PubMed^® Online Training

The PubMed Tutorial is based on the NLM's one-day PubMed training course.

The following are brief animated tutorials with audio for using PubMed. Running times are rounded to the nearest minute. Click on the link to launch the tour.

Searching PubMed

Search PubMed for an Author (3 min., June 2005)
Searching PubMed by Author and Subject (1 min., revised December 2007)
PubMed Simple Subject Search (2 min., June 2008)
Search for a Journal (5 min, June 2007)
Retrieving Citations from a Journal Issue (1 min., December 2005)

My NCBI

Getting Started with My NCBI (approx. 5 min., revised April 2006)
How to register, sign in and out, change your password, and what to do if you've forgotten your password.
Saving Searches (approx. 4 min., revised June 2005)
How to save a PubMed search, to run later or to have results sent to your e-mail account.
Changing Saved Searches (approx. 3 min., December 2007)
How to change a search saved in My NCBI.
Filters (approx. 7 min., revised July 2005)
How to create filters to group your search results.
LinkOut Filters (approx. 6 min., revised September 2005)
How to display LinkOut icons on citations, group your search results by LinkOut resources, and save a search for citations with links to a particular resource.
Library LinkOut Filters (approx. 4 min., revised August 2006)
How to display your library's LinkOut icons on citations, group resources available from your library, and save a search for articles that are available from your library.
Collections (approx. 3 min., revised April 2008)
How to save citations using My NCBI.
Editing Collections (approx. 4 min., revised April 2008)
How to append to, delete items from, and rename collections of PubMed citations in My NCBI.
E-mail Alerts for Articles about Adverse Effects (approx. 4 min., May 2006)
How to create e-mail alerts for new articles about the adverse effects of a drug or class of drugs.
E-mail Alerts for Articles from Your Favorite Journals (approx. 4 min., revised April 2007)
How to create e-mail alerts for new articles from a set of journals.
Customizing PubMed's Display of Single Citations (approx. 2 min., August 2006)
How to select a display format for single citations using My NCBI User Preferences.

PubMed's MeSH Database

Searching with the MeSH Database (3 min., December 2005)
Combining MeSH Terms Using the MeSH Database (4 min., revised December 2007)
Applying Subheadings and Other Features of the MeSH Database (5 min., revised December 2007)

Search Clinic: PubMed® Update on Automatic Term Mapping, Citation Sensor, and Advanced Search (Recording of Online Instruction, July 2008)

Search Clinic: Chemicals & Drugs in PubMed (Recording of Online Instruction, August 2007)

The Basics of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) (Instructional Web site)

Branching Out: The MeSH® Vocabulary (Instructional Video)

For additional instruction on using PubMed, see the following resources:

PubMed Basics (tri-fold handout in PDF, June 2007)
Searching PubMed with MeSH (tri-fold handout in PDF, January 2008)
My NCBI (tri-fold handout in PDF, January 2008)
U.S. National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Non-English Guides to PubMed Resources
Full Text and PubMed (tri-fold handout in PDF format, January 2008)
These handouts are a U.S. National Network of Libraries of Medicine(NN/LM) resource.
PubMed Training Manual available on the Training Manuals and Resources page.
PubMed Help

Quick Tours require the Macromedia Flash™ Player. They were created using Qarbon Viewlet Builder™.
PDF documents require the use of the Adobe^® Acrobat^® Reader, which can be downloaded from Adobe's Web site at no charge.

Last reviewed: 18 July 2008
Last updated: 25 July 2008
First published: 04 October 2005
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanence Not Guaranteed

PubMed® Online Training

Searching PubMed

My NCBI

PubMed's MeSH Database

PubMed^® Online Training