Searching Beyond PubMed Central: Free Full-text Articles in

The National Library of Medicine’s

PUBMEDDatabase

Mark D. Puterbaugh

Information Services Librarian

Eastern University, Warner Memorial Library, St. Davids, PA

mputerba@eastern.edu

Presented by

Mark D. PuterbaughInformation Services Librarian

And

Malinda ShannonResearch Assistant

Warner Memorial LibraryEastern University

St. Davids, PA 19087

Pubmed is a search engine provided by the National Library of Medicine. It includes the bibliographic database Medline.

“MEDLINE is the NLM's premier bibliographic database that contains references to journal articles in the life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.  A distinctive feature of MEDLINE is that the records are indexed with NLM's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The database contains citations from 1950 to the present, with some older material. “ (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query/static/overview.html#Introduction)

While primarily a citations resource, searches in PubMed can be limited to locate full-text articles from publications freely available on the web including the National Library of Medicines’ PubMed Central journal archive.

PubMed can be searched at http://www.pubmed.gov/

Before entering a search select

Check the box next to “Links to free-full text”.

Enter the search term and then press Search.

From the results list select the Free article in PMC link.

Select the publisher’s icon to view the journal site.

The article citation and abstract screen appears (if available).

The publisher’s site provides access in a variety of ways. In this case the researcher may view the article in an Acrobat .pdf file.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• The articles are from professional or peer-reviewed publications.

•This method can provide the searcher with immediate access to full-text articles.

Cons

• This search eliminates many important articles found in PubMed.

• Leaves the researcher dependent on a small sampling of relevant resources. This can be frustrating.

While the list of full-text publications found in PubMed Central is growing, the set is small compared to the vast amount of literature produced.

Consult with a librarian, they can help you find further resources for your research.