| Abstract | A summary, outlining the key points of a given study or article. |
| Automatic Term Mapping | the process used by PubMed to find a match to untagged search terms that are entered into the query box. Terms are matched against subjects using the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) translation table, journals using the Journals translation table, and authors and investigators. |
| Boolean Operators | AND, OR, and NOT are the Boolean operators available in PubMed. Boolean operators are used to combine search terms. |
| Complete Reference | Here, you will find all the information collected on a particular article, including abstract, author, source, subject headings etc. Use the "Get It" Button to check for full-text availability |
| Explode the Subject Tree | This checkbox appears when choosing Subject Headings. When selected, the database will return articles indexed with the selected Subject Heading as well as any indexed with its narrower terms found in |
| Field Tag | a word or abbreviation designating field to be searched. In PubMed, field tags are placed in square brackets after the search term they qualify. Example Black[author] will find the name Black in the author field of a journal citation. Black[title] will find the articles with the word "black" in the article title. |
| Focus | This checkbox appears when choosing Subject Headings. When selected, the database will only return articles in which the selected Subject Heading has been identified as the primary topic. |
| Indexed | assigned controlled vocabulary (MeSH) terms. |
| Limits | These specialized Subject Headings help you filter out irrelevant results based on factors like age group, publication type, and publication date. |
| Map Term to Subject Heading | This checkbox appears on the main search page. When selected, it will suggest appropriate Subject Heading for the concepts entered into the search box. |
| MEDLINE | the National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. |
| MeSH | Medical Subject Headings. MeSH is the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary system used for indexing journal articles for MEDLINE and also used for cataloging books and audiovisuals. |
| MeSH Major Topic | the MeSH terms that are the main points of an article. |
| Search History | This tool tracks your recent searches and tells you how many results were returned for each term. |
| Subheading | a term used with a MeSH Heading to help focus on a specific aspect of a subject. Part of the MeSH controlled vocabulary system. |
| Subject Heading | Authoritative language used to describe the content of a given article (sometimes called a Subject Term) |
| Subject Tree | Complete listing of all of Medline's Subject Headings. Terms are arranged hierarchically. |
| Truncation | searching for a text word or phrase with variant endings. The truncation symbol in PubMed is * (an asterisk). So, for example, a search for smoke* will retrieve smoke, smokes, smoked, smoking, smoker, smokescreen, etc. |