PubMed Update
PubMed went to some changes recently. This video is about the advanced searches on PubMed. Not all librarian’s are pleased with these changes. From The Krafty Librarian I noticed that the Single Citation Matcher will be gone. Straight from the pubmed search box it will realize that you are looking for a citation and display the citations of up to three articles in a light yellow box that appears above the search results.
The tabs (Limit, Preview/Index, Clipboard, History, etc.) will also disappear. These functions will be available on Advanced Search. Full text icons are gone. For more changes to come please read at The Krafty Librarian although most of these changes mainly means a headache for librarians instead of physicians trying to search PubMed.
Laika’s MedLibLog also has here fears for all these changes on PubMed
To be honest, I fear the upcoming changes. Personally, I already switched to the OVID interface to search MEDLINE, but I’m afraid of how it will affect the search courses we give and the way the patrons will search PubMed. Given the past experiences (usage of wrong MeSH, too easy use of limits, no use of Clinical Queries), I’m not very confident about it.
PubMed is just Googlizing the search process. What do you think, will it affect the searches done by physician’s with the usual lack of time and proper search education?
An advantage for researchers might be the new My Bibliography. This is meant for authors to bring all of their publications into one place. You can only create one bibliography and is really only meant to be a save citation search place. It isn’t meant to work with or as a citation manager.
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April 10, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
Hopefully the new changes won’t be a headache for any users, they’re designed to make the whole site more usable for everyone. Looks like advanced functions are going to where they will only be seen by advanced users. No problem there.
Not sure where the rumor started, but Single Citation Matcher will not be going anywhere.
April 11, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
Some remarks:
The advanced search has been around for quite a while (almost a year). The major change will be that the advanced search will replace the present front page with all its options. This has not happened yet.
In My NCBI there already exists a possibility to save citations to articles (“my collections”). Indeed very useful, as well as the possibility to save your searches (and take an alert to it).
The Single Citation Matcher won’t disappear, but the much beloved blue side bar (containing this feature will. The Single Citation Matcher is now part of the advanced search.
Indeed the changes won’t be noticed by those that already “Google” PubMed. For obvious reasons.
“The enhancements” will mean a step back for all people (certainly not only librarians) who do somewhat more complex or complete searches and/or are used to working with MeSH. These are not only librarians. Most of the clinicians that are trained by us belong to this group. As well as all those people searching for CATs (critically appraised topics).
In contrast to what it’s name suggest advanced search is by no means advanced. It is fine that the possibility is there for people not knowing (or wanting the know) the possibilities of MEDLINE, but it is a pity that there is no separate platform that allows real advanced searching without having to perform 3 extra clicks each time.
Believe me or not, but although it seems very attractive to keep the number of hits managable by just “googling and limiting” there are often better ways to decrease the number needed to read (or enhance the relevant/noise ratio), also for busy clinicians.
April 11, 2009 @ 6:10 pm
@laika Single Citation Matcher is not part of Advanced Search, and it will not be in the future. Just because the blue side bar is disappearing doesn’t mean that SCM is… not sure where you’re getting that.
If the front page will no longer contain those “advanced” options that you refer to, I don’t see how you can infer that moving them will represent a major step backwards for “advanced” users. You say it will, but don’t really describe the workflow that will be interrupted. If all of the options are still there on the same pages as before, and they’ve simply moved, I can’t see how that would be that major step backwards. [this is aside from the fact that truly advanced users should be able to use query parameters from the homepage just as easily as they would have been able to previously].
Maybe if you actually describe some of the problems that you claim will occur, they could be addressed.
April 13, 2009 @ 11:00 am
Dear @user (Aren’t we all?)
It seems you contradict yourself: “Single Citation Matcher is not part of Advanced Search, and it will not be in the future. Just because the blue side bar is disappearing doesn’t mean that SCM is… not sure where you’re getting that.”
Now if the SCM is not disappearing and the Advanced Search replaces the front page, where does the SCM go? To the Advanced Search I guess. It is the 2nd box right now, called “Search by Author, Journal, Publication Date, and more”. It has the same functionalities, though it looks different.
The “problem” with discussing this post is that it describes changes that *have been*, *are* and *will be* implemented and that it discusses (possible) effects on both patrons and librarians.
I have given very specific examples on my blog on what can go wrong/is not always good with the already implemented changes. I won’t repeat the examples here.
Indeed I know the commands. No doubt about that. But my patrons don’t. And MEDLINE offers me more, so I tend to I use this platform for my searches. Mainly using advanced commands there and tools provided.
I keep using PubMed for certain purposes and courses. Not everybody has access to OVID. We give many courses for groups outside our hospital.
For (almost) each search I perform I have to look up the MeSH. And we learn our patrons to do this as well. I find it a kind of nuisance that I have to scroll all the way down to look them up. It can be done, but it is not very user friendly. And, as said, the advanced format will make it easier for users just to Google PubMed and limit the results. I daresay this mostly won’t result in better searches (fewer relevant hits).
Dear @anonymous user, could you be more specific in why this advanced search is such an advance?
April 20, 2009 @ 4:30 am
Wow! what an idea ! What a concept ! Beautiful .. Amazing
April 22, 2009 @ 4:03 am
@laika,
I’m not really contradicting myself, you’re jumping to more conclusions… first that the advanced search page will replace the front page, and second that single citation matcher will be absorbed by advanced search. The advanced search page will contain the options that are ignored by most users, and that will be removed from the front page. But that certainly doesn’t mean that the front page can’t link to both the advanced search page as well as single citation matcher… just like it does now, but without the blue bar. If you have evidence to the contrary, please post it, but I certainly haven’t seen anything supporting those notions.
I don’t pretend that advanced search is great, it isn’t. However, you have to keep in mind the two classes of users… those who are simply looking to “google” a search term and those need to worry about MeSH translations and such. I just happen to sit on the fence of these two classes… and I say if these changes help me simply and clearly enter a search and get results, then that’s a success! When I have to use an advanced search technique, I will also have a place to go where I can do such things. The separation of these concerns will make it clearer for basic users on the homepage, intermediate users with scm, and advanced users with advanced search.
Hopefully, with that separation they can then improve the interface of the advanced search, making it more user friendly.
June 16, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
RefNavigator is also a good reference manager to search literature from Pubmed and Highwire. It can download Pubmed full-text PDFs in bulk and automatically make bibliographies in Microsoft Word. There are online Pubmed tutorial (http://www.refnavigator.com/entrezpubmed.html) and bibliographies formatting tutorial (http://www.refnavigator.com/Bibliographyformat.html).