NLM Gateway Exercise

Open the Internet browser. Type this URL in the location or address field: http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/. The NLM Gateway page will appear, with the query box at the top of the page.

a. Searching keywords

Enter the most important word or words that describe your topic into the query box. For example, if you were searching for information about preventing people from smoking, you could type the words smoking prevention. Click on .

b. Searching phrases

To search a phrase, put quotes around the phrase, e.g. "smoking prevention". NLM Gateway will search only for items that include that phrase.

c. Using the wildcard (*)

To search for different forms of the same word, such as prevent, preventive, prevention, preventing, enter the beginning of the word, followed by an * (example: prevent*).

d. Combining terms using AND, OR, NOT

If you enter more than one word in the query box, NLM Gateway will retrieve records that have both words. The Gateway assumes both words are combined with AND. To search several concepts at the same time, you may want to use these combining words:

AND: Use AND when you want both terms to appear somewhere in each record. Using AND will reduce the number of records found.

OR: Use OR when you want either or both of the terms to appear somewhere in each record. It is usually used for synonyms or similar words, such as smoking OR tobacco. Using OR will increase the number of records found. When using OR, put parentheses around both terms.

NOT: Use NOT when you don't want a term to appear in an article record. Using NOT will decrease the number of records found (example: for articles about tobacco, but not chewing tobacco, enter tobacco NOT chewing.

An example of a search using combining terms would be (smoking OR tobacco) AND prevent* NOT chewing.

The combining terms must be in capital letters.

 

When you have entered your search and clicked on , The results summary will display:

< Journal citations from Medline (PubMed version) < Books/Serials/AVs from Locator Plus (National Library of Medicine catalog) < Meeting abstracts from AIDS Meetings & HSR Meetings < Databanks from HSR Proj (Health Services Research in Progress) <Consumer Health Web pages from Medline Plus, organization information from DIRLINE

Click on for the appropriate category to see a list of items about your topic. Citations will display.

a. Journal Article Citations (Medline through PubMed)

The citations display in reverse chronological order. To see a more complete record, click on . To move to the next page of citations, click on . To see citations of articles with similar words in the title, click on .

Citations display in alphabetical order.

Most of the results for the Consumer Health category will be Web pages. To see if any organizations are included in the results, click on . The box will open to . Select DIRLINE and click on . The names of relevant organizations will appear. Click to see the full information about the organization.

Click on each box that has a and select a choice. For instance, the Destination box gives you these choices:

For Details, you probably will want the expanded or complete information for the items. When you have made your selections, click on .

 

If you did not retrieve results relevant to your topic, you have three options:

i. Return to the Results Summary page and click on . This will show you how the Gateway translated your search for each category. This may give you ideas for changing your search strategy.

ii. Continue to Advanced Searching for tips on refining your search.

iii. Go directly to the database that has the items you most want and search it individually. For instance, if you are mainly interested in journal articles, click on PubMed on the sidebar on the left of the page.

a. Title Words

To search for a word in the title, enter the word followed by [title] in brackets.

Examples:
smoking [title]
"smoking prevention" [title]

b. Authors

To search for an author, enter the author's last name first, then the first initial(s), if you know them, followed by [author] in brackets. You can also search for just the last name only. You must put the name in quotes.

Examples:
"Satcher" [author]
"Satcher D" [author]

Note: It's safest to search for authors in individual databases, rather than using the Gateway. Authors may be entered differently for each database.

2. The buttons under the query box

a. Find terms

The National Library of Medicine assigns Medline Subject Headings (MeSH) to items in most of its databases. For example, all articles about ways of preventing people from smoking are assigned the MeSH Major Topic "Smoking" and the subheading "prevention and control". Using MeSH ensures that you will find items about your topic, regardless of the words the author used in the item's title.

Click on Find terms. The Find terms page will appear:

Enter words describing your concept in the Find Terms query box and click on the Find Terms button. Example: tobacco use. If your word or phrase is not a MeSH term, the Gateway will give a list of related terms for you to choose from:

Click on the next to the term you want to use. The Concept Details page will appear, giving a definition of the term and subheadings.

Click on to choose AND, OR, or NOT to combine the MeSH term with other terms in your search. Then click on Add to Search to add the MeSH term to your search. Note: using subheadings may eliminate relevant items from the Books/AV/Serials and Meeting Abstracts categories.

b. Limits

Click on Limits below the query box. The Limit menu will appear.

Click on English only to retrieve only English language books, articles, or Web pages. Thise limit will stay in effect for the rest of your searches as long as the check remains in the box next to Limits . Click on the check to remove these limits from your next search. To limit your search to only one database, click on the All Categories box and choose a category, such as Consumer Health. However, if you only want to search one category, you will get better results by choosing a single database, such as Medline, or MedlinePlus, or LocatorPlus from the sidebar, and searching it individually.

Click on History to see a list of the searches you have done.

You can combine previous searches by entering the number for a search preceding the number sign and combining with AND, OR, or NOT into the query box. For example, entering (#1 OR #2) AND #3 into the query box would be the same as entering (smoking OR tobacco) AND prevent*.

3. Getting Help

Select Help from the sidebar to learn more about any function you're using.

For more detailed information, choose Overview.