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How to search PubMed

Field searching in PubMed

You can search a particular field in PubMed by selecting "Advanced" under the main search window.

This will direct you to the "Advanced Search Builder" page.

Click on the arrows next to "All fields" and select the specific field you wish to search.

Image showing the Advanced search Builder page with an arrow pointing out the dropdown arrows next to "All Fields"

A commonly chosen option is "Title".  This searches for the words found in an article title.

Type in the term(s) you would like found in the title field. (e.g. breast cancer)

Click the "Add" button.  This adds the search to the Query Box.

Screen capture of "PubMed Advanced Search Builder" page showing "Title" selected and the words "breast cancer" in the search box next to it.

PubMed adds the proper search syntax to the Query Box.  In this case...
breast cancer[Title]

Click "Search" to see the articles with breast cancer in the title.

Screen capture of the "Query box" showing the search "breast cancer[Title]".

National Library of Medicine. “Searching in a Specific Field.” PubMed User Guide, National Library of Medicine, 2024, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/help/#searching-specific-field.

National Library of Medicine. “Using Search Field Tags.” PubMed User Guide, National Library of Medicine, 2024, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/help/#using-search-field-tags.