Category Archives: About Resources

Pubmed Filters that are MeSH

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In PubMed you can use Filters (sometimes referred to as Limits), located on the left hand side of the search results screen to limit your search by certain criteria. The Filters fall into several categories, such as Article Types, Article Language, etc. Some are visible on the search results screen by default, and some can be found and made visible for the future use when clicking Additional Filters button.

The Filters are efficient and handy tools for refining a search, adding desired criteria to your search terms, thus significantly increasing search precision.

However, users may not be aware of the fact that most of the Filters are, in fact, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms set up as clickable Filters but functioning as MeSH terms behind the scenes. For example, if you apply a Clinical Trial Filter, your move will be translated by PubMed as adding a search term “clinical trial”[Publication Type] to your search strategy with an “AND” Boolean Operator, e.g. cancer AND “clinical trial”[Publication Type], Publication Type is a category in the MeSH tree.

Of course, if you are a proficient searcher you can type “clinical trial”[pt], instead of clicking the Filter button which just supports refining your search in an easy and visual way.

Filters are a great feature, however there is a caveat. When you apply a Filter that is a MeSH, your search will automatically be limited to Medline portion of Pubmed. Pubmed is comprised of Medline, as well as many open access articles (mostly coming from Pubmed Central) not indexed for Medline.

To efficiently search Pubmed in it’s entirety, you must construct your search strategy as a combination of MeSH and keywords. MeSH are assigned only to Medline references and there is some lag time in this process. When applying Filters that are based on MeSH to your search it will not retrieve these references only found outside of Medline, as well as some recent Medline references not yet assigned MeSH.

In other words, by using such Filters you limit your search results to Medline only (excluding some very recent references not yet assigned MeSH) instead of getting all Pubmed search results.

The Filter categories that are MeSH terms include:

  • Article Type (publication type)
  • Species
  • Sex
  • Age

These filters should be used with caution.

The non-MeSH Filters are safe to use in any search, including:

  • Text Availability
  • Associated Data
  • Publication Date
  • Article Language

In conclusion, it is possible to combine applying Filters with using appropriate search terms if you aim at limiting your search by some criteria, yet searching all of PubMed, but as this requires search proficiency it would be best to get assistance at your Library.


“How Can I Share It” Website Simplifies Scholarly Article Sharing

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Getting a scholarly article published is a satisfying and exciting end point for research teams who likely spent months or even years carrying out their research projects. Journal publishers are key partners in helping researchers get the results of this work out and into the scientific record. Regardless of whether the journal is open access (where authors generally hold onto the article copyrights) or follows a more traditional publishing model (where a copyright transfer to the publisher occurs as part of the submission process), all publishers are eager to help their authors get the word out about the research once the paper is published.

Sharing their article, however, can sometimes get a bit complicated for authors as the sharing landscape is somewhat unclear with different journal publishers often having different copyright-related restrictions in place. In comes How Can I Share It, a website developed by a number of scholarly publishing organizations that “have agreed to work together to develop and continually improve the information, resources and tools on this site to facilitate sharing, which benefits researchers, institutions, and society as a whole.” Researchers simply need to plug in an article DOI to bring up article-specific guidance; the advice will vary depending on whether the researcher is a co-author or not.

From: https://www.howcanishareit.com/about-us

“The Can I Share It look-up tool provides academic researchers with an easy way to check where a journal article can be shared in line with the paper’s access and usage rights.“

“How Can I share It also includes information on how you can share, where you can share and recommendations for sharing sites where you can engage and collaborate with the research community. How Can I Share It endorses the voluntary principles for article sharing on scholarly collaboration networks as drafted by the STM Association.”

In the DOI search results are listed resources and tools where an author can share, organized in four categories, including: tools where…

1)      “You can share the metadata and abstract as well as a link to the article on the respective publishers’ platforms on”

2)      “You can share your author’s original (preprint) on”

3)      “You can share the accepted manuscript on”

4)      “You can share the version of record on”

This website also serves as an information hub for Scholarly Collaboration Networks (SCNs) that “are platforms that allow researchers to develop and maintain professional relationships. SCNs also enable researchers to share information and ideas, participate in discussions and embark on collaborations. Some networks do not facilitate possibilities for social interactions, but do enable collaboration through article sharing.”


For more information related to scholarly publishing be sure to check out the Support for Authors LibGuide or Ask Us at the MSK Library!

New Core Curriculum eBook Set from the Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurses Society

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The MSK Library has recently added 3 new titles from the Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurses Society Core Curriculum series. They are the 2nd editions of Wound Management, Ostomy Management, and Continence Management.

These texts are a main source for expert guidance, training and wound, ostomy, and continence (WOC) certification exam preparation. This is essential content for those seeking WOC certification, including nursing students in WOC programs; nurses involved in wound care, ostomy management, or continence management; nurses in gastroenterology, urology, and surgical nursing; and graduate nursing students and nursing faculty.

Chapter features include: Objectives at the start of each chapter, Key Points that expand on important concepts, Tables that offer clinical guidelines and care strategies, Case Studies that optimize clinical decision-making, and End-of-Chapter Review Q&A’s — multiple choice questions followed by answers and rationales.