Medline Database (Silver Platter version on the Web): Princeton University

Univ. Home Page\| Library Main Page\| OIT Campus Directory\| Mol Bio\| EEB\| PEI
Princeton University Biology Library
Medline Database (Silver Platter version on the Web)

Guide:
Basic: Access || Searching Keywords || Searching Authors || Combining || Displaying || Printing
Advanced: Journal names || Addresses || Limits (year, language) || Numbers, etc.
Special features: Descriptors || Index || Thesaurus || Subheadings || CheckTags || Publication types
Reference: Operators || Fields || Sample record

The Database
Medline is the electronic version of Index medicus, a comprehensive index of scientific periodical literature in the medical sciences compiled by the National Library of Medicine. It includes all medically related areas of biology and all medical specialties, and is particularly strong in molecular biology.

Medline indexes journal articles and chapters in symposia, not whole books, including more than 3100 journals and other periodical publications. Medline covers the literature from 1966+ with weekly updates, and has a 1 to 3 month delay in indexing after publication. Most current articles have abstracts.
There is systematic indexing for standardized medical vocabulary, and extensive use of acronyms, enzymes, gene names, and names of key reagents.

In aspects of social science and humanities relating to medicine, Medline includes only items from medical journals; for other material search in appropriate social science and humanities indexes. Popular literature on medical topics is not included; search in general periodical indexes.

Medline corresponds to the printed Index medicus, which is located in the Biology Library. Material published before 1967 is indexed in the Cumulative index medicus and its precursors, also in the Biology Library.

How To Access
The Silver Platter version of the Medline database can be accessed either in the libraries using the Library network on Microsoft Windows, or outside the libraries through the Web (outside access is limited to Princeton University users). These instructions are for the Web, see the Medline on the Internet instructions.

The full file is also publicly available on the Web direct from the National Library of Medicine with two different search interfaces:
PubMed (Instructions), and
The PubMed version is recommended for quick general searching, and the Internet Grateful Med version is recommended for the simple entry of complex logical search queries.
The Silver Platter versions, though not as rapid, offer somewhat greater flexibility. The version on Windows, in particular, has the most customizable output facilities.

To CONNECT using the Web IN THE LIBRARY
To START
All years will be automatically selected

Note: If the system does not connect, please try again. If it still doesn't work, quit the browser entirely, and try once more.
Some of the login and search commands of this interface may change over the next few months as the system is further developed.

Basic Searching

TO LOOK FOR A SUBJECT/TITLE KEYWORD,
enter it in the top box on the Search screen, and click the search button.
You can enter a word, e.g., chromatin
or a fixed phrase, e.g., dna synthesis
or a logical expression, e.g.,
chromatin or dna, or: rna and structure, or: tuberculosis and (aids or hiv)

To enter a TRUNCATED word or phrase, use the asterisk ( * )
e.g., chromos* , or: genetic transf*

The system searches the title, abstract, and indexing terms, but not the article text.

You may enter terms in CAPITALS or lower case--the system does not distinguish.

TO LOOK FOR AN AUTHOR
enter the name in the box on the Search screen in one of the following forms:
1. If you know the middle initial, enter: cox-ec or cox-e
2. If you do not know the middle initial, enter: cox-e*

You must always use one hyphen, no spaces, and either two initials or one initial and the * sign
If you do not enter it in this format you will get a result of zero.

Some articles use the first initial only, and others use both initials.
Either search using truncation, or include both forms.
If you don't know the middle initial, always truncate.

You can also find authors by entering the last name in the Index and looking for the correct initials; include the form with both initials and also the form with only the first initial.

All of the authors of an article are indexed.

