The Bottom Line
- Search in passes: start broad, then narrow with filters and field tags.
- Use phrase searching for exact concepts, and OR for synonyms.
- When you find one strong paper, use “Similar articles” and “Cited by” to jump, not crawl.
- MeSH is your accuracy upgrade when keywords get messy.
The mental model
PubMed is not Google. Your aim is to construct a query that is explicit about (a) the concept, (b) the context, and (c) what you are willing to exclude. The biggest speed gain is learning to iterate the query deliberately instead of randomly clicking.
Common failure mode
If you are not finding anything, it is usually a query design problem, not an “evidence doesn’t exist” problem. Remove constraints first (filters, extra concepts), then rebuild deliberately.
SourcePubMed Help (official): search features, filters, and tools
Open Link SourceNLM MeSH (official): what it is and how to use it
Open Link