Introduction

The Search Page

Searching

Searching by Fields

Author Name Searching

Corporate Author Searching

Title Searching

MeSH Searching

Boolean Operators

Allowable Search Fields Descriptions and Tags

Search Limits and Settings

English Only Limit

Subsets

Publication Date Limit

Results

Results Categories

Results Summary

Results Page

Navigation

Display Formats

Download or Display (Note: Includes Display in Browser, Printing, and Saving)

Send via e-mail

Document Ordering

Search History

Term Finder

Locker

Sign in

For More Assistance

Customer Support

NLM Publications on the Gateway

Gateway Training

Linking to the Gateway

System Configuration

Gateway Data Elements by Collection
(Print hint: Open and print this link separately)

Display Formats Data Elements by Collection
(Print hint: Open and print this link separately)

Allowable Search Fields by Collection
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Introduction

The NLM Gateway allows you to search in multiple retrieval systems (databases) at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) from a single interface, providing "one-stop searching" for many of NLM's information resources. It is being developed by the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC) at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Gateway Overview has more information.

The Search Page

• The Gateway search box is at the top of each page.
• The Gateway Features bar includes: Term Finder, Limits/Settings, Search Details, History, My Locker, About, Help, and FAQ.
• The Gateway bottom bar contains Contact Us and administrative links.

Searching

The query box is on every page. You do not need to return to the home page to enter a new search.

• The default is a subject search.
• Enter one or more search terms in the query box and click on "Search" or hit "Enter".
• The maximum length for user input is five hundred (500) characters.
• Search terms are automatically combined (ANDed) together.
• Unqualified terms map to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms or Supplementary Concept terms when appropriate to provide more comprehensive results (e.g, heart attack maps to myocardial infarction). Myocardial Infarction is searched as a MeSH term in addition to heart attack being searched as text words.
• A spell checker is applied to some search queries. If a term is not recognized, the user is alerted to a possible misspelling, and is given the option to choose an alternate spelling and rerun the search.
• Gateway ignores stopwords in subject search queries that are not part of a phrase. There are six stopwords in the Gateway: a, an, and, not, or, the. PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov, and DIRLINE: Directory of Health Organizations have separate stopword lists. Other collections do not have a stopword list.

Searching by Fields

• Field qualifiers should be entered after the search term or terms.
• Must be in square brackets.
• May be upper or lower case.
• Unqualified terms should be entered after all qualified terms, or should be separated with a Boolean operator (AND, OR, NOT).

vitamin C [MH] AND common cold
lead screening [TW] children
lymphedema/therapy [MH] AND 2004:2006 [DP]
quality of life [TI] prognosis [MH]

• The Allowable Search Field Descriptions and Tags section below lists allowable field qualifiers.
• A table of all collections and the allowable search fields is available.

Author Name Searching

• You may search for multiple authors at one time.
• You may enter only the last name, or the last name and the first initial if you do not know the middle initial. The Gateway will truncate initials for the following collections: PubMed, NLM Catalog, Meeting Abstracts, and HSRProj.
(e.g., Smith D [au] will retrieve Smith DA, Smith DB, etc.)

Harris MI [AU]
Charron-Prochownik D [AU] Siminerio LM [AU]
Ferris FL 3rd [AU]
Kovacs [AU]
Kovacs [AU] AND ritonavir [TI]
Harris MI [AU] AND Diabetes Mellitus [MH]

Notes:

• You can search for HSRProj investigators using the author field qualifier.
• HSRProj investigator names are displayed as full names, but must be searched in the format last name plus initials (no punctuation).
• The following collections do not have authors:
  • Bookshelf
  • all MedlinePlus collections
  • ClinicalTrials.gov
  • DIRLINE: Directory of Health Organizations
  • Genetics Home Reference
  • Household Products Database
  • HSDB: Hazardous Substances Data Bank
  • IRIS: Integrated Risk Information System
  • ITER: International Toxicity Estimates for Risk
  • GENE-TOX: Genetic Toxicology (Mutagenicity)
  • CCRIS: Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System
  • Profiles in Science
• If you search for only an author name, collections without authors will not be searched.
• If an author is part of a larger search query, the author portion of the search will be ignored by collections without authors, and the remainder of the search will be accomplished in these collections (e.g., Pauling L [AU] vitamin c will be searched as vitamin c).

