The new PubMed is coming in 2020, and we are here to help you navigate the new interface. Here are five highlights:

• Improved mobile experience: You can now enjoy all PubMed’s functionality and features on your tablet or mobile device.
• Sort Order: “Best Match” is the default sort order for search results. It uses an algorithm to show the most relevant results first. PubMed lets you easily switch to “Most Recent”. Your browser will remember your sorting preference for any following web sessions (except if you clear your browser cache). As a personal preference, I like to toggle back and forth between both options, relevancy is important, but I also don’t want to miss any new studies.
• Citation: A great new feature allows you to copy and paste the citation of an article using the action “Cite”. You can choose from four citation styles: AMA, MLA, APA, or NLM.
• Enhanced retrieval of synonyms, plural forms, and British/American spelling: Please note that while this is a very convenient feature, PubMed may find keywords that are irrelevant to your search. For instance, when searching for the keyword “Nurse”, PubMed will automatically search for the keywords nurse, nurses, nursing, but also the synonyms breastfeeding(s), breastfeeder(s), lactation(s), lactating(s), and lactators. If your search retrieves too many irrelevant results, we will be happy to meet with you to demonstrate how to turn off synonyms retrieval. Come to one of our classes or schedule a consultation with one of us.
  
• Enhanced data discovery: PubMed added a new filter “Associated Data”, allowing you to retrieve articles with supplemental data from the following data repositories: clinicaltrials.gov, GenBank, figshare, and Dryad.

The new PubMed will become the default in spring 2020. The legacy version will run for several months in parallel before being fully retired. If you would like to familiarize yourself with the new PubMed interface, join us in one of our classes.

While PubMed’s advanced search is most often used to combine previous searches together to create more complex strategies and to rerun previous searches, it has other functions that are often overlooked. The default field codes are All Fields, however by clicking on the drop down button reveals an expansive number of options to customize your search. Below are some of the most useful, but often overlooked field codes.

Affiliation: This field code searches the author affiliations. For example, this can be used to search for results where one of the authors is affiliated with MSK (or was at the time of publication).

Author-First/Author-Last: These field codes identify results where the author is only the first or last author listed. This can be useful when looking for articles that came out of specific labs (as the last author is typically the primary investigator).

Author-Corporate: This field code can be used to narrow down when an author is not a person, but rather a group/organization/corporation.

Grant Number: This field code can locate articles associated with a specific grant number, which can be helpful for keeping up with public access compliance, or identifying trends in research.

The MSKCC Library offers a mix of print and online books. Although some current books can be found on the shelves at the Library, our users should be aware that the most recent editions of many of the books on our shelves may be offered only online by the Library. Online books, as with all electronic resources, can be accessed on any of the MSKCC computers as well as remotely (via the VPN or by logging in as a remote user). While one can find print books by both browsing shelves at the Library or using ONESEARCH (search box) located on the Library homepage, e-books can be found only via ONESEARCH.

To find individual e-books, type the book information in the ONESEARCH box on the Library homepage. You can use the default search box (what is typically called Basic Search) or you can use Advanced Search for more precision. Continue reading →