PubMed - refine your search by combining results
On the last page we ran two searches and found a large number (over 90,000) papers that may be useful in helping us write an essay titled:
'Describe the role of the reticulon family of proteins in maintaining the shape of the endoplasmic reticulum'.
In this section, we are going to refine the search and return more meaningful results, by using the 'Advanced Search' function in
PubMed
.
You have just run two
PubMed searches using the terms 'reticulon' and 'endoplasmic reticulum'. This search should still be open in another window. If it is not please go to
PubMed -
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
and re-run the searches.
- In PubMed click on the 'Advanced Search' link (see below)
The location of the PubMed 'Advanced Search' link
The screen should show a list of your most recent searches
- Click on the 'Edit' link.
The 'Advanced Search' page shows your most recent searches - note: your results will look different to this - plus other features. Click on the 'Edit' link.
- In the search box type in the number of the searches. So, for example, in my results above my two searches are numbered 3 and 4, and so I type in '#3 and #4' (without the quotes, but with the #), and then click 'Search'. Your numbers may be different!
Once you have entered your search details - note, your numbers may not be 3 and 4 - your search should look like the above.
Once the search has run the returned results should look similar to this.
Result of combining the searches for 'reticulon' and 'endoplasmic reticulum' - run Sunday October 14, 2018 at 11:22:29 am
This has improved the results as we are now seeing papers that are more relevant. But could we do better? What would happen if we added in another keyword?
In the last few pages you have:
- learnt how to search PubMed using keyword terms
- learnt how to refine your searches to find more specific results