Corporate Author Searching

• To search for a particular corporate author, enter the corporate author followed by the field qualifier [CN].
• You may search for multiple corporate authors at one time.

International Conference on Aids [CN]
Cochrane Colloquium [CN]
Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections [CN] AND HOPS [CN]
International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care. Meeting [CN] AND 2003 [DP]
Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections [CN] AND Wood K [AU]

Notes:

• The following collections do not have corporate authors:
  • Bookshelf
  • TOXLINE Subset
  • DART: Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology
  • all MedlinePlus collections
  • ClinicalTrials.gov
  • DIRLINE: Directory of Health Organizations
  • Genetics Home Reference
  • Household Products Database
  • HSRProj
  • OMIM: Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man
  • HSDB: Hazardous Substances Data Bank
  • IRIS: Integrated Risk Information System
  • ITER: International Toxicity Estimates for Risk
  • GENE-TOX: Genetic Toxicology (Mutagenicity)
  • CCRIS: Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System
  • Profiles in Science
• If you search for only a corporate author, collections without corporate authors will not be searched.
• If a corporate author is part of a larger search query, the corporate author portion of the search will be ignored by collections without corporate authors, and the remainder of the search will be accomplished in these collections (e.g., International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care. Meeting [CN] AND 2003 [DP] will be searched as 2003 [DP]).

Title Searching

• You may enter a complete title, or one or more words or phrases found in the title.

AIDS [TI] sexually transmitted diseases [TI]
lyme disease [TI]
lyme disease [TI] AND France D [AU]
quality of life [TI] AND prognosis [MH]

Notes:

• A phrase may be present in the title of a PubMed journal citation, but may not be on the list of recognized phrases used by PubMed. If your title search of a phrase returns no results for PubMed, you may wish to search the words individually.

MeSH Searching

The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) comprise NLM's controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles, for cataloging books and other holdings, and for searching MeSH-indexed databases, including MEDLINE. MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information that may use different terminology for the same concepts.

• Enter the MeSH term followed by the field qualifier [MH].
• Enter the MeSH term followed by the field qualifier [MJ] to search for a MeSH Major Topic
• You may search for multiple MeSH terms at one time.
• To search for a MeSH term with one or more subheadings, enter the MeSH term, a forward slash and one or more subheadings each separated by a forward slash, followed by the field qualifier [MH] or [MJ].
• Enter subheadings in full (e.g, adverse effects), or use the two character abbreviation (e.g., ae).
• Multiple subheadings for one MeSH term are ORed together (e.g., myocardial infarction/su/dt [MH] is equivalent to myocardial infarction/su [MH] OR myocardial infarction/dt [MH]).

Lyme Disease [MH]
Macular Degeneration/therapy [MJ]
Myocardial Infarction/su/dt [MH]
Lice [MJ]
Lyme Disease [MH] AND Antibodies, Bacterial [MH]
Lice [MJ] AND head [TI]

Notes:

• Drop parentheses from MeSH terms (e.g., enter Earth (Planet) as earth planet [MH]).
• Entry terms are automatically mapped to MeSH terms.
• Automatic explosions are only valid for PubMed and NLM Catalog. MeSH terms and MeSH major topics are not exploded in other collections.
• To turn off automatic explosion, enter the field qualifier followed by ":noexp" ([MH:noexp] or [MJ:noexp])
• To turn off mapping to the MeSH translation file so that a MeSH term is searched as an exact MeSH phrase, enter the field qualifier followed by ":nomap" ([MH:nomap] or [MJ:nomap]).
• Additional information about finding and selecting MeSH terms may be found in the Term Finder section.

