PubMed is a database of over 21 million medical journal articles and books developed by the National Library of Medicine. While it indexes over 5,500 journals, only around 200 are core veterinary medicine journals, which comprise about 3% of the total content. There are two main ways to filter PubMed results to focus on veterinary science: 1) Using the pre-defined "Veterinary Science" subset search string, or 2) Searching MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms assigned to articles like "veterinary medicine", along with related subheadings and restrictions. The MeSH search builder allows combining multiple terms and fields to construct targeted queries.

1. FINDING VET
INFORMATION
IN PUBMED

2. IS A DATABASE OF MEDICAL LITERATURE
DEVELOPED BY THE NATIONAL LIBRARY
OF MEDICINE. IT INDEXES OVER 5,500
JOURNALS AND COMPRISES OVER 21
MILLION JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOKS.1

3. IS A DATABASE OF MEDICAL LITERATURE
DEVELOPED BY THE NATIONAL LIBRARY
OF MEDICINE. IT INDEXES OVER 5,500
JOURNALS AND COMPRISES OVER 21
MILLION JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOKS.1
IT’S BIG

4. INCLUDES A LITTLE LESS THAN 200 CORE
JOURNALS IN VETERINARY MEDICINE.2
THAT’S ABOUT 3.33% OF THE TOTAL.

5. PubMed
Vet Journals
Everything Else

6. HOW DO WE
FILTER OUT
THE REST?

7. 1. THE
VETERINARY
SCIENCE
SUBSET

8. IT’S AN
EXTREMELY
LONG, PRE-MADE
SEARCH STRING

9. IT’S AN
EXTREMELY
LONG, PRE-MADE
SEARCH STRING
YES, THAT’S REALLY IT IN THE BACKGROUND

10. IT’S EASY TO USE:

11. IT’S EASY TO USE:
JUST PUT
VETERINARY[SB]
IN THE SEARCH BAR

12. IT’S EASY TO USE:
YOU CAN ADD OTHER
SEARCH TERMS, TOO

13. 2. MeSH TERMS

14. IS THE CONTROLLED
VOCABULARY USED IN
PUBMED. WHENEVER
ARTICLES ARE ADDED
TO PUBMED, THEY
ARE ASSIGNED TERMS
THAT DESCRIBE THEM

15. YOU CAN USE THOSE
TERMS TO LIMIT THE
RESULTS THAT YOU
GET FROM PUBMED

16. LET’S LOOK AT THE
SEARCH BAR AGAIN.

17. USING THE DROPDOWN…

18. …TO SELECT MeSH…

19. …WE CAN SEARCH FOR
VETERINARY MEDICINE
veterinary medicine
(FOR EXAMPLE)

20. LET’S BREAK THIS DOWN

21. LET’S BREAK THIS DOWN

22. THIS SECTION HAS…

23. THIS SECTION HAS…
the term, with a short definition

24. THIS SECTION HAS…
subheadings

25. THIS SECTION HAS…
other restrictions

27. THIS SECTION SHOWS RELATED
TERMS. EACH HAS ITS OWN PAGE

29. THIS IS THE SEARCH BUILDER.

30. THIS IS THE SEARCH BUILDER.
IT’S THE BEST PART.

31. TO BUILD A SEARCH
WITH MeSH TERMS…

32. …CHECK OFF THE SUBHEADINGS
AND/OR OTHER OPTIONS YOU WANT…

33. …CHECK OFF THE SUBHEADINGS
AND/OR OTHER OPTIONS YOU WANT…
(YOU DON’T HAVE TO USE ANY OF THEM)

34. ...CHOOSE THE OPERATOR YOU WANT…
(“AND” = NARROW
“OR” = BROADEN
“NOT” = EXCLUDE)

35. …AND CLICK “ADD
TO SEARCH BUILDER.”

37. YOU CAN ADD MORE
TERMS HERE, TOO.

39. COOL,
RIGHT?

40. OTHER MeSH TERMS WORTH EXPLORING
• “ANIMALS” (NARROWER TERMS GO DOWN TO SPECIES LEVEL)
• “ANIMAL DISEASES”
• “ANIMAL TECHNICIANS”
• “ANIMAL NUTRITION SCIENCES”
• “VETERINARY DRUGS”
• “VETERINARY [SUBHEADING]”

41. YOU CAN ADD MULTIPLE TERMS FROM
MULTIPLE SEARCHES USING THE SAME
STEPS. THE SEARCH BUILDER WILL KEEP
TRACK OF WHAT YOU ADD EACH TIME.

42. YOU MADE IT TO THE END!
(HERE ARE SOME PUPPIES)

43. REFERENCES & CREDITS
[1] U.S. National Library of Medicine. (2011). Pubmed overview. retrieved from
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmedtutorial/010_050.html
[2] Whitaker, S. (2011). Pubmed MEDLINE searching: Veterinary medicine [Brochure]. retrieved from
http://vmls.mlanet.org/sites/default/files/documents/VMLS_PubMed_brochure_2011june.pdf
Penguin image by Roger Sperberg, retrieved from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emperor_Penguin_Adelieland.jpg
Puppy image by Bodlina, retrieved from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:4weeks_old.jpg
Slideshow created by Zach Sharrow
Health Sciences Librarian
Lincoln Memorial University
zachary.sharrow@lmunet.edu