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PubMed

Guide to using PubMed.

PubMed: Save your search strategy

Saving searches and creating alerts

It's a good idea to save your search so that you can run it again at a later date and so you have a record of your search strategy. You can also set up an alert, to receive an email / notification when new articles matching your search criteria are added to the PubMed database.

create alert link

To save searches and create alerts you will need a My NCBI account. You can save searches and create alerts from the simple search screen.

After running your search, select Create alert  from below the search box. You will be taken to a Your saved search search screen where you can choose a name for your saved search.

Saved searches can be found in your Dashboard (My NCBI). New results since your searches were last run can be easily retrieved. 

You can choose whether you would like to receive e-mail updates of your search to alert you when new references that fulfill your search criteria are added to PubMed. 

your saved search screen

 If you opt to receive email updates then you can set the frequency, day and other setting as required. To receive files suitable for import into reference management software such as EndNote you should set the Report format to PubMed. Consider increasing the number of items to send from the default setting of 5 items. 

set alert settings