Note: The explosion of a MeSH term refers to the inclusion of more specific MeSH terms indented under it in the MeSH hierarchy. MeSH terms are arranged hierarchically by subject categories with more specific terms arranged beneath broader terms. MeSH organizes its descriptors in a hierarchical structure (MeSH Trees) so that broad searches may include items indexed more narrowly. More information on the structure of MeSH is available in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) Fact Sheet. Information on subheadings may be found on the Qualifiers page.

Boolean Operators

• The Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT are available.
Intersection (AND) - retrieves items that contain all the terms.

Union (OR) - retrieves items that contain one or more of the terms.

Difference (NOT) - excludes items that contain the term(s).

The default operator is AND.
Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT must be in upper case (e.g., vitamin C OR zinc).
The Gateway processes the AND and OR Boolean operators in a left-to-right sequence.
The NOT operator is processed first.
Nesting: You can change the order in which the Gateway processes the AND and OR operators in a search statement by enclosing the unit in parentheses. The terms inside the set of parentheses will be processed as a unit and then incorporated into the overall search strategy.

common cold AND (vitamin C OR zinc)
hay fever AND (Loratadine OR Cetirizine)

Allowable Search Field Descriptions and Tags

Enter the

Author [AU] - Enter the author name in the format last name plus initials (no punctuation), followed by the field qualifier. Additional information is in the Author Name Searching section.

Corporate Author [CN] - Identifies the corporate authorship of an item. Corporate names display exactly as they appear. Note: MEDLINE Citations indexed pre-2000 and some citations indexed in 2000-2001 retain corporate authors at the end of the title field. For comprehensive searches, consider including terms and/or words searched in the title field [ti]. Additional information is in the Corporate Author Searching section.

ISSN [IS] - International Standard Serial Number. It may be entered with or without dashes (e.g., 00284793 [IS] or 0028-4793 [IS]).

Language [LA] - The language in which the item was published. It may be entered in full (e.g., french [LA]) or using the three character abbreviation (e.g., fre [LA]). The abbreviation is normally the first three characters of most languages, with the most notable exception being jpn for Japanese. Additional information about language searching may be found in the English Only Limit section.

MeSH Major Topic [MJ] - A MeSH term that is one of the main topics discussed in the item. See MeSH Term below.

MeSH Term [MH] - To search for a MeSH term, enter the MeSH term followed by the field qualifier. If a MeSH term or MeSH major topic is entered, it will be automatically exploded in PubMed and NLM Catalog only. For other collections, MH and MH:noexp and MJ and MJ:noexp provide equivalent results. Additional information about MeSH searching may be found in the MeSH Searching section.

Publication Date [DP] - The date that the item was published. Publication dates may be entered as a single date or a date range. A date or date ranges must be searched using the format yyyy/mm/dd [DP] (e.g., 2007/10/11 [DP]). To enter a date range, insert a colon (:) between each date (e.g., 2005:2008 [DP]). Additional information about publication date searching may be found in the Publication Date Limit section.

Publication Type [PT] - The type of material the item represents (e.g., Review, Clinical Trial, Retracted Publication, Meeting Abstracts).

Subheading [SH] - Subheadings are used with MeSH terms to help describe more completely a particular aspect of a subject. A subheading may be entered in full (e.g., diet therapy [SH]) or using the two character abbreviation (e.g., DH [SH]). Additional information about subheading searching may be found in the MeSH Searching section.Information on subheadings may be found on the Qualifiers page.

Subject [SU] - This is the default Gateway search.

Subset [SB] - Limits a search to article citations on specialized topics, or journal articles before 1966 (Oldmedline). The following subject subsets are available: AIDS, Bioethics, History of Medicine, and Space Life Sciences. To limit retrieval to a particular subset, enter the subset value, followed by the field qualifier. Valid subset values are aids, bioethics, history, oldmedline, and space. Additional information about subset searching may be found in the Subsets Limit section.