TO COMBINE STATEMENTS
- Method 1: To use previous search statements, examine the search history--scroll to see it--, and type in the search box at the top the combination wanted: e.g.,
  #3 and dna, or: #5 or #6
  Use a # sign before each set number.
  - Method 2: You can also combine statements by viewing the search history, checking the boxes for the statements you wish to combine, selecting the push button and or the push button or , and clicking the combine button.
  - Method 3: To combine the last statement found with another term, type in the search box, e.g.,
    and method*
  In combining statements, you can use the following operators:
  and or not near ("near" means in the same sentence)

Seeing Results

TO DISPLAY RECORDS
The system automatically displays results at the bottom of the page, showing article titles only.
To see all fields for a particular record, click the underlined title.
To see the citations format for all records (author, title, and bibliographic source), click the brief fields button.
To choose display fields for all records, click the options button.

Then
To display abstracts or custom fields for only some of the records, click the boxes next to the items you want to see before clicking the options button.

To RETURN to the search and results screens after selecting options, click the Search or the back to search button.

To see more results, scroll down in the browser.
To see additional groups of results, select the number you want in the records box and click the Next button.
TO MARK RECORDS FOR PRINTING
Click the check boxes at the left of the items you want to print, and click the Show marked button.
TO PRINT RECORDS
1. Click the print...button at the beginning or end of the records.
  Then:
2. Select which records to you want to print, either
  The records displayed on the current page
  The first 5, 10, 20, etc. records
  or the Marked records.
3. The fields will print as displayed;
  if you want to print different fields than that, press the options button on screen, and select the fields wanted.
4. If you want to print the search history or record numbers, click the corresponding check boxes.
5. Now click the display for print button, which will show the records as they will be printed.
6. Now click the print button on the screen, and the records will print.
TO DOWNLOAD RECORDS
You can download results to your disk from the Web browser. Click the Save button on the screen and select fronm the choices listed, as for printing.
Another way to download is to select the material you want with the mouse, and then copy and paste it into a word processor.
To E-MAIL RECORDS
You can E-mail results to your mailbox from the Web browser.
Click the Mail button on the screen and select from the choices listed, as for printing.
TO ENTER ANOTHER SEARCH
Click on the search button at the top or the Jump to search button.
TO CHANGE YEARS
Click on the Database button at the top, and, when asked, select the years you want.
Reminder: ignore the option to "narrow the list "
SAVING SEARCHES
There is no way to save searches on the Web version.
TO QUIT
Click the logout button at the top.
You must quit when done or you will block someone else from starting.

Finding References

Once you have identified useful items, check to see which journals Princeton has.

Use the printed Science Serials List

or the Online catalog (instructions) (connection)

To identify the journal abbreviations used in Medline, use Journal Database on the Web,
or the printed List of journals indexed in Index medicus at the Biology or Psychology libraries.

Sets of books published in series are included in Medline which treats them as if they were periodicals. the library handles some of them as periodicals, and some as books --with some being kept as collected sets, and some as individual titles. Details about the specific location of most of them will be found in

the Biology volumes in series list on the Web,
or the printed Biology Library serials list at the Biology library.

Serial titles in the Biology, Psychology, and Chemistry libraries are shelved by title, but serial titles in Firestone, the Annexes, and the Engineering library are shelved by call number.
If you have difficulty finding the item you are looking for, see our more detailed information on locating journals, send E-mail to the Biology library, or check with a reference librarian.

Items found in this Index which Princeton does not own are available through Interlibrary Loan / Document Delivery

To Get Help

The help button at the top offers several choices:
Help index gives a list of help topics about general search system procedures and strategies
Guide table of contents gives help about Medline indexing
List of fields gives a list of searchable Medline fields with brief explanations.

You can also send E-mail to the Biology library,
or send an Electronic Reference Request

Advanced Searching

TO LOOK FOR A JOURNAL NAME
Journal names must be entered in the search box as the correct standard Medline abbreviation for the name of the journal, with hyphens between the words, but no other punctuation.
You must use the standard abbreviation, not the full name.

