new feature will be added to the Entrez Journals database that may make it easier to find journal records. [Editor's Note: This feature was added to PubMed on February 4, 2003.] In addition to displaying the journals retrieved by your search, this database also will suggest journals based on your search terms. These suggestions are produced using an algorithm that compares letter combinations in phrases. The suggestions may include titles retrieved by the search but will likely include additional titles not retrieved. If you find a journal of interest in the list of suggested journals, you can use the link on the title to go directly to its record. A new set of suggestions will be displayed based on the selected journal.

Suggestions are helpful for locating journals with foreign words or complex titles. Even if you misspell a word, you may still find what you're looking for in the suggestions. A search for post graduate medicine does not retrieve the desired title (Postgraduate Medicine), but it is displayed in the suggestions (see Figure 1).

 

Suggestions are displayed in groups of ten. There can be up to one hundred total; use the "more..." link to see additional suggestions. The suggestions are generated from an index (Multi) that is a combination of three indices from this database, i.e., journal title, MEDLINE abbreviation, and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) abbreviation. This sometimes results in a journal being repeated in the list of suggestions.

Another Improvement
A change will be also be made in how the results of a Journals database search are displayed. Previously, search results were displayed in alphabetical order. This will change so that when a user's query exactly matches a journal title, that title will display first, followed by an alphabetic list of other journals that include the user's search term.

Reminder:
To run a PubMed search for a journal, use the Links pull-down menu on the journal record to select PubMed (Figure 2).

 

For more information about searching Journals, see New Entrez Database: Journals. NLM Tech Bull. 2002 Sep-Oct;(328):e4.

Journals Database to Offer Suggestions. NLM Tech Bull. 2003 Jan-Feb;(330):e3.