature Available on PubMed

An e-mail selection has been added to PubMed's "Send To" pull-down menu, providing users with an easy way to e-mail search results. After reviewing search results, and clicking on specific citations if desired, simply choose the e-mail option from the pull-down menu and then click on "Send To." Results can be mailed in HTML or text format. If results are in HTML format, the email message will include publisher and library LinkOut icons. You can either click through to the full-text from the email message or get a print version of PubMed results that displays LinkOut icons! However, the recipient's e-mail program must be set for HTML view in order to properly view in HTML format. Additional text may also be entered, that will be included with the PubMed search results in the e-mail message. After clicking the Mail button, PubMed will return to the results page, displaying a message which confirms that the e-mail message was sent.

New MeSH Database

A new Entrez database, MeSH, has replaced the PubMed MeSH browser, providing additional search and display features to assist in constructing search strategies. The MeSH database is available from both the Search pull-down menu and the PubMed sidebar. The MeSH database may be searched by MeSH term, entry term, subheading, publication type, or words from a MeSH term scope note. Initial search results are displayed in Summary format, which includes a scope note or definition of the concept. A list of suggested terms also appears on the Summary display, which is particularly useful when a searcher misspells a word.

To run a PubMed search for a MeSH term and any of its indented terms from the Summary format, use the Links pull-down menu and select the "PubMed" option. The Links menu also includes a selection for the NLM MeSH Browser, which provides more information for the MeSH term. Additional information about a term is also available from the full format display in the MeSH database, which can be viewed by clicking on a term in the Summary display. The full display for MeSH terms includes check boxes for subheadings, the major topic restriction, and a "do not explode" option. The full display also shows previous indexing, "see also" terms, and MeSH Tree hierarchies for subject headings. Click the checkbox(es) to make your selection(s).

The MeSH database also provides a Search Box, which can be used to construct a PubMed search strategy. From either display format, after selecting a term and including any specifications such as subheadings, use the "Send To" pull-down menu to select a search instruction, e.g., "Search Box with AND." Then click on the "Send To" button, and your term with any specifications will appear in the Search Box. Then continue searching the database as needed for additional terms, and click on the "Search PubMed" button after completing the search.

Changes to PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping

Several changes have recently been made to improve PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping (ATM) feature. The phrase list has been removed from PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping, so the ATM feature now works only with: (1) the MeSH Translation Table; (2) the Journals Translation Table; and (3) the Author Index. This change was made because many search queries include embedded MeSH terms, which were not found if PubMed located the entire phrase in its phrase list. It is still possible to search PubMed for phrases, by using double quotes, hyphenated terms, or truncated terms. These formats instruct PubMed to bypass the ATM function, and look in PubMed's entire index of searchable terms.

The MeSH Translation Table has been enhanced to include Publication Types and their entry terms. When a searcher enters a term which is represented by both a Publication Type and a MeSH term, PubMed will first map to the Publication Type, and then the MeSH term. In the past, PubMed searched only for the MeSH term, and often missed most citations indexed to a Publication Type. The new mapping scheme greatly improves citation retrieval by Publication Types.

A further improvement to the MeSH Translation Table is the ability to recognize MeSH concepts when either the British or American spelling is used for entering terms. Also, an unqualified search for a MeSH concept will result in retrieval which includes both the British and American spelling of Text Words.

Cancer Subset Added to PubMed

As of April 4, 2003, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) retired the CANCERLIT database, and began linking users of its website directly to PubMed. NCI and NLM then worked together to improve access to cancer-related literature in PubMed. Those efforts have resulted in a new "Cancer" subject subset in PubMed, which became available from the pull-down menu on the PubMed Limits screen on April 28, 2003. The NCI web site now includes links to PubMed, including Cancer Topic Searches, a collection of pre-formulated searches on various cancer topics. NCI's cancer information page is available at http://cancer.gov/cancerinfo/.

SARS and PubMed

Following the World Health Organization's issuance of a global alert for the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the National Library of Medicine's MeSH Section announced a new MeSH descriptor for SARS, with indexing beginning on March 25, 2003. Citations with this descriptor could be retrieved in PubMed beginning March 28, 2003, and seen in Index Medicus beginning with the May 2003 issue. In addition, indexing for another new descriptor, SARS virus, for the organism that causes the disease, began on April 22, 2003.

There is also a direct link from the PubMed homepage to a PubMed search for severe acute respiratory syndrome. This link was created to facilitate searching this very timely topic. AC

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