The best way to search for journal names is to use the index:
Click the index button at the top.
Then enter a guess at beginning of the standard abbreviation in the index box:
Click the display button and scroll down the list to find the right name.
Select the check box next to it, and then click the search button at the top.

You can also get the correct journal name by examining the format for other articles.
Transfer this name using lateral searching: click the underlined name with the mouse; it will be automatically searched.

You can also find the name by searching in Journal Database,
or in the printed List of journals indexed in Index Medicus, available at the circulation desk in the Biology and Psychology libraries.
When you have found the correct abbreviated name, enter it in the main search box.

Note: if the journal name is a single word, the standard form is the full single word; to search for it, restrict to the so (source) field using the field selection box directly under the search term box. e.g., nature
TO LOOK FOR AN INSTITUTIONAL NAME
Look for distinctive words from the name as individual words connected by the operator and.
e.g., princeton and molecular
Use full words from the name, not abbreviations.

Restrict to the ad (address of author) field using the field selection box located under the search term box.

Only one address is given; it will usually be the address of the author to whom correspondence should be addressed, as specified by the article.
SPECIAL NAMES: ORGANISMS and GENES
To look for ORGANISMS, use both scientific and common names; include likely synonyms
chimpanzee* or pan , or:
mus or mouse or mice

Use GENE NAMES and standard ABBREVIATIONS whenever applicable:
myc, or: atpase , or: 3t3

NUMBERS AND SPECIAL CHARACTERS
NUMBERS.
Search for numbers surrounded by quotation marks, e.g., "14".

SPECIAL CHARACTERS.
Greek letters and other special characters are usually spelled out.
e.g., beta radiation, or: lambda bacteriophage

HYPHENATED WORDS.
Words written with a hyphen should be searched for as two adjacent words. Hyphens are used only in special search terms, such as author names, journal names, descriptors, subheadings, and check tags.
Enter compound words using both the one-word and two-word forms, e.g.,
alpha3 or alpha 3

SPELLING
Words in titles and abstracts are spelled as in the original. It is therefore necessary to allow for spelling variations, including especially British spelling. Often, this can be done with the "wild card" character ? , which stands for zero or one character anywhere in a word or phrase. e.g., colo?r blindness

ADJUSTING YOUR SEARCH
If you get TOO MANY results, narrow your search by adding an additional term to the query:
adhesion and cell*

If TOO FEW, include additional synonyms:
avian or bird* or ornith*

Use TRUNCATION when you can; shorten words to the smallest meaningful stem, and
add the asterisk * at the end of the word.

Use the question mark ? to stand for a single character anywhere in a word.

To look for a REVIEW ARTICLE
add the special publication type keyword review in the pt (publication type) field,
e.g. sv40 and (review in pt)
This is particularly useful when you would otherwise find too many articles.

LIMITING
Searches in Medline can be limited by year, language, and other criteria. For year or language, select the appropriate limit check box at the left of the screen.

TO LIMIT BY PUBLICATION YEAR.
Select the Publication year check box at the far left,
then choose the years from the list and click the search button.
TO LIMIT BY LANGUAGE.
Select the Language checkbox,
then choose the language you want from the scrolling list and click the search button.
Be aware that many of the articles in other languages have English abstracts.

YOU CAN ALSO LIMIT similarly by:
Medline Update CheckTag

TO LIMIT BY OTHER FACTORS, specify the limit field in the search:
Country of publication e.g., france in cp
Publication Type e.g., dna and (review in pt)
ISSN (journal code) e.g., genetics and (0092-8674 in issn)
Medline accession number an
Medline subset sb
Presence of an abstract e.g., rna and (ab in ai)

LATERAL SEARCHING:
Highlighted terms in your results can be transferred to your search; just click on them. Only authors' names, journal titles, and descriptors are highlighted.

To transfer other terms, select them with the mouse, and copy and paste them into the search box.

Special features of Medline

INDEX
The Index is an alphabetical list of all potential search terms that appear in the database. To look for a term in the Index,
click on the Index button, type the term in the box, and then click the Display button.

