Medline Research Orientation
The MEDLINE database includes citations and abstracts for journal articles in all areas of the health and biomedical sciences. MEDLINE covers literature from 1966s to present.
Getting Started
- On the Mabee Library home page, click "Databases and Indexes".
- Scroll down and Click "MEDLINE with MeSH".
- Click
(near the top of the screen).
Search Steps
- Define your topic--what is the question you want to answer? Example: What are the effects of smoking during pregnancy?
- Identify the individual concepts within your topic (and express them as nouns). Example: smoking, pregnancy.
- Search each concept separately.
- Check the "Suggest subject headings" box.
- Delete any text in the Find: box, type in the first concept: smoking and click "Search" or press the "Enter" key.
- Look at the MEDLINE subject headings ("MeSH") and find the best match to your concept: Smoking. You might need to look at several screens of headings to find the best match. Use
and 
to move between screens. - Check the Explode box to the right of the subject heading. (If there is no Explode box, check the box left of the subject heading.)
- Click "Add" to add the subject heading to your search.
- Click "Search" to create a set of citations about your first concept.
- Repeat these steps for the second concept: pregnancy to create a second set of citations.
- Combine the sets to find citations about your topic.
- Delete any text in the Find: box.
- Remove the check from the "Suggest subject headings" box.
- Type the set numbers you want to combine, separated by "and", in the Find: box: s1 and s2 and click "Search" or press the "Enter" key.
- Limit the results.
- Leave your last search: s1 and s2 in the Find: box.
- Click "Revise" to the right of the set to limit.
- Remove the check from the "Suggest subject headings" box.
- Select the limits you want to apply to the results. Commonly used limits include "Date Published" (in YYYY format), "English Language", and "Human". (There are no limits for peer reviewed journals or research-based articles.)
- Select additional limits, such as age, gender, etc. if appropriate.
- Click "Search".
Viewing Results and Selecting Citations
- Click a number under Results to see a list of citations.
- Click on the title of a citation if you want to see more detail. Click Result List or the "Back" button in your browser to return to the list of citations.
- Select interesting citations by clicking Add
at the end of the citation line. - 10 citations are displayed on a page. Click or or a page number to move between the pages. Continue until you have selected all the citations you need.
Printing Selected Citations
- When you have selected all the citations that you want to print, click Folder.
- Click
Print. - If you just want to print citations (not references or abstracts), remove the check from all the Include: options.
- Click the gray "Print" button to display what you want to print. The software does not accurately estimate the number of pages that will be printed.
- Use your browser command(s) to print.
- To continue searching, click
Back, and then enter a new term in the Find: window
Printing Full Text Articles
- If you are accessing MEDLINE from off campus, you need to install Adobe Acrobat reader software on your computer in order to display full text.
- Click Full Text under a citation to see the full text of an article. (If there is no Full Text link, click on the title of the citation, and then click Full Text on the next screen.) You might need to click some additional links, in the next windows that appear, to get to the full text.
- If there is a choice, select the format (HTML or PDF) you prefer.
- Use your browser command(s) to print.
- To return to the list of citations, click Citation or Back and then click Result List.
Finding Journal Articles in the Library
- Search the "Periodicals List" option on the Mabee Library home page, to see if the Library owns a journal and where it is located. Use the title of the journal ("Source"), not the title of the article.
- To get copies of journal articles that the Library does not own, contact a librarian at the Reference Desk.
Last but not least... a great site to consult when you get around to writing the paper. This is a great, how-to, site for beginners. The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing.
Questions? Consult a Reference Librarian (829-3835) for assistance.
