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MEDLINE

Revised 2/22/2005

Database name:  MEDLINE
Short database name:  MEDL
Available on: FirstSearch Test Server and Production Server

Why select this database?

  • Corresponds to the print indexes Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature, and International Nursing Index
  • Includes thousands of records with substantial abstracts
  • Indexes over 9,075 sources
Subjects included
clinical medicine dentistry education
experimental medicine health services administration nursing
nutrition pathology psychiatry
toxicology veterinary medicine  

Coverage/update frequency

  • Covers 1965 to the present.
  • Updated daily.

Record display information

List of FirstSearch fields for MEDLINE and the MARC fields to which they correspond.

Field Name MARC field(s)
Date 008
Standard SICI Code 024/a
PMID (PubMed) Accession Number 035/a
Language Code 041/a
NLM Call Number 060/a
(planned but does not yet occur occur in data)
Author 100/a
Translated Title 242/a
Title Statement 245/a
General Note 500/a
Number of References 504/b
Abstract 520/a
Grant ID Number 536/c
Grant Info Acronym 536/8
Grant Sponsoring Agency 536/9
Language 546/a
Reference Source for Comment, Erratum, Retraction, etc. 590/a
Additional Erratum Information 590/b
PMID Number - associated with the reference source in 590/a 590/g
Medline ID Number - associated with the reference source in 590/a 590/o
Named Person as Subject 600/a
MeSH Subject Headings 650/a,m,x
MeSH Subject Headings 695/a,m,x
Record Type - expanded text for citation subset code in 953/d 696/a
Gene Symbol 696/b
Molecular Sequence Data 696/d
Space Flight Mission Data 696/z
Chemical Substance Name 697/u
Registry Number of Chemical Substance 697/v
Subsequent Author 700/a
Corporate Author 710/a
Country of Publication 773/c
Citation 773/g
Journal Title (full title) 773/o
Journal Title (abbreviated) 773/t
ISSN 773/x
Second ISSN 798/x
Instructions To Get Full Text 856/i
Full Text Format (e.g., ASCII, PDF) 856/q
URL to External Website or Link to Full Text Article (Direct Article Access) 856/u
OCLC DAA (Direct Article Access) 856/x
Database from which Full Text Article Is Accessed 856/8
Major Identifier 902/L
Minor Identifier 902/m
Investigator 902/t
Investigator Affiliation 902/s
Other Source of Citation (if not NLM) 902 u
Other Citation ID number 902/v
Library Holdings 948
Detailed holdings information is available in FirstSearch Z39.50 Configuration Guide - Element Set Names.
Volume 949/a
Issue 949/b
Pagination 949/c
Part/Supplement 949/d rare
Date of Publication 949/e
First Page Number 949/f
Marketing Defined Date 949/g
Article Type 949/l
Publisher Copyright Statement 949/p
Address of Author or Work 949/u
Display Type 949/x
Record Status 953/a
Date of Entry 953/b
Last Revision Date 953/c
Record Type - Citation Subset Code (Division) 953/d
Medline Citation Owner 953/e
Address of Author or Work
(like 949/u but with period and @ sign removed for indexing) 		953/k
NLM Unique Journal ID 953/n
Date Completed 953/o
Electronic Publication Date 953/p
(forthcoming field defined by Medline)
Author - Last name 953/0
Author - Fore or First Name 953/1
Author - Middle Name 953/2
Author - Suffix 953/3
Author - Initials 953/4
Personal Name - surname 953/5
Personal Name - first name or forename 953/6
Personal Name - middle name 953/7
Personal Name - Suffix 953/8
Personal Name - initials 953/9

Notes for the subject phrase index (su=) and subject all index (sa=)

Each portion of the subject heading (e.g., subheading in 650/a,m,x) will be handled as a distinct phrase search. The suggested strategy in searching for records that contain those subheadings is to and those terms together.

Example:  650 #a Kidney Tubules, Collecting #x Metabolism is searched by entering:
kidney tubules, collecting and metabolism.

Expert Index Subject All (sa=) index will search all portions of the subject heading as a distinct phrase search.

Example: 650 #a Kidney Tubules, Collecting #x Metabolism is searched in the sa= index by entering:
kidney tubules collecting metabolism - Browse the SA= index for exact terms.

Notes for creating links for Reference Sources

Link creation in the web version is based on the following:

The PMID link is based on the presence of the 590/g tag. If it exists, it is used to search the Accession Number index (NO:) to pull up the related record. Example record: PMID: 11588343

Indexes

What follows is a list of FirstSearch indexes and the combination of USE and STRUCTURE attributes that can be used to access them.

  1. For any FirstSearch label where multiple USE attributes are listed all the attributes will provide the exact same search result sets.
  2. Any USE attribute that is not marked as a restrictor is available via the SCAN service.
  3. Restrictors are specially implemented indexes and are not available for scanning. Terms for these must be ANDed with other terms to limit the size of the result set. See the table provided for each restrictor to determine valid terms and their associated meaning.