Substance Name [NM] - The name of a chemical discussed in the item. If an entry term is entered, it will be automatically mapped to the substance name.

Text Word [TW] - Includes all words in the title, abstract, MeSH terms, subheadings, and keywords. Please note that all collections do not include all the above mentioned fields, and additional fields may be searched for specific collections.

Title [TI] - Enter one or more title words followed by the field qualifier. Additional information about title searching may be found in the Title Searching section.

Title Abbreviation [TA] - The journal title abbreviation. If a journal name contains parentheses or brackets, enter the name without the parentheses or brackets (e.g., J Hand Surg [Am] is entered as J Hand Surg Am [TA]).

Unique Identifier [UI] - A unique identifier for an item. PubMed IDs (PMIDs) may be searched using the Unique Identifier field qualifier (e.g., 11054795 [UI] OR 11066716 [UI] OR 10422604 [UI]).

Notes:

• A table of all collections and the allowable search fields is available.

Search Limits and Settings

• Use "Limits/Settings" on the Gateway Features bar to access the Limits and Settings page.
• It allows you to customize your search limits, results settings, and download and display options.
• If you have signed in and checked the "Use my limits/settings" checkbox, your permanent limits will be the current settings.
• Limits will be in effect until they are turned off.
• To turn off limits, uncheck the checkbox.

• Use the Apply button to apply changes to your current Gateway session only.
• Use the Save button to apply changes to your current and future Gateway sessions.
• The Save button will overwrite any current limits or settings. If using both the Save button and the Apply button, use the Save button first.
• You must sign in to save limits and settings. Sign in requires a User ID and password. Registration is free.
• Use the Restore Default button to return permanent limits/settings on the current page to the Gateway default settings.
• Use the Restore All Settings to Default button to return all limits/settings to the Gateway default settings.

The different areas of the Limits and Settings page are shown below in four parts.

English Only Limit

• The Gateway default is to search all languages.
• Use the English only option to limit your search to English language items only. This option excludes all foreign language items.
• Check the box, and select the Apply or Save button before selecting the "Search" button.

Notes:

• This limit applies only to PubMed, TOXLINE Subset, DART: Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology, NLM Catalog, and Meeting Abstracts.
• This limit is ignored in the Related Articles function for PubMed.

Subsets

• The Gateway default is to search without any subset limits.
• Use the Subsets pull down menu to change the subset searched.
• Select the Apply or Save button before selecting the "Search" button.

Notes:

• The OLDMEDLINE for Pre1966 subset limit applies only to PubMed, and is ignored for other collections.
• A subject subset limit applies only to PubMed, NLM Catalog, and Meeting Abstracts.
• A subject subset limit is ignored in the Related Articles function for PubMed.

Publication Date Limit

• The Gateway default is to search all publication dates.
• Use the Publication dates (yyyy/mm/dd) from / to boxes to limit your search to specific publication dates.
• One publication date or a range of publication dates may be searched.
• A publication date or date range must be searched using the format yyyy/mm/dd (e.g., from 2006/12/01 to 2007/04/15). Months and days are optional, and will be used only in searching PubMed. All other collections will be searched for publication year only.
• The default ending publication year (if not specified by the user) is the current year.
• Select the Apply or Save button before selecting the "Search" button.

Notes:

• This limit applies only to PubMed, NLM Catalog, TOXLINE Subset, DART: Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology, Meeting Abstracts, and HSRProj.
• This limit is ignored in the Related Articles function for PubMed.
• The maximum allowable ending publication year is the current year plus ten years. For example, in the year 2008, the maximum allowable ending publication year is 2018.
• You may limit by project years in HSRProj using the publication date field qualifier. All intermediate years as well as the initial year and the final year will be searched.

• Use the Items Per Page pull down menu to set the number of items to be displayed on each page.
• Use the Brief Display Format pull down menu to select labelled, unlabelled or export format for Brief Display.
• Use the Expanded Display Format pull down menu to select labelled, unlabelled or export format for Expanded Display.
• Select the Apply or Save button before selecting the "Search" button.

