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Tip#66: Searching for author names in PubMed (an overview, headaches, and an Excel shortcut!)

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As a librarian, a common part of my job is to generate reports for departments on their publication outputs. Namely, this consists of creating a PubMed (or sometimes Scopus) search based on a list of names provided to me by the department. After a few years of these requests, I've been able to compile some insights, and, perhaps most importantly, shortcuts to speed up the process in PubMed.  As a note, I will only be discussing generating the author names search string, and not how to structure affiliation search strings (which is a whole other can of worms!). Basic structure of a PubMed author name search Author searches in PubMed are structured as last name followed by initials (e.g., Wilson P[au] OR Wilson PJ[au] ). PubMed automatically applies truncation to the last initial in the name without the need for truncation (in fact, using truncation with an author name can cause issues with the search, as discussed in the following section). This automatic truncation feature he...
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Tip#65: Search String Theory - Applying pairwise combinatorics to PubMed searches

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Many thanks to Marijane White for this week's post!  Introducing the Pairwise PubMed Search Generator! The Pairwise PubMed Search Generator is a tool designed to streamline the creation of complex PubMed search strings. By using two lists of input terms, you can quickly generate search queries that can either be copied to your clipboard or launched directly in PubMed with a single click. This tool can save you thousands of keystrokes and help prevent errors in intricate search constructions.   Continue reading to learn more about PubMed’s pairwise search functionality, a brief overview of pairwise combinatorics, and of course, the tool itself. PubMed’s proximity search functionality The National Library of Medicine announced the addition of long-awaited proximity search capability to PubMed in the fall of 2022 . Initially only available in the Title and Title/Abstract fields, it was later made available for the Affiliation field as well, where it also limits the search to i...
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Tip #64: Resource links for EBSCOhost's new UI: roadmaps and release notes and help files, oh my!

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EBSCOhost feels like it's taking over the blog right now, but this is a time of transition for the platform, and there's keen interest in understanding how the new UI impacts how we use it now and into the future. Here are some links to keep up with the rapid-fire changes and ways they affect the work of expert searchers! What's new and upcoming: The Research Platforms Roadmap filtered to EBSCOhost New EBSCO User Interfaces – Release Notes New EBSCO User Interface Updates for Advanced Search and Systematic Reviews EBSCO Experience Manager – Release Notes  (ways to customize your institution's interface!) Essential help files: EBSCO Database Help Files  (now in Connect rather than the database platform itself) Searching with Field Codes (downloadable comprehensive list for all databases) From the UX Caucus: EBSCOhost Idea Exchange: A Synthesis of Reported Issues  (December 2025) Problems, tickets, and enhancement requests in thirteen categories (e.g., search box behavio...
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Tip #63: Customization of the new EBSCOhost UI: turning on EBSCOhost's Advanced Search Results Page

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One big frustration expert searchers have identified in the new EBSCOhost user interface (UI) is the inaccessibility of the search history when viewing search results. Never fear! You can now customize the functionality of the Advanced Search Results Page -- or at least, your institution's EBSCO administrator can. The Advanced version of the Advanced Search Results Page (yes, we recognize that language is a little redundant) puts the Search history toggle between the search boxes and results, similar to the old UI, and offers some of the old search history options. The Search history here operates similarly to, but not exactly the same as, Recent activity in My dashboard in the left navigation sidebar. When toggled open on the Advanced Search Results Page, Search history allows you to: Select sets and combine them with either AND or OR using the provided buttons. (Just typing set numbers and Boolean operators in the search boxes also still works, no matter what search page you...
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Tip #62: EBSCOhost Idea Exchange: A Synthesis of Reported Issues

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On November 19th, 2025, the User Experience (UX) Caucus of the Medical Library Association hosted the EBSCOhost Idea Exchange, an open forum for the library community to come together with their questions, solutions, outstanding issues, and suggested enhancements for the new EBSCOhost user interface (UI). Hundreds of information professionals contributed their expertise at the event itself, as well as through Padlet posts and collaborative Google Docs. The Evidence Synthesis Methods Interest Group (Association of College & Research Libraries, American Library Association) also shared dozens of extant EBSCO Connect tickets for EBSCOhost's new UI.  The UX Caucus team has synthesized all of these contributions into a single PDF report,  EBSCOhost Idea Exchange: A Synthesis of Reported Issues , available on the UX Caucus OSF site . Please share this resource widely! We have already shared it with representatives at EBSCO at their request.  We know this snapshot report is ...
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Tip #61: Mismatched MeSH in EBSCOhost APA PsycInfo

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You may have noticed that some references in EBSCOhost APA PsycInfo have two subject heading sections. One is labeled--somewhat ambiguously-- Subjects ; the other is more clearly marked as  Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) . Subjects  are, of course, from the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. According to APA, "approximately 33% of APA PsycInfo records are cross-listed in PubMed," and the MeSH field in APA PsycInfo was introduced in 2016 . A logical assumption, then, is that records since that date would include MeSH and that the terms in that section would match exactly what appears in whatever flavor of MEDLINE you search (EBSCOhost MEDLINE, PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE). But no! Here's an example, using the article  8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction induces brain changes similar to traditional long-term meditation practice—A systematic review  (doi:  10.1016/j.bandc.2016.07.001 ). These are the relevant sections from that reference in EBSCOhost APA P...
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Tip #60: Controlled vocabulary field codes and their discontents in EBSCOhost APA PsycInfo

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The APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms is an essential indexing tool that is also an indispensable searching tool. That said, its utility in systematic searching is highly dependent on interface. Ovid APA PsycInfo In Ovid APA PsycInfo, per the Ovid Database Guide , the following searchable field codes for APA Thesaurus terms are available: SH: Subject Headings [Phrase Indexed] The Subject Headings (SH) field contains the Subject Headings (also known as "descriptors" or "index terms") from the American Psychological Association's Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. Indexers at the APA use the terms to describe the topic or content of a document. HW:  Heading Word [Word Indexed] The Heading Word (HW) index allows you to retrieve every subject heading that includes a particular word by searching a single word in the Subject Heading (SH) field. In addition, there is a MeSH field in APA PsycInfo that can be searched using the following field codes: MH M...
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Tip #59: Getting Up Close and Personal with Database Proximity Syntax

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Written by Hilary Kraus and Zahra Premji Why is proximity searching valuable? In systematic searching, there is an inherent tension between sensitivity and precision. According to the Cochrane Handbook, "Searches for systematic reviews aim to be as extensive as possible in order to ensure that as many of the relevant studies as possible are included in the review. It is, however, necessary to strike a balance between striving for comprehensiveness and maintaining relevance when developing a search strategy." ( Chapter 4, Section 4.4.3: Sensitivity versus precision ) One strategy for achieving this balance is the use of proximity operators. As explained in the Cochrane Handbook's Technical Supplement to Chapter 4, "Use of proximity operators helps to ensure that searches are more sensitive than would be the case with direct adjacency or phrase searching, and can also facilitate ease of searching where there are multiple possible variations of a phrase which would othe...
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