Practical guides ↗

PubMed · Literature searching

Build concept-based queries

Make a health-literature search understandable and reproducible.

3 min readScope: Web

Try it in three steps

  1. Group alternative terms for one concept with OR.
  2. Combine different concept groups with AND and parentheses.
  3. Review search history and query translation under Advanced.

How to read the output

Example: (sleep OR insomnia) AND students. Record the query, date and filters.

Test your understanding.

True or false?

You can group synonyms with OR and join different concept groups with AND.

Related concepts

Official source

PubMed · Documentation ↗

Documentation checked: . Steps are based on official documentation and have not been tested in the application. Menu names may differ by version and interface language.