Research Guides: PubMed: MeSH

MeSH

MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings, and is the NLM-controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in PubMed (specifically, articles from journals in the MEDLINE collection).

MeSH makes sure that every new and old medical term is referred to in one single, controlled way, so if you're looking for publications related to a term, you know you're getting the most accurate results.

Medical Subject Headings Home
Everything you need to learn about and use MeSH, all in one place.

How to Use It

When you search in PubMed, you are using MeSH terms whether you know it or not. Find your search history in the Advanced section, and there you will find PubMed's internal workings based on your search strings. You can also use the Advanced Search Builder to incorporate MeSH terms into your search string directly.

Or start at the beginning with the MeSH browser to choose the ones you must use in your search string for the fullest results.

MeSH Browser
Use the MeSH Browser to find what to look for in PubMed using MeSH terms and the PubMed Search Builder.

MeSH Help and Tutorials

BASICS

What is MeSH?
A tutorial to help users "understand the purpose and structure of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and use MeSH to search MEDLINE/PubMed for medical literature and information."
Learn About MeSH (NLM)
All of the collected help material produced by the NLM about MeSH, including webinars, factsheets, and tutorials.

MeSH + PUBMED

PubMed Subject Search: How It Works (2020)
This interactive tutorial shows you how MeSH subject searching works in PubMed, and how to utilize MeSH terms to better search the database.
Searching PubMed Using MeSH Search Tags
This part of the "What is MeSH?" tutorial explains how to use MeSH terms to search in PubMed: "Untagged terms that are entered in the PubMed search box are automatically mapped to the MeSH vocabulary when a match is found. However, you may choose to search the MeSH headings specifically using search field tags (also called qualifiers)." But please note that searching with MeSH terms will exclude from the results articles that are not (yet) indexed with the terms.

The Vocabulary

MeSH: Download the Vocabulary
Download the whole vocabulary! The current version of MeSH is available to download should that be of use to you.

PubMed

MeSH

MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings, and is the NLM-controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in PubMed (specifically, articles from journals in the MEDLINE collection).

How to Use It

MeSH Help and Tutorials

BASICS

MeSH + PUBMED

The Vocabulary

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