• The Select Fields option allows users to choose which fields are displayed for brief or expanded formats for each collection.
• Use the pull down menu to select a collection and select the "Go" button.
• Select the fields to be displayed for the brief and expanded formats.
• Select the Apply or Save button before selecting the "Search" button.
• Above is the top of the Select Fields page for PubMed.
• Customizing Your Results Display (2 min., March 2006)

• Use the Details pull down menu to select the display format (Brief, Expanded, Complete).
• Use the Format pull down menu to select Unlabelled, Labelled or Export.
• Use the Destination pull down menu to select where the items are to be downloaded or displayed. Send via e-mail is not an option since it has a separate action.
• Use the Download or send as pull down menu to select text or Html.
• You may enter an e-mail address in the Address if sending via e-mail text box for the Send via e-mail option.
• You may enter a optional message in the Add message if sending via email (optional) text box for the Send via e-mail option.
• Select the Apply or Save button before selecting the "Search" button.
• Additional information on the above options may be found in the Download or Display section.

Results

Results Categories

In the NLM Gateway, your search terms will be searched simultaneously in multiple retrieval systems. Results from all systems will be displayed on the Results Summary page, broadly divided into categories. Categories are based primarily on information format, with the exception of consumer health. While consumer health information may potentially be found in any category, the consumer health category highlights information intended primarily for patients, their families and the general public.

The categories of retrieval systems and current collections within the categories are as follows:

Results Summary

When you select the "Search" button, the Gateway performs your search and displays the Results Summary page.

• The Results Summary shows each collection name and the number of items found.
• Error is displayed if an error is encountered in searching a particular collection.
• N/A is displayed if a search is not applicable to a particular collection.
• Select the collection name (e.g., MEDLINE/PubMed) to see the retrieved items for that collection.
• Select Search Details to see how the Gateway translated your search terms.

Notes:

• Search Details lets you view your search strategy as it was translated using the Gateway's automatic term mapping and search rules and syntax.
• Search Details contains warnings and error messages.
• Spell checker warnings are below the Results Summary line. The user may ignore the warning, or select the "Details" link to view a page with alternate spellings. The user may select from the list of suggested words and rerun the search, or cancel to return to the original results.
• Beside the Results Summary is a "Bookmark this Search" button. To save the search terms, select the "Bookmark this Search" button. The Bookmark this Search page will be displayed. A new browser window will open with the Results Summary page for the search. Use the Bookmark or Favorites feature of your Web browser to save the search, and then close the browser window and continue with Gateway searching.
• Search results from ClinicalTrials.gov displays all trials, including those no longer recruiting patients.
• Order of retrieved results
• CCRIS: Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System, ClinicalTrials.gov, DART: Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology, GENE-TOX: Genetic Toxicology (Mutagenicity), Genetics Home Reference, HSDB: Hazardous Substances Data Bank, HSRProj, IRIS: Integrated Risk Information System, ITER: International Toxicity Estimates for Risk, all MedlinePlus collections, Meeting Abstracts, OMIM: Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man, and TOXLINE Subset results are displayed in relevance ranked order.
• DIRLINE: Directory of Health Organizations results are displayed in random order.
• NLM Catalog and PubMed results are displayed in descending Entrez Date order. The Entrez Date is the date the citation was added, so items are displayed in a "last in, first out" order.

Results Page

• To view the results for a collection from the Results Summary page, select the collection name.

