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PubMed is the largest bibliographic database in medicine. In its vast collection, you cannot only find current research, but also bibliographic data of older medical literature, which can be of interest for historians.

Which time period is covered?

PubMed provides reliable medical articles dating back to 1946. Older articles are occasionally updated.

For the period 1880-1946, the National Library of Medicine recommends the predecessor publication Index-Catalogue, a printed bibliography that has been digitised and is searchable online.

How can I find sources?

For example, if I want to find articles on smallpox in India from 1960-1970, I search for smallpox india in the simple search and then narrow down the hits in the bar on the left to «1960-1970».

For a more sophisticated search, switch to Advanced Search. You can check the details of each search to see which terms were used. PubMed automatically enriches the search with Medical Subject Hedings (MeSH).

How can I find articles on the history of medicine?

PubMed indexes some medical history journals and more historical articles published in medical journals can be found. To make this search easier, PubMed offers a filter «Historical Article», which can be found under additional filters.

To search even more comprehensively for articles on medical history, medicine, a specific «PubMed History of Medicine Filter» can be applied. It can be combined directly with any search term. Example: smallpox AND india AND history [sb].

Who can I find articles by author?

To search PubMed for publications of a specific author, enter name initials (use no punctuation). For example, Fanconi G for Guido Fanconi. PubMed offers an automated sorting function for the creation of a publication list. This is particularly helpful if an author has a common last name.

Example: search for an author, e.g. Fanconi G. Find an article that you know is by Guido Fanconi, click on the article. In the article abstract display, click on the author’s name. Clicking on an author’s name in PubMed runs a computed author algorithm. The results are sorted in a way that publications probably originating from the same author are listed first. (see PubMed Tutorial «Find Articles by Author»)

What are the limitations of a historical search in PubMed?

Older records in PubMed do not meet today’s standards. This is especially true for publications before 1964. Abstracts are often missing and citations in foreign languages don’t have an article title in English. Both affects subject retrieval. Last but not least, original subject headings have not been updated with current MeSH (cf. OLDMEDLINE Data).

So don’t give up if you don’t succeed right away and try different strategies. What is the name of the topic you are looking for in English, what are the synonyms, can I find a suitable MeSH term and has the disease perhaps changed its name at some point? We librarians are happy to help with tricky searches. Contact us for a free consultation.

PubMed coverage also has its limitations. For example, many German-language journals were not indexed. The further back, the less. Depending on the subject, you can alternatively search in the databases Web of Science (from 1900) or PsycInfo (from 1887).