PubMed
PubMed
Free search and discovery service for biomedical and life-sciences literature and related resources.
Developer:
National Library of Medicine (NIH)
Our Take
PubMed is an essential starting point for many biomedical and life-sciences searches, offering free access to citations and abstracts and links to full text when available. Its structured indexing and search tools can help researchers narrow a clinical or scientific question, combine concepts, and identify relevant literature more precisely than a general web search.
PubMed is not a guarantee that every relevant study is included, nor does inclusion mean that a paper's findings are reliable. Full text may be hosted elsewhere or require access, and effective searching often requires careful use of Medical Subject Headings, synonyms, and field tags.
Use PubMed to build and refine biomedical searches, checking both controlled vocabulary and free-text terms. For a systematic review, save the exact search strategy and date, follow the review protocol, and consider other databases when the question spans disciplines or requires comprehensive coverage.
Key Features
Biomedical literature indexing, MeSH and field-specific search, Advanced Boolean queries, Search filters and saved alerts
Best For
Biomedical literature discovery
Research Tasks
Search clinical and biomedical evidence; develop a reproducible health-sciences search; find studies for a systematic review; monitor new publications on a medical topic.
Pricing
$0 — free biomedical literature search and citations. Full text may be available free through PubMed Central or publisher sites, but not every linked article is free.