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Search strings used in QuickPubMed

Principles and overview of search strings used in QuickPubMed.

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    The topics and limits that can be selected in the drop-down menus in QuickPubMed activate an associated search string. When you select multiple topics or limits, the relevant search strings are combined and sent to the PubMed database. The result is displayed at the bottom of the QuickPubMed page.

    Search string principles

    The search strings have been developed by information specialists at the Knowledge Center for Diabetes according to the following principles:

    To make QuickPubMed as directly usable as possible, the search strings are composed to have such high specificity that the user can expect to find several relevant references in the search result.

    At the same time, it means that some relevant references may not appear in the search results.

    The search strings used in the simple search will usually result in at least 7 out of 10 being relevant to the selected topic. The more topics you choose, the more relevant the results should be.

    The three different versions of the search strings are developed according to these principles:

    • Narrow
      If one or more relevant MeSH terms exist, they are used as [majr] (major MeSH topic). If relevant MeSH terms do not exist, [mh] is combined with free text as [ti] (title). At least 9 out of 10 results should be relevant to the selected search.
    • Standard
      One or more relevant MeSH terms are used as [mh] and combined with free text as [ti] (title). At least 7 out of 10 results should be relevant to the selected search.
    • Broad
      One or more relevant MeSH terms are used as [mh] and combined with free text as [tiab] (title or abstract). At least 5 out of 10 results should be relevant to the selected search.

    All topics are combined with 'AND "Diabetes Mellitus"[majr]' (narrow), 'AND ("Diabetes Mellitus"[mh] OR diabet*[ti])' (standard) or 'AND ("Diabetes Mellitus"[mh] OR diabet*[tiab])' (broad).

    NOT can be used in cases where another topic among the options would otherwise be included.

    List of available search strings

    Below are all the search strings that can be combined via the drop-down menus in QuickPubMed. Click on a topic to see the individual search strings.

    Any deviations from the above principles and other comments are listed below the relevant search strings.

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    Last updated: 12. February 2023