Google Scholar can facilitate citing a reference on-the-fly. Below each citation after running a search, there are a few links offering actions like exporting, saving, and more. If you don’t see a link called Cite, then click on the More option. This will display the Cite action where Google Scholar generates the reference in a few of the major citation styles. Among these styles are APA, Chicago, Vancouver, and MLA. See the screenshots below for examples of what this looks like and ask us if you have any questions. You can try out this example on your own using this link: https://goo.gl/8zurMk.

Title search

Cite and export options

You may be familiar with PubMed’s MeSH terms already, Medical Subject Headings, or controlled vocabulary, which can be used to index articles to make them easier to find. For example, if an article is tagged with the MeSH term “Artificial Respiration” PubMed will retrieve the article whether or not it uses the term mechanical ventilation or ventilator in the abstract. This MeSH term also focuses the search on articles that are truly focused on artificial respiration, as opposed to articles which simply mention it.

Now, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has created a tool which makes it easier to generate a list of MeSH terms from an abstract or text: MeSH on Demand. Simply copy and paste your abstract or text into the search box (up to 10,000 characters) and click the button Find MeSH Terms. It retrieves potential MeSH terms that are related to your topic, which can be useful when doing background research or when trying to generate keywords for a publication.

Any questions? Please ask us!