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Table of Contents: 2012 JANUARY–FEBRUARY No. 384

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PubMed Results Added to NLM Main Web Site Search Spotlight

Dine B, Heiland-Luedtke J. PubMed Results Added to NLM Main Web Site Search Spotlight. NLM Tech Bull. 2012 Jan-Feb;(384):e5.

2012 January 26 [posted]

In January, the NLM Main Web site search added PubMed results to its spotlight feature. The new "PubMed Citations" tab includes the first five citations returned by PubMed. The results include the title of the citation linked to its PubMed record. Clicking on the "See more article citations…" link retrieves the complete results set for the search term(s) in PubMed.

The spotlight displays up to three tabs depending on the search term(s):

  • "NLM Selected Resources" highlights NLM products and services
  • "MedlinePlus Health Information" highlights the most relevant MedlinePlus health topic
  • "PubMed Citations" highlights the first five article citations as returned by PubMed

Searching for "asthma" (see Figure 1) retrieves results in all three tabs: the "Breath of Life" site in "NLM Selected Resources" (see Figure 2), the "Asthma" health topic in "MedlinePlus Health Information" (see Figure 3), and five article titles about asthma in "PubMed Citations" (see Figure 4). The user may select one of the other tabs to display its contents in the spotlight.


Screen capture of Search for Asthma from the NLM main Web site
Figure 1: Search for Asthma from the NLM Main Web site.
Screen capture of NLM Selected Resources tab displaying the Breath of Life result
Figure 2: NLM Selected Resources tab displaying the Breath of Life result.
Screen capture of MedlinePlus Health Information tab displaying the Asthma health topic result
Figure 3: MedlinePlus Health Information tab displaying the Asthma health topic result.
Screen capture of PubMed Citations tab displaying the first five results for asthma
Figure 4: PubMed Citations tab displaying the first five results for asthma.

A user may also search for PubMed Identifiers (PMIDs), author names, journal title abbreviations, grant numbers, or other PubMed fields. Search tags may be included with the search term(s), but they are not necessary. For example, smith j and smith j [au] retrieve the same results, just as they would in PubMed.

If there are no results for NLM Main Web, but one or more results from PubMed, only the "PubMed Citations" tab is displayed. For example, searching for the PMID 21421807 retrieves only one result from PubMed (see Figure 5). Tabs display only when results are found.

Screen capture of PubMed Citations tab displaying one result from PubMed and no results from the NLM Main Web
Figure 5: PubMed Citations tab displaying one result from PubMed and
no results from the NLM Main Web or MedlinePlus Health Information.

We welcome feedback on this search enhancement. Send your comments to NLM Customer Service.

By Brooke Dine and Jenny Heiland-Luedtke
Public Services Division

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