How to search PubMed

PubMed offers you the option to create a My NCBI account that allows you to access extra features. These include:

• useful settings
  • highlighting search terms
  • set your default filters
  • link to University of Manitoba Libraries.
• save and organize citations without citation management software
• save searches
• create alerts

PubMed and NCBI uses third party login to create accounts. Options include but are not limited to Google Gmail, University of Manitoba, and ORCiD. While you only need one PubMed account, if you become disconnected from that account by your third-party you may need to create a new account.

1. Turn off these browser extensions if you are using them (see section Problem Browser Extensions for details):
   1. Lean Library Browser Extension
   2. Zotero Web Connector
2. Go to PubMed.gov
3. Click the Login (button; upper right hand corner of the PubMed main page).
4. PubMed uses third party login to create accounts.  Decide which you'd like to use from the list and follow the on screen instructions.
   1. IF you'd like to use your UM credentials follow these instructions:
      1. Click More Login Options (button; bottom of list)
      2. Type University of Manitoba into the search box.
      3. Click the check box next to University of Manitoba Libraries.
      4. Login with your UM credentials using your full UM email address and email password.
5. When you see Create a new NCBI account (default setting is checked), click Continue (button)

You should now see your account email address in the upper upper right hand corner of the PubMed main page, indicating you have successfully created an account.

Some installed browser extensions such as Zotero Web Importer and Lean Library Browser Extension can create error messages when you are first trying to create your PubMed account.  It's best to temporarily disable or uninstall them before you create your PubMed account.  

Disabling Browser Extensions

Google Chrome

1. Open Chrome.
2. Select More. More tools. Extensions.
3. Turn off the extension you want to disable.

Safari

1. Choose Safari > Settings (or Preferences), then click Extensions.
2. To turn off an extension, deselect its checkbox.

FireFox

1. Click the menu button. , click Add-ons and themes and select Extensions. The Add-ons Manager Manage Your Extensions page will open in a new tab.
2. Scroll through the list of extensions.
3. Click the blue toggle for the extension you wish to disable.

Microsoft Edge

1. In Microsoft Edge, select Extensions located to the right of your browser address bar, then select Manage extensions.
2. Select the toggle next to the extension you want to turn off.

Don't forget to turn them back on again!

Zotero Web Connector for Google Chrome

Highlighting search terms

By default, PubMed bolds all terms used in a search.  To make it easier to see what you have searched for you can also highlight those terms.

1. Go to PubMed.
2. Click Login (button).
3. Sign in to your PubMed Account.
4. Click your account email (upper right hand side of PubMed main page).
5. From the menu, click Dashboard (link).
6. Look for and click on NCBI Site Preferences (link).
7. In the Common Preferences section, click on Highlighting (link).
8. Select the colour you'd like to use to highlight your search terms (e.g. light yellow).
9. Click Save (button).

Set your default filters

If you find yourself changing PubMed's default filters to get to your favourites, consider saving those changes to your PubMed account!

1. Go to PubMed.
2. Click Login (button).
3. Sign in to your PubMed Account.
4. Click your account email (upper right hand side of PubMed main page).
5. From the menu, click Dashboard (link).
6. Look for and click on NCBI Site Preferences (link).
7. In the PubMed Preferences section, click on Filters & Icons (link).
8. Explore options under Browse/Search for PubMed Filters and select those that you use most often. (e.g. Age filters)
   1. To add specific age groups to your default filters, under Select Category section click Properties (radio button).
   2. Look for Age Groups (in the table below) and click the plus + sign next to it.
   3. Click the check box(es) next to the age groups you use most often (e.g. Adolescent, Aged, All Adult, Child, Infant, Young Adult)

The next time you search PubMed, login to your account and your filters are displayed at the top of the filter list.

Link to UM Libraries

There are many different ways to link PubMed into the UM Libraries and access our collections.  This connection can also be embedded in your PubMed Account.

1. Go to PubMed.
2. Click Login (button).
3. Sign in to your PubMed Account.
4. Click your account email (upper right hand side of PubMed main page).
5. From the menu, click Dashboard (link).
6. Look for and click on NCBI Site Preferences (link).
7. In the PubMed Preferences section, click on Outside Tool (link).
8. Click on the U (tab), look for U. Manitoba Libraries - Check Access and click the check box next to it.

The next time you search PubMed, login to your account and search using the skills shown in this guide.  When you find an article you want to read click on the Check Access (button) to see what you have access to through the UM Libraries.

You can use your My NCBI (PubMed) account as a way to gather and save citations. This requires you set up a free My NCBI account.

To create a free My NCBI account (only needs to be done once):

(see PubMed Account for instructions)

To save your citations to work with later:

1. From PubMed search window, click on Login (link; top right of the page).
2. Select your login option, type in your login credentials.
3. Search PubMed.
4. Check the box next to the citation(s) you want to save.
5. Click Send to (button) and select Collections.  Choose from:
   1. Create a new collection. Type in a meaningful name for your collection.
   2. Add to an existing collection. Select the collection you want to add the citation to.
6. Click Add (button).
7. The selected citations will be saved to that collection.

To view your Collections:

1. From PubMed search window, click on Login (link; top right of the page).
2. Select your login option, type in your login credentials.
3. Click on your Profile (top right of the page).
4. Click Dashboard (link).
5. Under Collections do one of the following as needed:
   1. Click on the title for your collection to view all the citations.
   2. Click edit (link) to edit the settings for this collection, save the collection to a text file or a .csv file.
   3. Click Gear / Cog (icon) to change collection sharing settings.
   4. Click Manage collections (link) to delete or merge collections.

“Save Citations Indefinitely Using My NCBI Collections.” PubMed Help Page, 14 Feb. 2024, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/help/#save-citations-to-collection.

National Library of Medicine. “Collections.” My NCBI Help [Internet], National Center for Biotechnology Information (US), 2021. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53590/.