Objective 4a: Keyword Search for Un-indexed Records (search 2)
You will be using your keyword search to retrieve unindexed PubMe records. Including Non-MEDLINE, PubMed Central records. These are records for full-text articles from journals not indexed by MEDLINE. They are represented in PubMed because the full-text versions have been deposited in PubMed Central.
Why run this search?
The most up-to-date articles on your topic may be represented by records that haven’t been indexed yet. These records can’t be retrieved by a MeSH search. You wouldn’t want to miss the most up-to-date evidence.
Prepare for the search:
Search 2 is a search for unindexed records. You will have to remove the article type limit and the publication date limit (if you applied one). Even unindexed records include language tags so you can retain the language tag if you wish.
- Click the “Clear all” link to remove applied filters from this next search. On the “Advanced” search page , The “clear all” link is present above the search boxes. On the PubMed results page, the “clear all” link is present in the space below the search box and above the results list.
- Remove anything that is currently in the PubMed search box and paste your keyword search strategy in the search box.
- Run the search and apply an English language filter (if desired). Remember, even un-indexed records contain language information.
How do I run the search?
- At the end of your search strategy, type a space, followed by — NOT MEDLINE[sb] . The [sb] is the subset tag. The — NOT MEDLINE[sb] — will remove all the PubMed records that are part of the indexed (MEDLINE) subset from your results.
![Screenshot showing -- NOT MEDLINE[sb] -- added to the end of the keyword search strategy in the "advanced" search page's "query" box.](https://pressbooks.nebraska.edu/app/uploads/sites/299/2022/08/not-medline-sb-1024x184.jpg)
- Hit the “Search” button.
- As mentioned earlier, you may add an English filter to this search.
- This version of the tutorial search retrieved 71 results when the tutorial was last updated in August 2024.
If you are using this tutorial to guide your project search and have a lot of search results, do not be discouraged! You just have to scan the titles and abstracts retrieved by this search for articles that meet your formulary project’s inclusion criteria. You do not need to read the full-text versions of all the review articles, editorials, and irrelevant trials that have been identified. Just the full-text versions of the relevant studies.
Document the search
- Click the “Advanced” link under the PubMed search box to go to the “Advanced” search page.
- Find the row in the “History and Search Details” table that ends with NOT MEDLINE[sb]
- Click the “Ellipsis” icon (…) in that row and select the “Add Query” option that appears
- Scroll up to the search box and copy its contents.
- Paste the copied search under the heading for search 3.
Search Strategies:
1. MeSH search for indexed PubMed (MEDLINE) records for clinical trials.
(((“eculizumab” [Supplementary Concept]) AND “Hemoglobinuria, Paroxysmal”[Mesh]) AND “Embolism and Thrombosis”[Mesh]) AND “therapy” [Subheading] AND ((clinicaltrial[Filter]) AND (english[Filter]))
3 results
(If you decided to conduct a combined MeSH-keyword search for indexed records, it would replace the search above , and you would indicate the number of results it retrieved.)
2. Keyword search for unindexed PubMed records (PREMEDLINE, OLD MEDLINE, PMC)
(Eculizumab* OR 219685-50-4 OR h5G1.1* OR h5g11 OR h5G1-1 OR 5G1.1 OR Soliris OR Elizaria OR Alexion OR Acveris) AND (((intermittent OR paroxysmal ) AND ( haemoglobinur* OR hemoglobinur* OR haematur* OR hematur* OR haematinur* OR hematinur*)) OR PNH OR Marchiafava-Micheli [tiab]) AND (Clot[tiab] OR Clots[tiab] OR budd-chiari[tiab] OR embol* OR postthromb* OR thromb*) NOT MEDLINE[sb] AND (english[Filter])
71 results
3. Keyword search for unindexed and indexed PubMed records for meta-analyses: (optional)
4. Search of ClinicalTrials.gov
5. EMBASE (optional):
6. Drugs@FDA (optional):
The following drug names were omitted from the keyword search strategies 2- 5 because they were used frequently to indicate discussion of irrelevant concepts and were causing retrieval of irrelevant results: