The basics

Pubget is a search engine for science PDFs. Type search terms into the search field, for example "CMV blood pressure 2009" and results will show up on the left of the screen, each with a number of options.

Result options

Next: Search syntax

Advanced searching

Pubget uses tags to let you search authors, dates or date ranges, words in article titles, and so on. You can use PubMed tags (au for author, ta for journal title, and so on) or other common tags (author or auth, for example).

The syntax is like Google's: the tag (followed by a colon) goes before the term, and terms with spaces (like author names and initials) should be contained in quotations marks.

If you enter many terms, Pubget by default returns results that contain all of them; use AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses () for more complicated Boolean searches. Capitalization shouldn't matter. Examples:

  • Papers by Marc W Kirschner:
    au:"Marc W Kirschner" ([au] is the PubMed tag for author)
    auth:"marc w kirschner"
    authors:"kirschner, marc w"

  • Reviews on RNAi in Nature:
    type:review rnai journal:nature
    pt:review rnai ta:nature ([pt] and [ta] are the PubMed tags for publication type and journal name, respectively)

  • The New England Journal's images in clinical medicine:
    ta:"n engl j med" images in clinical medicine

Here's a list of common tags you can use for advanced searching. Don't forget to use quotes around multiple terms.

  • journal name: ta, jour, journal
    ta:"J Mol Biol"

  • paper title: ti, title
    ti:"Evidence for a genetic basis"

  • author: au, auth
    au:"Phillip A Sharp"
    au:"sharp pa"
    au:"pa sharp"

  • abstract: ab, abs, abst, abstr
    ab:rnai

  • title+abstract: tiab
    tiab:"global warming"

  • date: dp, pd, date
    date:2006 ta:plos*
  • year: yr, year
    au:"siv andersson" yr:2006

  • volume: vi, vol, volume

  • page: pg
    brown plos biol vi:6 pg:e255

  • citations: The preferred format for citations is author (optional) journal volume:page; year is optional. You must include a volume-colon-page.
    brown plos biol 6:e255 2008
    brown plos biol 6:e255
    plos biol 6:e255 2008
    plos biol 6:e255

  • language: la, lang, language

  • publication type (e.g., review): pt, type
    rnai type:review

  • only papers you have access to PDFs for: pdf
    pdf:yes

Results options

Check for PDF. A PDF icon means the PDF is available (see above).

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Search this author. Click an author name to do a Pubget search for the author:

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Read latest issue. Click the journal name to read the latest issue of this journal:

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Keep as keeper. Click the box in the upper right corner to bookmark a paper as a keeper, so you can get to it from any computer:

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Find in PubMed. Click the PubMed logo to see the PubMed abstract page for this paper:

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Download citation. Click the down-arrow to download the citation in .ris format, which you can open in reference managers like Endnote:

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Get related articles. Click to search for related articles:

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Add tag. Click the tag icon to add a little info to help you find this paper in your keepers:

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Share with a friend. Click to mail this reference to a friend or colleague:

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