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skillkit graphicSkill Kit: Save Time Finding Citations by Title Matching in the PubMed® Search Box

Title Matching in the PubMed® Search Box. NLM Tech Bull. 2010 May-Jun; (374):e1.

May 03, 2010 [posted]

The Citation Sensor was introduced to the PubMed search box in May 2008. At that
time we described the sensor as being able to "recognize combinations of search
terms that are characteristic of citation searching, e.g., volume/issue numbers,
author names, journal titles, and publication dates, which it then matches to citations." We also want you to know that the Citation Sensor does a great job
finding citations when the article title is copy/pasted into the search box. Here
is an example:

When trying to find this citation in PubMed:

Zinc and diarrheal disease: current status and future perspectives. Scrimgeour,
Angus G. Lukaski, Henry C. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care.
11(6):711-7, 2008 Nov.

...the PubMed searcher tried this traditional approach employing search tags and Boolean operators:

Screen capture of PubMed searcher tried this approach employing search tags and Boolean operators.

Unfortunately, this search retrieved thirty-two items and had to be modified with an author name to get the one item of interest:

Screen capture of search modified with an author name to get the one item of interest.

After two tries, the exact item was found.

But when the article title is entered into the search box (copy/paste works great), the citation sensor matched the terms to the exact item the first time.

Screen capture of when the article title is entered into the search box (copy/paste works great), the exact item is found the first time.

Please do try this at home (or work)!