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2007 NOVEMBER–DECEMBER; 359
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November 09, 2007 [posted]
November 15, 2007 [sentence corrected]
January 29, 2008 [Editor's note added]

Consumer Health Journal Subset Clarification

[Editor's note: The subset, "consumerj," was eliminated on January 29, 2008.]

m edlinePlus® health topic pages usually have links to PubMed® searches. In the past, these search strategies were often limited to citations from a group of consumer health journals by adding consumerj [sb] to the search. This subset was originally created for temporary use by NLM® for MedlinePlus searches. It was not intended for use by PubMed searchers although some searchers came across it. The subset, jsubsetk, is available for PubMed searching. This subset includes complete retrieval for citations in PubMed for a group of consumer health journals indexed for MEDLINE®. To limit to those citations in a search, include the string jsubsetk with no search tag. This past spring, all PubMed search strategies for MedlinePlus health topics that included consumerj[sb] were changed from consumerj [sb] to jsubsetk.

In January 2008, the subset, "consumerj," will be eliminated. PubMed users should replace consumerj[sb] with jsubsetk in any search strategies in use.

As of November 2007, the following consumer health journals are part of jsubsetk:

Currently Indexed Titles:

Full Journal Title Journal Title Abbreviation
Alternative medicine review: a journal of clinical therapeutic Altern Med Rev
Breastfeeding review: professional publication of the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia Breastfeed Rev
Child health alert Child Health Alert
Diabetes forecast Diabetes Forecast
Diabetes self-management Diabetes Self Manag
FDA consumer FDA Consum
Harvard health letter / from Harvard Medical School Harv Health Lett
Harvard heart letter : from Harvard Medical School Harv Heart Lett
Harvard men’s health watch Harv Mens Health Watch
The Harvard mental health letter / from Harvard Medical School Harv Ment Health Lett
Harvard women’s health watch Harv Womens Health Watch
Health news (Waltham, Mass.) Health News
Heart advisor / the Cleveland Clinic Heart Advis
The Johns Hopkins medical letter health after 50 Johns Hopkins Med Lett Health After 50
Mayo Clinic health letter (English ed.) Mayo Clin Health Lett
Mayo Clinic women’s healthsource Mayo Clin Womens Healthsource
Newsweek Newsweek (selectively indexed)
Time Time (selectively indexed)
US news & world rep US News World Rep (selectively indexed)


Ceased/Absorbed Titles:

Full Journal Title Journal Title Abbreviation
InTouch (Melville, N.Y.) InTouch
(indexed January-September 2002 for jsubsetk; ceased 2002)
Medscape women’s health Medscape Womens Health
(indexed January 1998-September/October 2002 for jsubsetk; absorbed by MedGenMed which is not part of jsubsetk)


The journals chosen for jsubsetk are journals written for consumers, among other audiences. Because many healthcare journals publish individual articles meant for the consumer or patient, for a more comprehensive search we suggest you search for your subject with, jsubsetk OR patient education handout [pt]. This Publication Type (PT) value was introduced in 2002.

Example: diabetes AND (jsubsetk OR patient education handout [pt])

Please note that the subset value K is assigned automatically to all citations from the journals listed above. Indexers do not assign this value to individual articles. [Correction: This sentence was corrected on November 15, 2007.]

By Janet R. Zipser
MEDLARS Management Section
and
Lori Klein
Reference & Web Services Section
and
Andrew Plumer
Reference & Web Services Section

Zipser JR, Klein L, Plumer A. Consumer Health Journal Subset Clarification. NLM Tech Bull. 2007 Nov-Dec; (359):e2.

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