PubMed Results Added to NLM Main Web Site Search Spotlight

In January, the NLM Main Web site search added PubMed results to its spotlight feature. The new "PubMed Citations" tab includes the first five citations returned by PubMed. The results include the title of the citation linked to its PubMed record. Clicking on the "See more article citations…" link retrieves the complete results set for the search term(s) in PubMed.

The spotlight displays up to three tabs depending on the search term(s):

• "NLM Selected Resources" highlights NLM products and services
• "MedlinePlus Health Information" highlights the most relevant MedlinePlus health topic
• "PubMed Citations" highlights the first five article citations as returned by PubMed

Searching for "asthma" (see Figure 1) retrieves results in all three tabs: the "Breath of Life" site in "NLM Selected Resources" (see Figure 2), the "Asthma" health topic in "MedlinePlus Health Information" (see Figure 3), and five article titles about asthma in "PubMed Citations" (see Figure 4). The user may select one of the other tabs to display its contents in the spotlight.

A user may also search for PubMed Identifiers (PMIDs), author names, journal title abbreviations, grant numbers, or other PubMed fields. Search tags may be included with the search term(s), but they are not necessary. For example, smith j and smith j [au] retrieve the same results, just as they would in PubMed.

If there are no results for NLM Main Web, but one or more results from PubMed, only the "PubMed Citations" tab is displayed. For example, searching for the PMID 21421807 retrieves only one result from PubMed (see Figure 5). Tabs display only when results are found.

We welcome feedback on this search enhancement. Send your comments to NLM Customer Service.