How to configure a PubMed Feed

About PubMed

PubMed is a platform maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) that provides free access to a vast database of biomedical and life sciences literature. It includes millions of citations and abstracts from journals, books, and research articles, supporting healthcare professionals, researchers, and students in finding reliable scientific information. With a focus on accessibility and evidence-based knowledge, PubMed plays a critical role in advancing medical research, education, and clinical practice.

Introduction

Create, filter, and connect the feed based on your content preferences. Enable the connector in the portal

To connect an PubMed Feed to your Inbox, follow these steps:

Navigate to Inboxes and open your Inbox. Select InfoLab from the More menu on the far right in the top menu of the inbox.
Click the New Feed button and select the PubMed feed in the drop-down menu.
Alternatively, click the New Feed button on the connectors tile to go to the Preview and Add Filter page, where you can apply filters to select specific content from PubMed.

Preview and filter a PubMed Feed

Use the Filter menu to the left to add filters to your feed. This step is very important to reduce the amount of data and ensure that the information that reaches your inbox is relevant

The filter menu offers various search options that can be combined to optimize your search results and filter. These options include a free text search and PubMed specific filters and facets.
- To search for specific keywords or phrases, use the search bars under the Text section, which includes Title, and Description.
- To narrow down the search, use the facets under the PubMed filters along with the AND, OR, and NOT operators to further refine your search. Note that the filters and facets are only enabled when content matches the filters.
  Read more about the Filter Options under the “Filter Options” section below. More information about combining keywords and creating search strings is available in Help.
Preview the filter result in the Preview Post list and adjust your filter options until you are satisfied with the outcome.
The chart above the post list displays the number of retrieved posts within the specified Time period, providing an estimate of the amount of information your feed will generate over time. You can change the time period by clicking the Calendar button above the chart.

Red bars indicate that your feed will generate more information than is allowed in your inbox. Change your filters until the bars are all yellow.

3.When you are satisfied with your filter, click the Save button to save your new feed. Alternatively, you can click the Next button to proceed to the create page.

On the create page, you can change the name and description of your updated feed and select another target inbox.
Optionally: Check the Restricted checkbox to prevent others from updating the feed. When restricted a padlock icon will be shown on the Feed in InfoLab.
Press Save to save/update the feed. Your feed is now connected to your inbox and available from the Feed page in InfoLab.

Filter Options

This section contains information about the Filter options for the PubMed feeds.

The filter menu offers various search options that can be combined to optimize your search results.

These options include free text search, Advanced Query, and PubMed-specific filters. Most of the filters provide predefined facet options that you can select from to specify your filter. Note that filters and facets are only enabled when content matches the filters.

Use the AND, OR, and NOT operators to refine your search further.

Use the OR operator to include one or the other facet within a filter category. This gives a broad search.
Use the AND operator to require that both facets are included within a filter category. This narrows the search.
Use the NOT operator to exclude specified facets within a filter category.

Your search result will be displayed above the bar chart to provide an overview of your chosen filters. With more than four facet buttons, click the Show more button to view all facets.

If the post list view is empty, no content matches your search within the set time period or filters. Change the Time period or adjust the filters and preview the result. The default period is “Past week”.

Advanced Query

The Advanced Query Filter empowers you to craft highly specific search queries and allows you to target your search by entering criteria directly for each supported indexed field. Use the advanced Query to refine your search results and pinpoint the exact information you require.

Using the Advanced Query Filters

Define a field search operation using fieldName:searchExpression syntax. The search expression can be a single word, a phrase, or a more complex expression (in parentheses), optionally with Boolean operators. For example:

title:(federal NOT local)

The field specified in fieldName:searchExpression must be an indexed field. Click the info button in the Advanced Query filter to view the supported fields.

Text Filter

The Text filter allows for free text searches. You can use a single keyword, combine several keywords, or create a complete search string.

You can choose to search in the Title, Description, or Content depending on how wide or narrow you want your filter to be.

Title: Only include content matching your search query in the article title. This is the narrowest text search.

Description: Search in the article Description for a broader search.

Predefined Filters and facets

The PubMed Feed Filter menu includes a range of predefined filter and facet options. Use the filter search bar and then click on the facet buttons to set your filter.

Medline Citation Status: Search by Medline citation status or use predefined facets to filter, use NOT to exclude, select one or several, note preview list empties if no matching status content.

Publication Model: Search by publication model or use predefined facets to filter, use NOT to exclude, select one or several, note preview list empties if no matching model content.

Language: Search by language or use predefined facets to filter, use NOT to exclude, select one or several, note preview list empties if no content in selected language.

Medline Journal Country: Search by Medline journal country or use predefined facets to filter, use NOT to exclude, select one or several, click “Show more” for options, note preview list empties if no matching country content.

Publication Type: Search by publication type or use predefined facets to filter, use NOT to exclude, select one or several, click “Show more” for options, note preview list empties if no matching type content.

Authors: Search by authors or use predefined facets to filter, use NOT to exclude, select one or several, click “Show more” for options, note preview list empties if no matching author content.

Mesh Heading: Search by Mesh heading or use predefined facets to filter, use NOT to exclude, select one or several, click “Show more” for options, note preview list empties if no matching Mesh content.

Best Practices

Text Query

A good start when filtering content is to start with a text query.

You can use one single keyword or several keywords or create a complete search string. You can read more about how to combine keywords and create search strings in Help.

Depending on how wide or narrow you would like your search to be, you can search only the Title or the Description.

Filters and facets

Use predefined filters and facets to specify your search. Use the filters that best match your query. Use the AND, OR, and NOT operators to refine your search.

The list of posts that appears when you add filters allows you to preview the filters before applying them. Review the preview post list to ensure that the posts retrieved by the filter meet your expectations.

Optionally, use additional filters and facets to refine your search.

Good to Know

Time Period

When choosing the Time Period for the preview post list, you have the option of selecting from the past 24 hours, past week, past month, Past three months, past six months. The default time period is the past week.

Max Number of Posts

If your filter retrieves more posts than allowed, the chart bars will turn red, and you will be prompted to adjust your filter.

Note that the maximum number of posts accepted in Inboxes is 100 posts per day.

Text Query Highlights

Words matching the text query keywords are highlighted in the title and article content in the preview post list to assist you in reviewing the articles and their relevance.

Manage PubMed Feeds

You can manage all your feeds from the InfoLab Feeds page.

To manage your feeds, follow these steps:

Navigate to the InfoLab Feeds page from the main menu or start from your Inbox and select InfoLab from the More menu.
Use the search bar at the top of the page to find your feed.
Click the Menu button to the far right on the feed row to open the menu.
Select Edit to open the "Preview and add Filter" page, and edit the feed. In the "Preview and filter" section, you can find more instructions on how to edit a feed.
Select Set Automatic Categorization to tag all posts from this feed automatically. Use the search bar or open the taxonomy to find and select categories. Press Save.
Select Deactivate to pause your feed. A pause button will appear on the feed, and the feed will stop retrieving posts to your inbox. Clicking Activate in the feed menu will reactivate the feed.
To change the inbox where the feed is directed, click on Select Inbox and select another inbox.
Select Delete to delete the feed from InfoLab.