To use a term from the index in your search:
Either select it with the mouse, and it will automatically be searched
Or select the checkbox at its left and and click the search terms button.
You can select several terms at a time by clicking their check boxes.

The basic index display shows all the terms in the main, "free text index;" including all the search fields:
Titles, Abstracts, the fixed indexing vocabulary, Author names, Author addresses, Journal names, etc.

There are also special indexes: they include all thelimit fields:
Publication Year, Language, Country of Publication, Publication Type, CheckTag, Medline Accession Number, Update Code, Medline subset, and ISSN.

To use the special indexes, select the field type from the field box in the Index screen before selecting a term. Once you have selected a special index, it will remain set until you select a different one.

DESCRIPTORS (fixed indexing vocabulary)
Medline uses a specific fixed vocabulary for indexing, as specified by its thesaurus. The indexing terms are assigned as either major descriptors, for the primary concepts of the article, or minor descriptors, for all secondary concepts. The assignment of descriptors is very comprehensive -- usually the major descriptors alone represent the useful content.

The descriptors are assigned with standardized subheadings which serve as role indicators.

The descriptors for an article listed at the bottom of the record in the full display; they appear linked to their subheadings with hyphens. The major descriptors are distinguished in the display by asterisks ( * ) in front.

The best way to use descriptors is by lateral searching:
Click on the highlighted descriptor with the mouse.
After selecting the term, you will be transferred to the thesaurus, and you will asked to select among the relevant subheadings; you can select any or all of them.

You can also find the descriptors by using the Thesaurus--see the instructions below.

To limit a search term to the major descriptors category, use the in mjme field specification.
e.g., breast-neoplasms-drug-therapy in mjme

You need the hyphens when entering a descriptor, because they distinguish a fixed descriptor from a title or abstract phrase.

In molecular biology, it is usually not necessary to use descriptors, which are often too general. You will do better to search for distinctive words that are known to you and likely to be found in titles and abstracts.
When that does not narrow your search sufficiently, use Science citation index (Information), and look for papers that cite earlier papers that you know of.

In medicine, it is a very good idea to use descriptors. The terms used in titles and abstracts will not necessarily match the terms you have in mind, and the standardized nomenclature will retrieve all the possibilities. For example, "breast cancer" will find only a small portion of the material that is retrieved by the descriptor "breast-neoplasms".

THESAURUS
The Medline descriptors, together with cross-references and explanations, are listed in the Thesaurus. To find a term in the thesaurus:
Click the Thesaurus button at the top,
then type the term in the box, and click the jump button.

You will see a list, called the Permuted Index.
If your term matches a descriptor you will see that term highlighted.
If your term matches a cross-reference to a descriptor, you will see the reference highlighted, and can then click on the indicated descriptor.
Otherwise, you will see the closest alphabetical matches.

You can then view details about the descriptor, search for the descriptor, or search for related descriptors.

The details about a descriptor are shown in the display; the information provided includes the definition of the term, the time span the term has been used, and lists of broader, narrower, and related terms.

To search for items indexed with a particular descriptor, click the search button.
You will be asked to select among the applicable subheadings.
Select those you want, or select the choice All subheadings.

To search for related descriptors, examine the list of narrower, broader, and related terms which appears in the descriptor view.
To search any particular one,
select it from the list to go to that part of the thesaurus display;
then click the search button.

To search for a group of terms at once, use the subject "Trees". In Medline, related terms are arranged in Trees according to their hierarchial subject relationships, and are shown in the thesaurus display. To search all the terms in a particular tree:
Select the Explode button.
This finds records with that term or any of its narrower terms as a descriptor.
You will be asked to select subheadings, as for single term searching.
In some cases a term may belong to more than one tree; when you explode the term, this version of the database then explodes all the applicable trees.

