A roadmap for searching literature in PubMed: Truncation and phrases

You can use the truncation symbol * (asterisk) to search for multiple variants of a word (singular/plural/conjugations etc) all at once. PubMed will then search all words and word combinations that start with the letters you indicate. For example: if depress* is your search term, the search will cover all words starting with ‘depress’, such as depression, depressive, depressed, depressing, depressant, depressor, depressed, etc.

Be careful: 

• Use it at the end of the root of your term (minimum of at least four characters).
• You can use truncation with a minimum of at least four characters

  Example: boy*[tiab] is not possible, so use: boy[tiab] OR boys[tiab] OR boyhood[tiab]

• It's not possible to truncate between two words. So use it only at the end of the last word:  "anti-bacterial agent*"[tiab]
• Be careful where to put the * 

  For example: a search in Pubmed for test*[ti] will also find results about testosterone.
  If you are you searching for tests or testing, use: test[tiab] OR tests[tiab] OR testing[tiab]

Most literature databases allow searches with single or double inverted commas (quotation marks) for fixed word phrases. Use double quotation marks in PubMed.

For example: "anti-bacterial agents"

Please note: unlike other databases, in PubMed you can only truncate the last word in the phrase.

The example below shows the difference in the number of hits in different variants. Click on the terms and check the Search Details.

Example: Difference in using quotes with and without [tiab]

• PubMed only recognizes double quotation marks(“...”)
• When using truncation or quotation marks, PubMed will not convert the search terms to MeSH.

After performing your search, check the Search Details  in the Search History. Click on the arrow next to your query.