Objective 2. Steps in a MeSH: Adding Filters

_______________________________________________________________________

Are you looking at pubMed results now?

You should now be looking at PubMed search results. The PubMed.gov logo should be present to the left of your search box.  If you use the “Embolism and Thrombosis”[mesh], you should be looking at a list of over 55 results.  If you used the “Thrombosis“[mesh], you should  be looking at a list of 45 results or more.

_______________________________________________________________________

Step 7.  Apply Filters

You want to find phase II, III, IV, and other randomized controlled trials.

• If you can’t see the filter column on the left-hand side of the page, click on the “Filters” button located beneath the search box to reveal the “filters” list.

• Start by applying the “Clinical Trial, Phase II”, “Clinical Trial, Phase III”, “Clinical Trials, Phase IV” and “Randomized Controlled Trial” article type filters.  You may have to click the “See all article type filters’ to show all of these filters.

• If you want an “Article Language” or “Species” filter, you will have to click the “Additional Filters” button to make these filter options appear.

_______________________________________________________________________

Did you retrieve enough results to provide a good literature base for a formulary decision?

When this tutorial was last updated in June 2025, three articles were retrieved.   This is adequate, especially as more relevant articles will probably be identified by the keyword search for unindexed records that you will run later.

_______________________________________________________________________

Step 8. Document your search strategy

It’s a good idea to copy the search history when you have completed a search and paste it into a Word document or e-mail.  If you are then interrupted and have to leave the computer, you will have a record of the search strategy that you can copy and re-run easily.

• Click on the “Advanced” link under the search box.

• Find the row in your “History and Search Details” table that contains your “clinical trial-filtered” MeSH search.
• To simplify re-running the search later:
  • Click the three-dot (ellipsis) icon in the “Actions” column.
  • Select the “Add query” option

• • Scroll up to the search box and copy the strategy from the search box.  This form of the search strategy already includes the filters in a search-box friendly format.

• • When you’re working on your group project, you will paste your copied strategy under the “1.  MeSH…” heading in the required search strategy figure template (see template below with tutorial mesh search inserted in the appropriate spot).  You may want to note the number of search results under the search strategy, but this isn’t required.