Navigation

• The Arrows and Prev/Next buttons navigate forward and backward through the pages of results.
• The Page button allows you to go directly to a specific page number. Enter the page number in the page number box, and select the "Page" button.
• Use checkboxes to select individual or multiple items.
• Select:
  • Email to send a number of items via e-mail.
  • Download to download or display a number of items.
  • Put in Locker to put selected items in your locker. All items on the page will be put in your locker if no items have been selected. If you are not signed in, the Gateway Sign in page will be displayed.
  • Order documents to order selected items via Loansome Doc (PubMed only). All items on the page will be ordered if no items have been selected.
  • Clear check marks to erase all check marks for selected items.
• Select the title to show a fuller display for an individual item.
• A warning message ("One or more search terms were dropped. See Search Details") is displayed on the results page if part of a user search query is dropped, but the search is still run and results are returned to the user.
• The Related Articles link (PubMed only) retrieves a set of journal citations closely related to the individual item.
• The Free in PMC, Free at producer site, and Free at producer site (reg req) links (PubMed only) provide access to free full text of an item.

Notes:

• Jumping hundreds of pages in some collections may be very slow.

Display Formats

Gateway items are initially displayed in Brief Format.

The Expanded Format provides a more complete display of the item. A table of all collections and the fields found in the brief format and expanded format is available. See below for an example of an expanded format for a PubMed item in two parts. Note the Publisher Link, LinkOut, Free in PubMed Central (PMC), and Free at producer site links. The links provide access to the full text of the article. This option is available only with PubMed. Please note that there may be a charge to access the text or information via the Publisher Link or LinkOut. The PubMed expanded format may include additional information such as abstract, MeSH terms, chemical substances, and publication types.

Notes:

• The Display Formats Data Elements by Collection table lists the fields that will be displayed with items from each collection for both the brief and expanded formats.
• The Gateway Data Elements by Collection table lists all data elements and the collections in which they are found.
• You may customize the brief and expanded formats for any collection. See Search Limits and Settings for more information.

Download/Display

• Select Download to display multiple items in the Web browser or save items to a file.

A typical Download or Display page is shown below.

• Use the Fetch pull down menu to select the number of items to download or display. The maximum number of items for downloading or displaying at one time is 500. The default number of items is 20.
• Use the Details pull down menu to select the display format. Choices are Brief, Expanded, and Complete. The default details is Brief.
• Use the Format pull down menu to select Unlabelled, Labelled or Export (MEDLARS tagged). The default format is Unlabelled. The labelled format labels each field with the full field name. The export format labels each field with the field name abbreviation. The export format is used for importing data into bibliographic management programs.
• Use the Destination pull down menu to select the destination for the items to be downloaded or displayed. Choices are Display in Browser, Display for Printing, and Save to File. The default destination is Display in Browser.
• Use the Download as pull down menu to select Text or Html. The default is Text.
• After you make all your selections, select the Go button to download or display.

Notes:

• Display for Printing allows you to display your items as ASCII text without the graphics on each page.
• Use the print function of your Web browser to print the information displayed on your Web page.
• You can only print the information from the displayed page.
• For more information on printing, review the "How do I print my results?" FAQ.
• The Download as option applies only to the Save to File Destination.
• Selected items displays selections from all collections and categories.
• For more information on saving, review the "How do I save my results?" FAQ.
• For more information on importing, review the "How do I import my results into a bibliographic manager program?" FAQ.

Send via e-mail

• Select E-mail to display multiple items via e-mail.

A typical E-mail Results page is shown below.

• Use the Fetch pull down menu to select the number of items to download or display. The maximum number of items for downloading or displaying at one time is 500. The default number of items is 20.
• Use the Details pull down menu to select the display format. Choices are Brief, Expanded, and Complete. The default details is Brief.
• Use the Format pull down menu to select Unlabelled, Labelled or Export (MEDLARS tagged). The default format is Unlabelled. The labelled format labels each field with the full field name. The export format labels each field with the field name abbreviation. The export format is used for importing data into bibliographic management programs.
• Use the Send as pull down menu to select Text or Html. The default is Text.
• Enter an e-mail address. Multiple e-mail addresses should be separated by a comma.
• Enter an optional message that will be displayed before the Gateway results.
• After you make all your selections, select the Send button to send.

