Database Video Tutorials

MEDLINE is a comprehensive source of life sciences and biomedical information. A free version of Medline is offered through PubMed. The following tutorial demonstrates how to search MEDLINE through the Ovid platform. 

The video tutorial below covers the following topics:

• Transforming your research question into searchable concepts
• Building a search using subject headings and keywords
• Review and refine a search strategy in Medline
• Access full-text journal articles
• Save and export your results

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

• Abstract: A summary, outlining the key points of a given study or article.
• Complete Reference:  Here, you will find all the information collected on a particular article, including abstract, author, source, subject headings etc.  
• Explode:  This checkbox appears when choosing Subject Headings.  When selected, the database will return articles indexed with the selected Subject Heading as well as any indexed with its narrower terms found in the Subject Tree.
• Focus:  This checkbox appears when choosing Subject Headings.  When selected, the database will only return articles in which the selected Subject Heading has been identified as the primary topic.
• Limits: These specialized Subject Headings help you filter out irrelevant results based on factors like age group, publication type, and publication date.
• Map Term to Subject Heading: This checkbox appears on the main search page.  When selected, it will suggest appropriate Subject Heading for the concepts entered into the search box.
• Search History: This tool tracks your recent searches and tells you how many results were returned for each term.  
• Subject Heading: Authoritative language used to describe the content of a given article (sometimes called a Subject Term)
• Subject Tree: Complete listing of all of Medline's Subject Headings.  Terms are arranged hierarchically.