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How to search PubMed

Saving your search history

There are two main reasons why you might want to save your search history.  One, you might want to save your search and run it again at a later date. And two, you might want to capture your search history to share with a professor or a librarian.  

Save your search to run again later

You can save your search in PubMed to run it again at a later date.  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 search to run 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. Click Create Alert (link) below the search box.
  5. Fill in the form:
    1. Type in a name for your search, something meaningful you will remember later.
    2. To save the search to run later. Click the radio button next to No in response to the question "Would you like email updates of new search results?"
    3. Click Save (button).
  6. Click Continue.

Note: if you created your search before signing in, start at step 4.  You will be prompted to login with your My NCBI credentials.

To run your saved search:

  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 the Saved Searches box, click on the name of your search to run it again.

Save your search history to share

Sometimes a professor or librarian will want to see how you searched. You can share your search history either as text or an image. Ask the person you are sharing with which is their preference.

To share your search history as text:

  1. From PubMed main search page, search PubMed.
  2. Click Advanced  (link; below the search box).
  3. Scroll to the History and Search Details (table), click the Download (button).
  4. This downloads a .csv file which can be opened in spreadsheet software.

To share your search history as an image:

  1. From PubMed main search page, search PubMed.
  2. Click Advanced (link; below the search box).
  3. Use a screen capture tool to select and copy the search history table.
  4. Paste the image into your document or email.