Cubby requires that you register and that your system
accepts cookies. Registration is free. If you don't know anything about cookies your
system probably does accept them (they are small files which the site attaches to your
system to follow where you go).
If you haven't already registered click
on the link to go through the registration process. Otherwise Login
| Unless you have been here before you will be told that
nothing is currently stored. However, if you want to store the current search you can
re-name it by editing the "Cubby Search Name" in the text box and then store it by clicking on the button |
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The page shows that you have saved one search called
bilateral intertrochanteric fractures. If you were to select it by clicking on the #1
checkbox, then clicking on "What's New for Selected" (arrow) the facility would
provide all the articles that had been published since the last time you searched. This
would be extremely helpful for keeping up with the literature on a specific topic. Since
you have only just stored it there is no point in doing this now.
| Suppose you want to come back to this search project.
Access the Cubby site and click on the Search Name link |
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| The page will display the basic information about the
search including the search string To do the search click on the button |
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| Clicking on the Details
link shows that PubMed has translated the search string to include all hip
fractures |
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| However, editing the
search string thus doesn't help at all |
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Somewhat later I realized that "Bilateral"
was not really what I meant and tried a search for "sequential" hip fractures.
This seems more likely to be useful so I am going to store that instead of the
"bilateral search"
| Click on the link to
Cubby again and Edit the Search Name
to something appropriate. Click on Store in Cubby |
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| To delete the previous useless search click on the checkbox for the search (#1) then click on Delete Selected Searches |
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| The Sequential Hip Fracture search is now stored. |
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Storing the search string
In some respects this is the easiest thing to do if you
are comfortable creating and finding files in your computer. You may need to create a
folder in My Documents and call it PubMed_Searches. If you don't know how to do that, this
is not a good plan for you!
| From the PubMed page click
on Details and select all the text in the
PubMed Query Box. |
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Copy the text
to "Clipboard" (Control C)
Open a Word Processing
file (Notebook will be fine) and paste the contents of the clipboard to
this file. (Control V).
Save the file
in PubMed_Searches as a text file. Make sure the name of the file is something you will
associate with the search subject. Alternatively you can have one file and add search
strings to it, with appropriate introduction.
Later when you need to do the search again you can open
the file and copy and paste the search string to the PubMed entry box.
If this is all new to you, this is not
the best way to do this; use Cubby instead.
Unfortunately, if you have used the history facility
this will not work as the history is not carried over from one session ot the next.
Storing the URL
The URL is the Universal Resource Locator, or address
on the Internet. PubMed addresses are very complex as the pages are created on-the-fly by
the search engine. The information on how to create the pages has to be included in the
URL. So if the search string gets complicated, the URL looks super-complicated.
Fortunately you don't have to remember it, interpret it or type it out. All you need to do
is store it and transcribe it accurately.
This is the URL for the sequential intertrochanteric
fractures search (it won't bite :-)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=PureSearch&db=PubMed&
details_term=%28sequential%5BAll%20Fields%5D%20AND%20%28%22
hip%20fractures%22%5BMeSH%20Terms%5D%20OR%20intertrochanteric%20
fractures%5BText%20Word%5D%29%29
If you know how to do it, it is much better to store
this URL as a link. The same information is in the link Search for Sequential IT Fractures but is decently concealed!
PubMed makes you do an extra step to find and copy the
URL.
| After you have done a search open
the Details page Click
on the URL button |
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The search is repeated but the URL for the search
appears in the Address line of your browser.
Click on it once
to select the whole line, even the parts you cannot see. Press
Control C to copy it to the clipboard. Open a file and paste it to it just
like you did for the search string.
If you want to go for broke and make a link it is not
difficult if you have an up to date version of MS Word. Note that the URL is still stored
on the clipboard.
| Open a Word file
Type a description of the search
- eg PubMed Search for Sequential Hip Fractures
Select some or all of the title
Click on the Insert Hyperlink Icon |
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| The dialog box to insert a link is opened Note that the
space for the URL is blank |
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| Paste the URL from the clipboard into the box by pressing Control V Confirm
that the URL has been pasted and click OK |
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| The text selected is now a link to the PubMed address,
as you can confirm by placing the cursor over it |
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This also will not be satisfactory if you have been
using the history function to describe your search. The URL will contain directions to the
history which won't be there next time.
Summary
- The Cubby facility at PubMed is a convenient way to save your
searches. It can also be used to show you what's new for a particular search.
- You can copy and store the search string as text, or extract the URL
and save that as text or a link.
- None of these strategies work if there is a reference to a history
number in your search string. That number will be meaningless next time you log on.
Myles Clough mylesclough@shaw.ca
Clinical Instructor, Department of Orthopaedics, University of British Columbia
B.C. Canada
Feedback, Comments and Questions welcome.
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