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Making PubMed Searching Simple: Learning to Retrieve Medical Literature Through Interactive Problem Solving

^a Clinical Research Department, Instituto Nacional do Câncer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; ^b Neurology Department, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Key Words. MEDLINE • PubMed • Medical subject headings • MeSH Internet • Evidence-based medicine • Education, medical

Correspondence: Beatriz Vincent, M.D., M.Sc., Centro de Pesquisa do Instituto Nacional do Câncer, Rua André Cavalcanti 37, 2° andar, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, CEP 20.231-050. Telephone: 55-21-3233-1502; Fax: 55-21-3233-1411; e-mail: vincent{at}inca.gov.br

Searching the literature has a direct, beneficial influence on patient care. The amount of medical scientific information has increased to a great extent, while the development of networking technologies has broadened access to online databases. Successful searches depend upon understanding technical librarianship concepts and the skills for mastering searching interfaces. From a problem-oriented approach, concepts like MEDLINE coverage, PubMed resources, Boolean logic, search strategies, and Web sources for full-text articles are introduced along seven online situations: locating a specific publication, answering a complex clinical question, finding information on a general subject, finding publications by a particular author, finding publications in a particular language, finding a specific publication type, and locating the full-text document. Oncologists should face the challenge of performing their own searches. Specific knowledge is mandatory to avoid frustrating, time-consuming work. The objective of this work is to present concepts, strategies, and skills required for medical literature retrieval, easing the incorporation of new and welcomed practices.

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