KIN 200: Measurement and Statistics

Searching PubMed

Tips for searching PubMed to locate relevant and recent secondary sources, and primary research articles containing interventions.

Tips and Strategies

Identify the important concepts for your search, and enter the concepts into the PubMed search box.

• Choose one concept representing the intervention.
  • Example: "physical activity"
• Choose another concept representing what the intervention is examining or potentially affecting.
  • Example: "resting heart rate"
• Check to see if your search results seem to be on-topic. If they're not, consider whether there are other keywords you might use to represent your concepts.
  • Tip: PubMed effectively maps your keywords to relevant Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). But you can also investigate the official MeSH terms yourself in the MeSH Database.

Tips on choosing keywords: 

• consider if your concepts or keywords might be too general (too many results) or too specific (too few results), and modify your concepts or keywords accordingly.
  • Example: "Physical Activity" is very general. Consider substituting with more specific activities such as "resistance training" or "running" or "swimming" etc.
• Consider using an AI tool such as Perplexity.ai or ChatGPT.com to help you brainstorm topics and keywords.
  • Example: AI prompt: "list current research areas in kinesiology related to strength training and fitness"
    • Tip: Add the following to your AI prompt to focus on identifying keywords for searching: "format the list in the form of search queries for a library database" 

Limit your search results by publication date:

• We want to limit to articles published in the last 5 years.
  • Example: At the top of the left-hand sidebar, select "5 Years" in the "Publication Date" filter.
  • You can also use the "publication date" filter to create a "Custom Range" of years.
  • Tip: If you're using a small screen and do not see a sidebar, look for the "filters" button in the top menu.

Are there more filters or limiters available than what is displayed?

• At the bottom of the left-hand sidebar, click the "Additional Filters" button to view all of the filters available. 
• If "age" or "sex" is an important factor in your search, add the appropriate filter to your search options.
  • Example: Check the box for "Aged 65+" to limit your search results to that age group. 

Limit your results to primary research articles with interventions.

• Primary article types in PubMed typically include the terms "trial," "study," or "report." But to find a primary source with an intervention, simply limit to "clinical trial."
  • Example: Look at the "Article Type" category in the filter sidebar, and select the filter "Clinical Trial" 
    • A clinical trial by definition is a primary research article with an intervention.
  • Tip: A "Randomized Controlled Trial" or RCT is a specific type of clinical trial considered the highest standard of evidence. 
  • Tip: You can usually identify the intervention in the "Methods" or "Methodology" section of the article or in the article abstract. See "How to Identify Primary and Secondary Research Articles" for more information.

What about secondary sources?

• "Review" articles are most common secondary sources in PubMed.
  • Example: Look at the "Article Type" category in the filter sidebar, and select the filter "Review" 
    • Tip:Other secondary article types might include "analysis" or "guideline" in the name.

Finding related articles:

• If you find an on-topic article that you like, PubMed can suggest "Similar Articles" based on the title, abstract, and subjects (MeSH terms) of your selected article.
  • Click on the article title to display the full record, and scroll down to the section labeled "Similar Articles."
    • Tip:The list of similar articles will not have any limiters or filters applied to it. 
      • To apply filters to the list of "Similar Articles," click on the link "See all similar articles" at the bottom of the list, and then apply your filters.

Finding the Full Text of an article:

• Click on an article title to view the full record in PubMed.
  • 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" 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 for free.
    • 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.
    • Tip: You must access PubMed via the library's link in order for the library's "Full Text Finder" to appear.
  • If there is no full text available anywhere, you can use the library's Interlibrary Loan service to request the article from another library. This is free for you, and we can usually get articles very quickly.

Cite your articles in APA format

• PubMed can help you cite your articles in APA format.
  • Example: In PubMed, click on the title of the article to display the full record, and then click on the "Cite" button in the right-hand sidebar. You can also click the "Cite" link to the left of each entry in your search results.
    • Change the "format" to APA, and copy / paste the result.
  • Tip: with any online-generated citation, you always need to examine the citation for accuracy.