What is MeSH: MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), is a structured vocabulary used by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to categorize articles in PubMed. It's a tool that organizes biomedical and health-related terms hierarchically, helping researchers find more precise and relevant information.
Why use MeSH terms? Articles in PubMed are indexed with these specific headings to help retrieve more relevant results. By using the language of the PubMed database, you are more likely to retrieve the most relevant results on your research topic.
Where can I access the MeSH database? Access the Mesh database within PubMed here. Search for MeSH terms one word or concept at a time. For example, search the term Running and explore the relevant MeSH headings provided.
Use a combination of MeSH and keywords: Using both keywords and MeSH terms helps you find relevant articles more precisely (MeSH) while ensuring you don't miss any related content (keywords), making your search both thorough and effective. This combination covers a wider range of literature, including both established and emerging concepts, improving the completeness of your search results.
Example research question: Does strength training improve running performance and help to reduce running injuries?
Major Concepts: strength training, improve performance, prevent injury, runners
| Major Concepts | Keywords | MeSH - Possible terms to consider |
|---|---|---|
| Runners | jogging running runner* |
"Running"[MeSH], "Jogging"[MeSH] |
| Strength training | "resistance training"; "strength training"; weight-lift* | "Resistance Training"[MeSH], "Weight Lifting"[Mesh] |
| Performance | perform* | "Physical Functional Performance"[Mesh], "Athletic Performance"[Mesh] |
| Injury prevention | "injury prevention"; injury; injuries; sprains; muscle-strain* | "Athletic Injuries/prevention and control"[Mesh], "Sprains and Strains/prevention and control"[Mesh], "Wounds and Injuries/prevention and control"[Mesh] |
Search strategy templates
Search using MeSH only: ("Running"[MeSH]) AND ("Resistance Training"[MeSH]) AND ("Athletic Performance"[MeSH]) AND ("Athletic Injuries"[MeSH])
More advanced search using keywords and MeSH terms: ("Running"[MeSH] OR "Jogging"[MeSH] OR jogging OR running OR runner*) AND ("Resistance Training"[MeSH] OR "Weight Lifting"[Mesh] OR "resistance training" OR "strength training" OR weight-lift*) AND ("Athletic Performance"[MeSH] OR "Physical Functional Performance"[Mesh] OR performance) AND ("Athletic Injuries/prevention and control"[Mesh] OR "Sprains and Strains/prevention and control"[Mesh] OR "Wounds and Injuries/prevention and control"[Mesh] OR "injury prevention" OR injury OR injuries OR sprains OR muscle-strain*)
Accessing PubMed through UAB Libraries ensures all subscriptions the library has are accessible in PubMed directly.
For more information about using PubMed see our PubMed Guide
There are four other common health sciences databases that UAB Libraries subscribes to. For more information about searching in each one, see their specific research guides.
The design of this page was partly adapted from Research: By Course, Subject, or Topic, by University of Arizona Libraries, © 2020 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.