PubMed Tutorial

Page 2 of  5

    IntroductionPubMed's Home PageHow It WorksSearch StrategyBoolean Logic (active)Review
Overview  
Using PubMed (active)  
Working with Search Results  
Features Bar  
My NCBI  
Links  
PubMed Services  
Search Field Descriptions  
Final Review  
     
Previous (active) Previous (active) Next (active) Next (active)
     
Glossary  
Index  
Back to PubMed  
space space space
 
FAQ Contact Us
 
     
 
 

Introduction to Boolean Logic (continued)

NOT:

  • Retrieves a set from which citations to articles containing specified search terms following the NOT operator are eliminated.

Example: arthritis NOT letter

Note in the diagram to the right and in the sample search results below that the retrieval is a portion of the total retrieval for arthritis – that portion not including the term letter.

Search terms

Results

arthritis

167,933

letter

617,646

arthritis NOT letter

159,681

  • Use the NOT operator with caution; you might eliminate relevant articles.

 


Link to National Library of Medicine | Link to National Institutes of Health | Link to Department of Health and Human Services
Link to Freedom of Information Act | Link to Copyright and Privacy Policy
Last Updated June 30, 2008
    Click Next to continue.