Personalize Entrez Databases with MyNCBI
MyNCBI allows you to create a personalized account in PubMed or any other Entrez database available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). PubMed is the free-to-the-public version of MEDLINE available on the Entrez search system. Entrez also includes a number of other databases such as Entrez Gene, Entrez Nucleotide, Entrez Protein, and PubChem. For a complete listing of Entrez resources, go to <www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gquery/>.
Using MyNCBI you can:
• save searches to rerun in the future
• create e-mail alerts to notify you of new articles matching your search criteria
• save search results
• create filters to easily sort PubMed search results
Create an Account
To create a free MyNCBI account click on "Register" in the MyNCBI box at the top right corner of any Entrez database page. To use MyNCBI, your Web browser must be set to accept cookies and to allow pop-ups from NCBI Web pages.
(Note: The following examples are based on PubMed searches.)
Save a Search Strategy
Once you have signed in and run a search, you will see a new option to the right of the search box - a link that reads "Save Search." Click this link, name your search and click OK. Your search strategy will now be saved and can easily be rerun at a later date.
Set Up an E-mail Alert
To receive an e-mail alerting you to new citations meeting your search strategy criteria, follow the above steps through "name your search." Once your search has been named, you will need to change the default to yes for the question: Would you like to receive e-mail updates of new search results? Note that you can create an alert based on author, journal, or subject search terms. You can customize how frequently you receive e-mail updates, whether you would like to receive abstracts, the maximum number of results, etc.
Saving Search Results
From the results page, select the items you would like to save by clicking the check box to the left of the item. Move these selected items to your saved collection by first selecting "Clipboard" from the Send to drop-down menu and then selecting "MyNCBI Collections" from the Send to drop-down menu in the Clipboard tab (see below). You may create a new collection or append an existing collection.
Creating Filters
While signed in to your MyNCBI account, click on MyNCBI in the toolbar on the left of the screen. Select Filters under MyNCBI Resources. Browse or search a list of possible filters, or create your own based on search terms. Once you have created a filter, a new tab will appear above your search results. It will include a subset of all results gathered according to the filter. You can set up to five filters.
Contact the Reference Department at 412-648-8796 or medlibq@pitt.edu for assistance with setting up a MyNCBI account or developing search strategies. For more information and step by step MyNCBI help visit <www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=helpmyncbi.TOC&depth=2>.
This article is based on an Update article previously printed in February 2005.
--Ansuman Chattopadhyay