SUBHEADINGS

Medline has standard ROLE DESIGNATOR SUBHEADINGS you can use with descriptors. You must enter the descriptor-subheading combination exactly as the system specifies.

One method is to look for the descriptor-subheading pairs listed together at the bottom of the full display of a found item. Then select them with the mouse, and click the add to search button at the bottom.
A second method is to select terms in the thesaurus; after selecting a base term, you will see list of possible subheadings, from which you can select any or all of them.

A third method is to look in the index where you will see them as hyphenated compounds with the main terms, e.g., heart-anatomy , etc. (They are not distinguished from the regular words by any special mark.) You can then select the ones you want with the mouse and click add to search.

Examples of the many subheadings used: Molecular biology
antagonists and inhibitors	growth and development	metabolism
biosynthesis	genetics	methods
Medicine
diagnosis	occurrence	epidemology
etiology	drug therapy	therapeutic use
A complete list of subheadings is available.

CHECKTAGS
Medline uses special indexing terms, called CheckTags, to include or exclude classes of material. The available terms are:

Animal	Human
Male	Female
In-Vitro	Case-Report	Comparative-Study
Support-Non-US-Govt	Support-US-Govt-PHS
Support-US-Govt-Non-PHS

To search them, specify the field by selecting checktag in the field selection box.

Alternatively, use Limits ; specify the check tag field, and choose the relevant term.

PUBLICATION TYPES
Medline classifies the indexed items according to publication type. Some available terms are:

Bibliography
Editorial
Letter
Multicenter-Study
Review

Clinical-Trial
Journal-article
Meta-analysis
News
Technical-report

The individual words are indexed as well as the complete phrases.

To search for a publication type, either:
Use the index, select the field publication type in the field box and choose the type,
or search, selecting the field publication type in the field box and entering the type in the search box.

A complete list of publication types is available.

SUGGEST
The system will "suggest" index terms for a word you enter (based upon the index terms used for articles that have your entry word in their titles and abstracts). To use this feature, type a word in the search: box and then click the suggest button at the right. The system will offer you a choice of potential terms. Scroll to the bottom of the screen for information about their meanings. Click on a term to see its thesaurus entry.

To search one or more of these, click on their check boxes and then click the search terms button.

STOP WORDS
Stop words are words of relatively little subject significance but frequent occurrence that are excluded from searching; a few of the many examples are:

about

almost

because

important

most

near

the

They can be included in phrases by putting them in quotes: e.g., "near" death experience?
A complete list of stopwords is available.

Reference

OPERATORS

and	Searches for the presence of both terms in the same document
or	Searches for the presence of either term in the same document
not	Searches for the presence of the first term but not the second term in the same document (documents with both terms are eliminated).
near	searches for the presence of both terms in the same sentence within a document.
near2	searches for the presence of both terms within two sentences in the same document. (Also near3, etc.)
with	searches for the presence of both terms in the same field within a document; for example, both within the abstract or both in the title.
adjacency	"adj" is NOT an operator. To search for two words next to each other, type them as a two word phrase. This gives documents with the words present next to each other, in either order: e.g. protein lipid is the same as lipid protein
in	This operator restricts a search to a particular search field, e.g., protein in ti
*	The asterisk is the truncation operator. It stands for any number of letters at the end of a word or phrase.
?	The question mark is the "wild card" operator. It stands for any one letter or zero letters in the middle or at the end of a word. e.g., behavio?r stands for behavior or behaviour
Nesting	use parentheses to group operators. e.g., *(lipid? or lipo or glyco) and (protein? or peptide?)*

SEARCHABLE FIELDS:
Most Medline fields are searched automatically, and it is not usually necessary to specify them. When greater precision is needed, specify a field by selecting the search field from the "field" box underneath the search term box. You can also do this by adding the field abbreviation to the search term, e.g., science in so, or: molecular biology in ad