Document Ordering

• Please note that items may only be ordered from PubMed.
• You may order documents directly from the Results page. Use checkboxes to select items for ordering, and select Order Documents.
• You may order items from several searches at one time. Store selected search items for document ordering in the Locker. When you are finished searching, access the Locker to place your document order.
• Information about the Locker may be found in the Locker section.
• For more information on ordering documents, review the "How do I use the Loansome Doc® document ordering system?" FAQ.

Search History

• Use "History" on the Gateway Features bar to access the Search History page.
• The Search History displays the search strategies and results for the last 25 searches.
• The most recent search is on the top of the list.
• Use the "Clear History" button to clear all Search History entries.
• Use the "Delete" button to delete an individual search from the Search History.
• Use the "View Results" button to display the Results Summary page for an individual search. Limits for an individual search will be applied, but the Limits box will not be set.
• You may use the Search Number in a subsequent search (e.g., #1 AND zinc).

Notes:

• The Search Number must immediately follow the pound sign (e.g., #1 AND zinc, not # 1 and zinc).
• Once the maximum number of searches is reached, the Gateway will remove the oldest search from the History list and add the most current search.
• The Search History is lost when you close your Web browser.

Term Finder

The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) comprise NLM's controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles, for cataloging books and other holdings, and for searching MeSH-indexed databases, including MEDLINE. MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information that may use different terminology for the same concepts. MeSH is one of dozens of vocabularies that are part of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus.

• Use the "Term Finder" button on the Gateway Features bar to access the Term Finder page.
• Use Term Finder to select terms from the MeSH vocabulary and the UMLS Metathesaurus.
• If you enter a term that is not a valid MeSH term, the Metathesaurus mappings will be checked and the associated MeSH term, if any, will be displayed. If there is no associated MeSH term, a list of related concepts will be displayed.

Below is the initial Term Finder page.

• Enter a search term in the Term Finder query box.
• Select the Go button.
• If the search term you entered is a MeSH term or is directly mapped to a MeSH term in the ULMS Metathesaurus, the Concept Details page will be displayed.
• If the search term you entered has multiple meanings in the ULMS Metathesaurus, the Select a MeSH Term page will be displayed.
• Choose one of the MeSH Terms displayed on the page.
• The Concept Details page will be displayed for the MeSH term you chose.

The Concept Details page is displayed for Common Cold. It is shown below in three parts:

Top portion of Concept Details page

• Note the definition for the concept Common Cold.
• The note "no definition available for this record" will be displayed if a concept definition is not available.
• Use the Related Concepts button to view a list of concepts related to Common Cold.
• Use the View MeSH Information button for additional details about the MeSH term.
• Use the Add to Search button and the Connector pull down menu to add this term to your search strategy.
• Use the Main point of item checkbox to limit the term to the main point of the article.
• Use the Do not explode this term checkbox to turn off automatic explosion in PubMed and NLM Catalog.

Middle portion of Concept Details page

• Use this section of the Concept Details page to add subheadings to the term.
• All allowable subheadings for the MeSH term are displayed.
• Select the checkbox next to each subheading you want to attach to the term. You may select as many subheadings as you wish.
• If multiple subheadings are entered for one MeSH term, the subheadings are ORed together.
• Use the Subheadings Definitions link if you would like to check a subheading definition.

Bottom portion of Concept Details page

The last section of the Concept Details page shows the MeSH tree(s) in which the term is found.

• Select any concept in the MeSH tree to display the Concept Details page.

Locker

• Select "MyLocker" on the Gateway Features bar to access the Locker.
• Use the Locker to permanently store selected search items for printing, downloading or document ordering.
• You must sign in to use the Locker. Sign in requires a User ID and password. Registration is free.
• After you select items from the Results page, select the Put in Locker button.
• Gateway confirms that the items are added to your Locker with the following message:

• Select Locker on the Features Bar to view the contents of your Locker.

