Major changes to PubMed interface
The National Library of Medicine has announced . These
changes have been introduced to optimize retrieval and to lead
searchers to additional information. Automatic Term Mapping
(ATM)
The ATM feature enables PubMed to search author names, journal
titles, and MeSH vocabulary terms without the user having to type
in individual search tags. In the past, if an author name or
journal title was the same as a medical subject heading (MeSH)
term, ATM performed a subject search only. This caused certain
types searches to fail – especially those looking for a specific
article. For example, a search using the following citation data:
Lung 2005 183 225, where Lung is the journal title, failed
with old ATM because "lung" would map to MeSH and
therefore searched as a subject heading ot text word only. To
address this problem, Automatic Term Mapping now has been modified
to make it more inclusive. While ATM still maps to and searches
MeSH, it now searches the search term(s) in All
Fields, that is, author name, journal title, abstract, or
any other searchable field. Sample search for art
therapy. Old PubMed ATM:
"art therapy"[MeSH Terms] OR art therapy[Text Word] New PubMed
ATM:
"art therapy"[MeSH Terms] OR ("art"[All Fields] AND "therapy"[All
Fields]) OR "art therapy"[All Fields] Impact on PubMed
searches:
The new ATM feature generally means larger retrieval (higher
recall), but also less relevant results (lower precision).
Citation Sensor
Citation Sensor matches searches with citations. It recognizes
combinations of search terms that are characteristic of citation
searching such as volume/issue numbers, pagination, author names,
journal titles, and publication dates. The search "Chin
Neurology 1995" would have failed in the previous version of
PubMed. Pubmed now retrieves nine articles, two of which are
displayed before the others in an area highlighted in yellow. That
is, the Citation Censor has determined that the search is for
specific articles and displays possible matches in this highlighted
section. Advanced Search
Finally, the is developing an
Advanced Search option for PubMed. A beta version
is now available for user reaction and comment. To try out this
iption, look for the "Advanced Search" link next to the
main search window. PubMed's Advanced Search page has a search box
at the top, and displays the last search if a search was previously
conducted. Beneath the search box are four sections: PubMed Search
History; Search by Author, Journal, and Publication Date. This is
followed by a limit section including Limit by Topics, Languages,
and Journal Groups; and Index of Fields and Field Values. All
sections are open by default. Click the plus/minus box next to each
feature to close or open a section. For more information or
additional explanations concerning these new features contact
angella.lambrou [at] mcgill.ca"">Angella
Lambrou.