FirstSearch Indexes and USE and STRUCTURE attributes used to access them:

Index Description Use Attribute Structure Attribute Indexed Fields and Subfields
Keyword (kw) Any 5110 2 242/a
245/a
500/a
520/a
536/c,8,9
590/a,b
650/a,m,x
695/a,m,x
696/b,d,z
697/u,v
773/o,t
902/L,m,t
Keyword All Any

1016

2 008
100/a
242/a
245/a
500/a
520/a
536/c,8,9
590/a,b
650/a,m,x
695/a,m,x
696/b,d,z
697/u,v
700/a
710/a
773/o,t,x
798/x
902/L,m,t
949/e,g
Abstract (ab) Abstract 62 2 520/a
949/p
Accession Number (no) Control number-local 12 2 035/a
Address (ad) OCLC Defined 5100 2 949/u
953/k
Article Type (at=) Content-type 1034 1, 2 949/L
Author (au, au=) Author-name 1003 1, 2,101 100/a
700/a
710/a
Central Concept (cc) OCLC Defined 5659 2 650/a,m,x
Chemical Substance (cs) OCLC Defined 5658 2 697/u,v
Citation Owner (ow) OCLC Defined 5981 2 953/e
Corporate Author (co=) Author-name-corporate 1005 1 710/a
Date of Entry (da) OCLC Defined 5040 2 953/b
Division (sb) OCLC Defined 5041 2 953/d
Grant Information (gi) OCLC Defined 5943 2 536/c,8,9
Identifiers (id, id=) Subject-local 29 1, 2 902/L,m
Issue (is) OCLC Defined 5004 2 949/b
Language (ln=) Code-language 54 1 041/a
546/a
MeSH Heading (mh, mh=) Subject-MESH 25, 5650 1, 2 650/a,m,x
695/a,m,x
Molecular Sequence (ms) OCLC Defined 5656 2 696/d
Named Person (na=) Subject-name-personal 1009 1 600/a
Notes (nt) Note 63 2 500/a
504/b
536/c,8,9
590/a,b
902/t
Number References OCLC Defined 5931 2 504/b
Page (First) OCLC Defined 5006 2 949/f
Place of Publication (pl) Name-geographic-place-publication 59 2 773/c
Publication Date (pd) Date 30 2 949/e,g
Record Status Phrase (rs=) OCLC Defined 5980 1 953/a
Record Type Phrase (rt=) Material-type 1031 1 696/a
953/d
Registry Number (rn) OCLC Defined 5975 2 697/v
Standard Number (sn, sn=) Identifier-standard 1007 1, 2 060/a
773/x
798/x
953/n
Source (so, so=) Title-host-item 1033 1, 2 773/o,t
Subheadings MeSH (sh, sh=) OCLC Defined 5064 1, 2 650/m,x
695/m,x
Subject (su, su=) Subject 21 1, 2 600/a
650/a,m,x
695/a,m,x
696/b,d,z
697/u,v
902/L,m
Subject All (sa=) OCLC Defined 5090 1 650/a,m,x
695/a,m,x
Title (ti, ti=) Title 4 1, 2 242/a
245/a
Update (ud) Date/time last modified 1012 2 953/c,o
Volume (vo) OCLC Defined 5013 2 949/a
Year (yr) Date-publication 31 2,4,5 008

Restrictors

The following are restrictors which must be added to an index search with the Boolean operator AND in order to receive search results:

Restrictor Type Input Use Attribute Structure Attribute MARC Tags
Year* All years
Single year
Range of years		 --
1999, or 2000
-1899
1955-1967
1998-		 31 2,4,5 008
Language* No limit
English
Non-English		 --
english
nonenglish		 54 1 546/a
Record Status Phrase*

No limit
In-Data-Review
In-Process
MEDLINE
OldMEDLINE
PubMed-not-Medline

--
in-data-review
in-process
medline
oldmedline
pubmed-not-medline

 5980 1 953/a
Record Type*

No limit
AIDS HIV
AIM (abridged index medicus)
Bioethics
BioTechnology
Communication
Dentistry
Foreign
Health Administration
Health Technology
Histline
IM (index medicus)
Nursing
Spaceline

--
"aids hiv"
"abridged index medicus" or "aim"
bioethics
biotechnology
communication
dentistry
foreign
health administration
health technology
histline
"index medicus" or "im"
nursing
spaceline 		1031 1 696/a
Abstract Indicator All
Abstracts
No Abstracts 		--
ab
noab 		5026 2 974/L
Limit to Full Text Limit to full text --
fulltext		 2 6002 Limit to Full Text
Limit to Holdings OCLC Institution Symbol Enter symbol for OCLC institution 2 56 Limit to Holdings

*  Both an index and a restrictor.

Note: To find the OCLC symbol for an institution, please see the online version of OCLC Participating Institutions.

Sorting

Search results in the MEDLINE database can be sorted by Author (1003), Title (4), Publication Date (30), and Journal Title (1033).

General punctuation rules

(exceptions are made, but these are generally correct):

Punctuation Rule Punctuation Rule
" Delete and collapse $ Delete and collapse
' (apostrophe) Delete and collapse % Delete and collapse
. Delete and collapse * Delete and collapse
, (comma) Delete and collapse + Delete and collapse
; Delete and collapse > Delete and collapse
: Delete and collapse < Delete and collapse
() Delete and collapse @ Delete and collapse
<> Delete and collapse ? Delete and collapse
{} Delete and collapse -- Delete and collapse
[] Delete and collapse / Substitute a space
= Delete and collapse - Retain and index
! Delete and collapse & Retain and index
# Delete and collapse

Copyright

MEDLINE is a registered trademark of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Some NLM produced data is from copyrighted publications of the respective copyright claimants. Users of the NLM databases are solely responsible for compliance with any copyright restrictions and are referred to the publication data appearing in the bibliographic citations, as well as to the copyright notices appearing in the original publications, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference. NLM users are required to read additional terms contained under the Help menu.