Year end processing for PubMed

I just wanted to briefly explain what happens at the end of the year when it seems like PubMed doesn't get updated for weeks. In reality, much work is going on.

All of the changes that have been discussed during the year need to be incorporated into MEDLINE database - changes in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for 2006 are particularly important.

In November, National Library of Medicine makes the announcement of the schedule for year end processing. This announcement details when the final update file for the year will be distributed for MEDLINE, PubMed-not-MEDLINE, and OLDMEDLINE. Until the next year's baseline files are ready, only the In Data Review and In Process files will be updated. NLM will also announce what days during this time period that no updates will occur.

Lastly, NLM will announce the expected date when the processing will be complete and provides links to documentation describing the important changes to Medical Subject Headings.

As a matter of fact for the year 2005, this update was completed on December 12, 2005.

When the process is complete, the announcement is made in the "Entrez PubMed' section of the blue scan column under 'New/Noteworthy' section'.

This year's announcement appeared in several places including the Bibliographic Services Division.

Systematic Reviews strategy updated

The systematic reviews subset strategy has been updated to reflect changes made to the Medical Subject Headings for 2006.

PubMed
This subset can be found on the Clinical Queries page (under PubMed Services on the blue scan column). The strategy is designed to "retrieve citations identified as systematic reviews, meta-analyses, reviews of clinical trials, evidence-based medicine, consensus development conferences, guidelines, and citations to articles from journals specializing in review studies of value to clinicians."

Besides the clinical queries page, you can use field qualification to apply this subset. Here's the syntax:

osteogenesis imperfecta AND systematic [sb]

Ovid MEDLINE
As far as I know, this has not been updated in Ovid MEDLINE yet. I'll keep you posted!

More details, including the search strategy itself, can be found on the Bibliographic Services Division web site.

Printer friendly option added to PubMed

Have you noticed the new 'printer' choice from the 'Send to' menu on the search results screen?

You simply conduct your search, make your selections and then choose 'printer' from the 'Send to' drop-down. A print page will pop up with two choices at the top:
Print this page
Close this window

Couldn't be simpler...

For more information see the NLM Technical Bulletin

New from the MeSH Database

Check this out!

From the MeSH database, you can now select and retrieve PubMed citations where the heading has been designated as a major topic of the article. It is no longer necessary to go to the Full display and create a search using the Send to Search box feature if you simply want to search the term as a major topic.

How do you do this?

• From the PubMed Services scan column on the left, click on MeSH Database.
• Type a single concept on the query line (for example, osteogenesis imperfecta)
• Use the Links Menu (to the extreme right of the subject heading) to choose PubMed - Major Topic

The search will be executed and the next screen will be the PubMed results screen.

Did you also notice that you could make other choices from that handy links menu?

• a straight PubMed search
• a PubMed - Major Topic search
• a Clinical Queries search
• a NLM MeSH Browser search

See the NLM Technical Bulletin for more information

Personalizing Scopus

Here are some reasons to personalize Scopus:

Saved searches: this feature allows you to save whatever search you're working on - very helpful when you don't want to lose what you've already done or you have created a base search on your topic that you know you'll be adding to. This saves you from having to type the keywords in over and over.

Alerts: you can turn a saved search into an alert - determine how frequently you want Scopus to run the search and notify you via email of new articles on your topic. Choose 'Alert Me' from an individual article and Scopus will notify you when that article has been cited by someone else.

Lists: My List allows you to choose and create a collection of documents from any results page. This can be used to export or print all at once, instead of having to print multiple times from several results pages. You can also save a collection of documents for processing at a later date.

Personalizing Scopus is very simple. Create your personal profile by clicking on the 'register' link in the upper right corner of any page in Scopus. Choose a username and password (Note: your ScienceDirect username and password will also work on Scopus and vice versa)

Now, when you are logged in to Scopus, you can click on the 'My Profile' link to access or modify your saved searches, alerts and lists.