The basic search fields, which search automatically and which are included in the "free text index" are:

f	"free text" field, which contains all the following:
ab	abstract of article
ad	authors' addresses
au	authors' names
cm	comment
cn	contract or grant number
gs	gene symbol (not used after 1995)
mesh	Medline subject heading, divided into: mime -- minor Medline subject heading mjme -- major Medline subject heading
nm	name of substance, for substances in the rn field
ps	personal name as subject
rn	Chemical Abstracts Service registry number or Enzyme Commission number
si	Secondary source Indicator (for sequence data bank)
so	source: journal title, volume, and pages (only the journal title is searchable)
ti	article title
to	article title, translated into English
citn	the combination of the au, issn, la, an, so, and ti fields

LIMIT FIELDS
Some fields are not searched automatically; the field name must be specified, e.g.,

spain in cp or, cp=spain

Some ( la ct py ) can also be searched as a limit.

These fields are:
ai	abstract indicator
an	Medline accession number
cp	country of publication
issn	journal number code
la	language
py	publication year
sb	Medline subset
tg	check tag
ud	Medline update

SAMPLE RECORD

MEDLINE EXPRESS (R) 1/96-9/96
TITLE:
	Germ-line inactivation of the murine Eck receptor kinase by gene trap retroviral insertion.
AUTHOR(S):
	Chen-J; Nachabah-A; Scherer-C; Ganju-P; Reith-A; Bronson-R; Ruley-HE
ADDRESS OF AUTHOR:
	Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, USA.
SOURCE (BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION):
	Oncogene.1996 Mar 7; 12(5): 979-88.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD SERIAL NUMBER:
	0950-9232
PUBLICATION YEAR:
	1996
LANGUAGE OF ARTICLE:
	ENGLISH
COUNTRY OF PUBLICATION:
	ENGLAND
ABSTRACT:
	The present study characterized a mutation in the Eck receptor tyrosine kinase gene induced by the U3betageo gene trap retrovirus. The mutation (eck(i)) was identified during an in vitro screen for proviruses that disrupt developmentally regulated genes in cultured ES cells. The germ-line eck(i) fusion gene was expressed in blastocyst and later restricted to the primitive streak, node and to regions of the hindbrain in 6.5-10.5 day embryos. [etc.--part of abstract omitted here]
MINOR MESH HEADINGS:
	Base-Sequence; Blastocyst-; Homozygote-; Membrane-Proteins-deficiency; Mice-; Mice,-Inbred-C57BL; Molecular-Sequence-Data; Mutagenesis,-Insertional-methods; [etc.]
MAJOR MeSH HEADINGS:
	Exons-genetics; Genes,-Structural-genetics; Genetic-Vectors-genetics; Membrane-Proteins-genetics; Mutagenesis,-Insertional-genetics; Proviruses-genetics; Receptor-Protein-Tyrosine-Kinase-genetics; Restriction-Mapping
CHECKTAGS:
	Animal; Female; Male; Support,-U.S.-Gov't,-P.H.S.
PUBLICATION TYPE:
	JOURNAL-ARTICLE
CONTRACT OR GRANT NUMBERS:
	1F32GM1700301GMNIGMS; RO1GM84688GMNIGMS
CAS REGISTRY NUMBER OR EC NUMBER:
	EC 2.7.1.-; 0; 0; 0
NAME OF SUBSTANCE:
	Receptor-Protein-Tyrosine-Kinase; eck-protein; Membrane-Proteins
MEDLINE ACCESSION NUMBER:
	96243041
UPDATE CODE:
	9609

Some parts of this help information are abridged and modified versions of the help information of the PubMed WWW site, at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/.

For assistance, or comments, please e-mail the Biology Library

Top of Page

Back to the Top

Biology Library
revised Dec. 4, 1997.

URL: http://www.princeton.edu/~biolib/instruct/MedW.html
Send questions/comments, requests for books/articles and suggestions for new titles to us at biolib@princeton.edu
Last updated: