1. PubMed Limits
Here is the Limits page. Searches can be limited by restricting terms to fields or setting specific date or record tagging parameters.
Note the new Advanced Search ( ) option that enables you to use Limits with other PubMed features.
The initial (top) section of the page includes the ‘Search by Author’, ‘Search by Journal’, ‘Full Text, Free Full Text and Abstracts’, Humans or Animals’ and ‘Gender’ options. This tool is a ‘graphical’ option based on the MeSH controlled vocabulary that is invaluable in restricting a large search to obtain more manageable or precise results.

2. Limits Overview
The Limits options will be discussed in the following six slides.

3. Limit by Author(s) This is an Author name search for Ribeiro.
PubMed contains an option in which individual author’s publication can be searched. To search by ‘Author Name’, users enter the surname followed by initial(s) if known.

4. Limit by Journal(s)
This is the Journal Name search for Natu. Note the various titles with the abbreviation.
PubMed contains an option in which articles can be sorted by ‘Journal Name (Title or abbreviation)’.

5. Limit by Free Full Text and Abstracts
This is the full text, free full text and abstracts search box.
Note: if you use the Links to free full text option, you will limit the search to only free full text articles and exclude the HINARI ones. We suggest not using this Limit.
The HINARI instructors recommend not using these options. The reason for this is that if you use the ‘Links to free full text’ option, you eliminate citations that are HINARI. Your search results will have the same number of available titles in the ‘Free full text’ and ‘HINARI’ tabs.

6. Limit by Publication Date
This is the Dates search box. You can search by Published in the Last… or Added to PubMed in the Last… Limits.
If you wish to find only items published in the current year or over any other time span, you will use the option for ‘Dates’. This option finds articles tagged with the publication date as given by the supplier.
By clicking on the drop down menu next to ‘Added to PubMed in the Last (days)’, you can select from a choice of time spans. For example if you choose ‘60 days’, you will limit your search to find all the articles added to the PubMed database during the last 60 days.

7. Limit by Publication Date
The Published in the last 1 year Limit has been highlighted from the drop down menu. Note the various options including a ‘Specify Date Range’.
Note: If you use Published in the Last, the search is based on when the article was published. If you use Added to PubMed in the Last, the search is based on when the article was added to the PubMed.
The ‘Published in the last…’ option in PubMed reflects the date of the publication of the article supplied by the journal’s publisher. The publication date limit in PubMed uses specific time frames plus the YYYY/MM/DD format. If you wish to search for article published in an entire year you need only fill in the ‘year’ field. The date and month boxes may be left empty. If you want to search for all articles published from a particular year onwards just enter the year in the year field next to ‘From’ and leave the field by ‘To’ blank. To search over a time span, enter the year you are interested ’from’ field and then put the year you are interested up to in the ‘to’ field.

8. Limit by Language, Type of Article, Topics and Ages
This is the Language Limits search box. In this Limit, you can check more than one language.
PubMed indexes articles in approximately 40 languages. However, it is possible to LIMIT searches to one or several languages which are listed in the drop down menu in the ‘Languages’.
The PubMed database contains a number of ‘Subsets’. These are collections of journals or articles specific to a particular topic. By selecting a ‘Subset’ from the topical list. you can limit your search to specific citations in found in the PubMed subset, for example selecting “AIDS” finds AIDS related citations.
The multiple choices in ‘Ages’ LIMIT option are determined by Indexing at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Age tags cover specific age ranges and are given to records where appropriate. For example: All child 0-18 years and subgroups within, All Adults 19+ years and subgroups within. To apply ‘Ages’ LIMITS to your search, choose one of the options listed on the ‘AGES’ listing displayed on the page. You can ONLY select one of these at a time but there all alternatives for ‘All Infant’ or ‘All Adult’ or ‘All Child’. Consequently, you can not search across age ranges, for example years.
If you are only interested in specific types of publication, you can limit the search by using the ‘Type of Article’ option. It is possible to limit to Clinical Trials, Editorials, Letters, Meta-analysis, Practice Guidelines, Randomized Control Trials and Reviews by using the drop down menu in the ‘Type of Article’ list field. You can select multiple types of publications. This is an underutilized option that enables a searcher to eliminate extraneous citations.
This is the Type of Article Limits search box. You can check multiple options.
This is the Ages Limits search box. You can check only one option.

9. Complete exercises 12-16 in the workbook.

10. Advanced Search
We now will use new Advanced Search option that enables you to use Limits with other PubMed features.
Note that you can access Advanced Search from Limits, History or the other PubMed options listed above.
Advanced Search is a new feature of PubMed as of December This option enables you to combine Limits with other features of PubMed and gives you a set of options to refine your searches.

11. We have activated the Advanced Search option that displays the Most Recent Queries History.
In this exercise, we will use Search #3 – a combination of the tuberculosis and africa and hiv and africa searches. By using Limits, we will refine this search.
Note that the Advanced Search contains the History option. It is a tool that enables you to combine a new search with a previous one or combine two previous searches using the specific numbers of the searches. The search ‘History’ can be a useful aid to help build and refine your search as you can search using broad terms, add additional terms, combine terms, bring together concepts and refine searches.

12. After activating one of the previous searches, we are combining it with several LIMITS options.
For search #3, we have added the ‘English’ Languages, ‘Practice Guidelines’ and ‘Review’ Type of Article and the ‘All Child: 0-18 years’ Ages Limits.

13. The results of this Advanced Search are 57 citations with 5 ‘Free full text’ and 27 ‘HINARI’ accessible citations.
In the beige box, the Limits applied are listed. You also can use the Preview/Index, Details and Citation Search options in Advanced Search.

14. Complete exercises 17 in the workbook.

15. MY NCBI
The ‘My NCBI’ feature allows you to set-up filter tabs in your display area, save searches, and set-up automatic alerts to new articles added to PubMed.
To register, click on the Register link in the ‘ My NCBI’ box on the top-right side of the webpage. A registration form will then open in a new window.
Note: You will need to register only once and, after that, use the [Sign In] option. You will need to carefully follow the instructions in the next three slides.
To access My NCBI, there are [Sign In] [Register] options on the top right-hand side of the webpage. You will now Register for My NCBI.

16. You now have to fill in a short Registration page.
You will need to select a Username and a Password. Make sure this is written down for future reference.
You will also need to set up a Security Question in case you forget your password.
A registration form will then open in a new window. Precisely follow the instructions to insure that you register properly.

17. For the 5 character image, enter this literally including capitals
For the 5 character image, enter this literally including capitals. An address is requested. When the form is complete, click on Register.
All these instructions must be followed explicitly or the registration will be rejected.

18. This will to verify the new My NCBI account.
You will receive a confirmation from NCBI. Go to your account and open the message -
Click on the hypertext link - the url or website address - that is below the ‘to complete your registration… ’ line.
This will to verify the new My NCBI account.
After completing the registration and submitting the form, NCBI will send you an containing a link to verify your address. You must enter your , access this message and click on the ‘to complete your registration…’ hypertext link. This will complete the registration and verify your address. Now you will be able to login, assign ‘filters’ and save searches/authorize alerts within My NCBI.

19. After confirming the registration in the message, MY NCBI should display this message. If this does not appear, go to PubMed and follow the sign in procedure on the next slide.
After placing the MY NCBI website’s address in the search box, you will be sent to this page that verifies your address. You can proceed to Sign in to MY NCBI.

20. After confirming the registration in the message, MY NCBI should display this message. If this does not appear, go to PubMed and follow the sign in procedure on the next slide.
After placing the MY NCBI website’s address in the search box, you will be sent to this page that verifies your address. You can proceed to Sign in to MY NCBI.

21. To access My NCBI, you will need to Sign In with your Username and Password.
Note: this is the process once you have registered and want to return to MY NCBI.
As mentioned in the slide, this will be the required sign in procedure for accessing MY NCBI.

22. Proceed to sign into my NCBI by entering your Username and Password and clicking on either of the options.

23. We need to choose PubMed as a database from those listed.
Once in My NCBI, choose the Search Filters option from the left column menu.
To access filters, you can choose the ‘Filters’ option from the left-hand menu. First you will select a database. To set the filters we want, select PubMed.
We need to choose PubMed as a database from those listed.

24. When we choose a filter, My NCBI will refresh and apply the filter.
We have clicked on Frequently Requested Filters. Commonly requested filters are listed on this page and you can choose up to five.
When we choose a filter, My NCBI will refresh and apply the filter.
In this example, we will choose the Free Full Text Filter.
Besides the recommended ‘Free Full Text’ filter, you can tick the box next to other filters you wish to set for your account. Remember, you need to save 1 of the 5 searches for the HINARI filter (see next slide).

25. You now click on Search for Filters
You now click on Search for Filters. In the Search for filters in PubMed Database box, enter HINARI and click on the Search button.
We also recommend using the HINARI filter since you will have access to the articles via HINARI. The addition of this filter is more complicated than the default filters previous noted but, once added, it will remain as one of your filters for the PubMed searches saved in MY NCBI.

26. Filters matching the Search will appear below
Filters matching the Search will appear below. Click on the box for Add as a result tab to apply it to your My NCBI account.

27. Now click on My Filters and your selected filters will be displayed.
Remember that you can use up to five filters.
Again, if you choose, you can add up to 5 filters although we recommend using the Free Full Text and HINARI ones.

28. We have now completed a search for hiv and pregnancy
We have now completed a search for hiv and pregnancy. There are now three results tabs – All, Free full text, and HINARI. To retain this search, click on the Save Search hypertext link.
Note: These three tabs are the default configuration when completing a HINARI/PubMed search.
When you are logged into My NCBI while using PubMed, you have the facility to select ‘Save Search’. Once you have saved a search, you can opt to run the search in the future yourself, or to have My NCBI run the search automatically and you the results. Remember, these will be the citations for the new articles, not access to the full-text (except for some links to free full text articles). You will need to go to HINARI for access to the bulk of the citations.

29. MY NCBI gives you the option to save or cancel the specific search
MY NCBI gives you the option to save or cancel the specific search. In this case, you will save the search.

30. Proceed to a ‘yes’ option to receive email updates
Proceed to a ‘yes’ option to receive updates. In this example, the ‘Tuesday’ once a week and sent text- options have been chosen from the drop down menus. You may choose the options you prefer.

31. In this example, the ‘Abstract’ option for Report format has been chosen. You may choose the option you prefer.

32. Here, the ‘5 items’ option for the Number of Items option has been chosen from the drop down menu. Again, you may choose the option you prefer.

33. When you enter the My Saved Data, you can see a list of the saved searches - ‘hiv and pregnancy’ and ‘malaria and bednets’ in this example.
From this page, you can re-run a search by clicking on the title of the search. You also have the option to Delete PubMed Searches.
The number of searches you can create is significant although you will be receiving a considerable number of messages.

34. Exercises 18-22 Complete exercises 18-22 in the workbook.
You have completed the HINARI Short Course!
For further instruction, go to the HINARI Training page at
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