Finding Primary Sources in PubMed
How to search PubMed to find primary research published since 2000, how to get the full-text articles, and how to find "high impact" journals.
- PubMedPubMed provides access to more than 23 million bibliographic citations primarily drawn from MEDLINE, as well as publisher-supplied citations, in-process and "ahead-of-print" citations.
Tips and Strategies
Enter your concepts into the PubMed search box:
- EXAMPLE: base excision repair
Tips to focus your search:
- put your concept into quotation marks, if it is a phrase
- EXAMPLE: "base excision repair"
- Add additional terms to narrow the search
- EXAMPLE: add "cancer therapy" to the search
Limit your search results by publication date:
- At the top of the left-hand sidebar, use the date slider to select the date range: 2000 - present year. (Tip: you can expand the size of the slider using the expand button).
- You can also use the "publication date" filter at the bottom of the sidebar to create a "Custom Range" of years.
Some ways to identify primary research articles:
- The article will report the results of research conducted by the authors to answer a research question or test a hypothesis.
- The article should have a "methods" or "methodology" section detailing how the research was conducted.
- The article should include a "results" section.
What about "Review" articles?
- "Review" articles are not primary research, but they can be excellent sources to identify relevant primary research articles.
- If you wish to remove the "review" articles from your search results, use the "Advanced" search link below the search box.
- Add each of your search concepts, to recreate your original search.
- From the search fields dropdown menu, choose "Publication Type," and enter "Review" into the search box, and choose "Add with NOT" from the "Add" dropdown menu.
- EXAMPLE: (("base excision repair") AND ("cancer therapy")) NOT ("Review"[Publication Type])
Finding the Full Text of an article:
- Click on an article title to view the full record.
- Check the full text links/buttons in the right-hand sidebar.
- If the link/button says "PubMed Central" or "PMC" or "open access" or "free full text" then the full text will be available.
- Otherwise, you may see a link to the publisher's website where you can check to see whether or not the full text is available.
- Always check Gleeson Library's "Full Text Finder" which will let you know if you have access to the full text via the library databases and subscriptions.
- You must use the library's link to PubMed in order for the library's "Full Text Finder" to appear.
- Check the full text links/buttons in the right-hand sidebar.
How to determine if an article is published in a "high impact" journal:
- "Impact" for journals refers to how influential the journal is in a discipline compared to other journals in the same discipline; this is based on how frequently the journal's articles are cited or referenced by other research articles. You can investigate this kind of "impact" using a database called "Scopus."
- ScopusScopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
You may see a screen prompting you to register or personalize your account. You are not required to do so and can click the 'Continue' button to access the site. Similarly, if you encounter a “Welcome to Scopus” screen asking you to create an account or sign in, click 'X' in the upper right to close the window.
- In Scopus, click on the "Sources" menu at the top of the page.
- Select "Title" from the dropdown menu, and enter the title of the journal in the search box.
- EXAMPLE: Biomarkers
- click on "Biomarkers" in the results list to see that the journal is ranked in the middle of the pack in three different disciplines, so by this measure, it is neither particularly "high impact" nor "low impact."
Some of the tips and strategies in this guide are adapted from work by Gleeson's Nursing librarian, Claire Sharifi.
Research Basics for Review
Use these brief videos to review or refresh your understanding of primary sources and how to read scholarly materials.
- Video: Primary and Secondary ResearchThis video illustrates the differences between primary (original) research (with a focus on methods used in sciences and social sciences) and secondary research, and the ethical considerations associated with each.
- Video: How to Read Scholarly MaterialsDo you feel intimidated by scholarly materials? Use this video to get familiar with these valuable resources and learn tips for approaching, analyzing, and integrating scholarly materials into your projects.
See our full list of videos and tutorials on research and information literacy topics from Credo InfoLit.