• From the Select an action pull down menu, select:
  • Order Documents to order documents through Loansome Doc. Note the green check which indicates that document delivery is available for marked items.
  • Delete to delete all the items in your Locker.
  • Delete to delete selected items from your Locker.
  • Download or Display to download or display items in your Locker.

Notes:

• Items in your locker are sorted by Collection.
• If an item is already in your locker, it will not be added again.
• Items remain in the locker until you delete them.
• There is a limit of five hundred (500) items that may be stored in the locker.
• When you sign in to use your locker, your permanent limits and settings will not be used unless you select the "use my limits/settings" checkbox on the Sign in page.

Sign in

• When you select "MyLocker" on the Gateway Features bar, the Gateway Sign in page will be displayed. The Sign in page is also available from the Limits and Settings page.

• To sign in, enter your User ID and password. If you want to use your permanent limits and settings, make sure the "Use my limits/settings" checkbox is checked. Select the "Sign in" button.
• Your User ID and password are not case sensitive, so the User ID JaneDoe is the same as the User ID JANEDOE or janedoe.
• Users are asked once to provide a question and its answer that is easy to remember. If you forget your password, the question is displayed when you select the "Forgot Password" button. Enter the answer and select the Go button. If the answer is correct, the password will be displayed on the Sign in page.
• If you do not have a User ID, select the Create one now button.
• If you have forgotten your password, enter your User ID and select the Forgot Password button.
• If you have forgotten your password and you have not provided a question and answer, you must contact NLM Customer Service (gateway@nlm.nih.gov).
• You will remain signed in indefinitely, as long as you are actively using the Gateway. After one hour of inactivity, you will automatically be signed out of the Gateway.

• To create an account, you must provide a User ID, password, question and answer.
• You are asked to provide a question and its answer that is easy to remember. If you forget your password, the question is displayed when you select the "Forgot Password" button. Enter the answer and select the Go button. If the answer is correct, the password will be displayed on the Sign in page.
• Your User ID and password may be five to twenty alphanumeric characters in length.
• Your User ID may contain letters, numbers, or a combination of letters and numbers.
• Your password may contain letters, numbers, special characters, or any combination of letters, numbers, and special characters.
• Your User ID and password are not case sensitive, so the User ID JaneDoe is the same as the User ID JANEDOE or janedoe.
• User IDs and passwords must be unique. If you enter an User ID or password that already exists, you will be asked to enter an alternate User ID or password.
• Your question and answer may be one to fifty alphanumeric characters in length.
• Your question and answer may contain letters, numbers, special characters, or any combination of letters, numbers, and special characters.

• If you forget your password, the Password Hint page will be displayed with your User ID and your question.
• Enter the answer and select the Go button.
• If the answer is correct, the password will be displayed on the Sign in page.

For More Assistance

Customer Support

If you need more assistance, please select the "Contact Us" button to the right of the query box or send an e-mail to gateway@nlm.nih.gov.

You may also contact NLM Customer Service via phone.

NLM Publications on the Gateway

• NLM Gateway Training Manuals
• NLM Technical Bulletin
• NLM Gateway Resources

Gateway Training

• Training classes and schedule
• NLM Gateway Training Manuals

Linking to the Gateway

You may link to the National Library of Medicine's Gateway search service without obtaining permission. However, if you wish to point a robot or spider at the NLM Gateway or create an application that will create a heavy load on the Gateway system, please contact us first. We will be happy to work with you to evaluate your individual situation.

System Configuration

The Gateway is written in Java. It uses Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), an open, vendor-independent architecture and infrastructure that computer applications use to work together over networks. The Gateway uses eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for internal and external messaging. Cookies are not utilized in the Gateway. Javascript is only used for system enhancements, and all features of the Gateway will work without Javascript. The NLM Gateway runs on a "server farm" of four Dell servers running the Linux operating system, and two Sun Enterprise 3500 midrange servers. Additional servers can easily be added to the "server farm" as the use of the Gateway increases over time. With rare exceptions, the Gateway is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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