Ovid MEDLINE

If you know the MeSH heading for the topic you want to search, you can bypass the menu-driven method and type your search in the text box. The results of this search statement will be immediately posted as a set.

For example: exp *myocardial infarction/et

In the example above, the exp indicates that the MeSH term "myocardial infarction" should be exploded to include all narrower headings; the asterisk * restricts the retrieval to articles in which myocardial infarction is considered a major focus of the article; and the /et restricts to the subheading "etiology." You can apply as many subheadings as you want by entering their two-letter codes after the forward slash, separated by commas. To include all subheadings, use just the forward slash followed by nothing. Remember: you must use an established MeSH term and it must be followed by a forward slash. If you fail to use MeSH terms, your retrieval will be zero - a misleading result.

In general, you can execute any type of search from the main search box. Simply type the search statement, as it would have appeared, had you done your search using the menu-driven method.

Specific fields, other than the subject field, may also be searched directly from the main search screen. Using the appropriate two-letter field identifier, set off by periods, allows for searching in any field. You can search multiple fields at the same time.

For example: heart attack.ti,ab. 

Here are some of the more common and useful fields to search and their corresponding two-letter codes: 

The "adj" command allows searching by title or textword for terms that apear NEAR each other. The examples below would retrieve titles in which the word cancer is found within five words of the word history in the title of the article (cancer might appear before or after history).

cancer.ti. adj5 history.ti

(cancer adj5 history).ti.

Combine sets using AND, OR, NOT and parentheses.

To combine sets: (1 or 2) and (3 or 4)

To combine with a search statement: 4 and cancer.ti.

To combine search statements: smith t$.au. and cardiac.ti.

$, # and ? are truncation symbols, or "wildcards," that allow you to include various forms of a word in your search. Not all fields support truncation. Truncation can be used with textword searching or with field specification to the title or the author. You can never use truncation when searching by MeSH subject headings. The proper usages of the truncation symbols are:

You can also limit sets from the main search box instead of using the LIMIT feature from the menu. In the examples below, the number two represents the search statement number on which the limit is performed. (Note: The character after the period is a lower case L, not the number 1.)