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Publication Tracking: Tracking Publications in PubMed

How to search for a publication using author or affiliation.

Searching by Author

Searching for an Individual Author in PubMed:

  •  Conduct a broad search strategy using last name and first initial. Add PubMed field author tag [au] after the name. This type of search allows you to find all authors with the same last name and first initial, but will include many irrelevant results of authors with different first names.
    • e.g. Smith J [au]
  • You can limit your broad search by including a middle initial. Correct for name ambiguity by including name variations in your search. You will do this by using the Boolean OR and putting quotations around the original last name and first initial search.
    • eg. "Smith, J"[au] OR Smith JA[au]
  • Include an ORCID ID to avoid name ambiguity, if known. Include ORCID ID using OR (as is used for alternative author name) and add the PubMed author ID tag [auid] after the number.
    • e.g. "Smith J"[au] OR Smith JA[au] OR 0000-0005-0855-5585[auid]
  • Further limit your search by affiliation. Affiliations are also subject to name ambiguity, so be sure to include alternate names using OR and add the PubMed affiliation tag [affil]. You will also put the name and id search in one set of parentheses and the affiliations in their own set of parentheses.
    • ("Smith J"[au] OR Smith JA[au] OR 0000-0005-0855-5585[auid]) AND (kansas city[affil] OR kcu[affil])

Searching by Group of Authors

Searching for a group of authors using the same approach as individuals, except you will connect the multiple names using OR.

  • e.g. ("Smith, J"[au] OR Smith JA[au]) OR ("Clark, K"[au] OR Clark KA[au]) OR ("Jones, M"[au] OR Jones ML[au])

You can also add an affiliation string using AND. Be sure to use another set  of parentheses to separate the affiliation from author string.

  • e.g. (("Smith, J"[au] OR Smith JA[au]) OR ("Clark, K"[au] OR Clark KA[au]) OR ("Jones, M"[au] OR Jones ML[au])) AND (kansas city [affil] OR kcu[affil] OR kansas[affil])

Another way to limit your search is with date.

  • e.g.  (("Smith, J"[au] OR Smith JA[au]) OR ("Clark, K"[au] OR Clark KA[au]) OR ("Jones, M"[au] OR Jones ML[au])) AND (kansas city [affil] OR kcu[affil] OR kansas[affil]) AND (2021/04/05:2021/12/05[pdat])