The MeSH^® Database

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The MeSH Database available from PubMed's sidebar allows you to:

• locate and select MeSH terms (Headings, Subheadings, Supplementary Concept Records, and Publication Types) for use in PubMed searches
• see the definition and other helpful information for a MeSH term
• see the position of MeSH terms in the hierarchy
• select MeSH heading/subheading combinations to build a PubMed search

An example of a full MeSH Database record (see text version):

Note: Searching with MeSH subject terms excludes in process and publisher-supplied citations, as well as other PubMed citations that are not indexed for MEDLINE (e.g., citations that are out of scope for MEDLINE, such as a volcanology article in Science). These records do not (or do not yet) include MeSH subject terms.

MeSH Database Quick Tours

To learn more about using the MeSH database when searching PubMed, try the following Quick Tours (Adobe Flash^® format):

• Searching with the MeSH Database
• Combining MeSH Terms Using the MeSH Database
• Applying Subheadings and Other Features of the MeSH Database