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PubMed 2.0

This Guide is designed to assist users in navigating and searching PubMed since its update in 2020.

Tracking in PubMed

Create Email Alerts for Searches 

Topics & Journals

The automated alert feature lets users save searches created for topics, journals, and authors, and receive updates when new PubMed citations match the search criteria. You must be logged into My NCBI to use this feature. 

How-to

Click on a step to view a screenshot.

  1. Conduct a topic or journal search 
  2. Click the Create alert link beneath the search box
  3. Complete the "Your Saved Search" form
  4. Click the Save button

Publication Activity

Tracking Publications

Authors (i.e., their publications)

PubMed is a popular resource for tracking scientific publications, but it is not a perfect tool for capturing ALL article citations with complete accuracy. In PubMed, no matter which search you choose (narrow, broad, etc.), search results will have to be screened for missing publications and publications not belonging to the author in question. You can export search results to a csv file or a My NCBI Collection for screening and manual removal. 

In addition to PubMed, consider Scopus and Web of Science for building a comprehensive record of publications. 

Identifying Authors

Author name ambiguity makes identifying authors in databases, like PubMed, challenging. Best results require the following information:

  • First, middle, and last name
  • *Author identifier(s) (if any assigned)
  • Author affiliations

*Common identifiers include ORCID and ISNI

Author Search

A narrow author search is straightforward, but this approach can miss publications that identify an author by a name variant, and yield publications not belonging to the author in question.  

How-to

Click on a step to view a screenshot. (Video linked below)

  1. Enter the author's last name and initials followed by the author search field tag
    • fauci as[au]
  2. Click the Search button
  3. Select a citation to view author affiliations
  4. Click the numeral assigned to the author in question to view his/her affiliation
  5. *Once the author's identity is confirmed by affiliation, click the Search results link near the top of the page to return to the search
  6. Click the Create alert link beneath the search box
  7. Complete the "Your Saved Search" form
  8. Click the Save button 
  9. You will be notified by email when a new citation matching the search criteria (i.e., the author name) is indexed in PubMed.

*You can opt to click on the author's hyperlinked name for a list of article citations, and create the alert from this page. The list is based on computational similarity between the author name of the selected citation and other PubMed citations.  

A broad search is more complex - it includes name variants and usually captures more publications. Also, this approach can yield a higher number of publications not belonging to the author in question. 

How-to

Click on a step to view a screenshot.

  1. Identify name variants.
  2. Enter the name variants followed by the author search field tag. Use the Boolean operator OR to connect name variants. Enclose the string of name variants in parenthesis. 
    • (fauci as[au] OR fauci a[au] OR fauci anthony[au])
  3. Click the Search button
  4. Select a citation to view author affiliations
  5. Click the numeral assigned to the author in question to view his/her affiliation
  6. *Once the author's identity is confirmed by affiliation, click the Search results link near the top of the page to return to the search
  7. Click the Create alert link beneath the search box
  8. Complete the "Your Saved Search" form
  9. Click the Save button 
  10. You will be notified by email when a new citation matching the search criteria (i.e., the author name) is indexed in PubMed.

Limiting by affiliation is specific and complex. Unless all affiliations are included in the search, this approach can miss publications that associate authors with a different organization (e.g., previous employer).

In the case of MD Anderson, a customized search strategy is available for use in limiting author searches to publications that associate the author with MD Anderson:

(m d anderson[ad] OR md anderson[ad] OR mdacc[ad] OR utmdacc[ad] OR utmd anderson[ad] OR mdanderson[ad] OR anderson cancer[ad] OR anderson hospital[ad]) AND (texas[ad] OR tx[ad] OR houston[ad] OR smithville[ad] OR bastrop[ad])

How-to

Click on a step to view a screenshot.

  1. Enter the author's last name and initials followed by the author search field tag. Use the Boolean operator AND to connect the author name to the customized search strategy provided above.
    • allison jp[au] AND (m d anderson[ad] OR md anderson[ad] OR mdacc[ad] OR utmdacc[ad] OR utmd anderson[ad] OR mdanderson[ad] OR anderson cancer[ad] OR anderson hospital[ad]) AND (texas[ad] OR tx[ad] OR houston[ad] OR smithville[ad] OR bastrop[ad])
  2. Click the Search button
  3. Select a citation to view author affiliations
  4. Click the numeral assigned to the author in question to view his/her affiliation
  5. *Once the author's identity is confirmed by affiliation, click the Search results link near the top of the page to return to the search
  6. Click the Create alert link beneath the search box
  7. Complete the "Your Saved Search" form
  8. Click the Save button 
  9. You will be notified by email when a new citation matching the search criteria (i.e., the author name) is indexed in PubMed.

An Author Identifier is a unique identifier associated with an author, corporate author, or investigator name. PubMed supports searching of ORCiD, ISNI, and VIAF.

How-to

  • Enter the organization authority followed by the identifier.
    • orcid 0000-0001-5027-4446 [auid]