I’ve long admired and found useful the related articles feature on PubMed. When you’re carrying out a search on PubMed and think you’ve exhausted all the references, clicking on ‘Related articles’ often finds gems you would have otherwise missed.

After years of envy, we’ve just rolled out a test version and this can be tried by clicking here. There are multiple ways of using the related article feature and the most obvious is to add text into the text box and press search. Once you’ve carried out a search you’ll see that under each record there is this chunk of text ‘Related: Method A Method B’. These are two different methods of finding articles related to that particular article.

We’re looking for novel ways of using the related articles via the text box and here are a few suggestions:

  • Asking free-text questions. For instance typing in “Is calcium useful in preventing falls?” gets pretty good results.
  • Writing an article and need to find a reference to support a particular passage – add the passage to the text box and see related references!
  • Education needs. One tester has highlighted the usefulness of linking in with PUNs and DENs (educational concepts – Patients Unmet Needs and Doctors Educational Needs) which UK doctors are encouraged to consider. Add the PUN or DEN to the text box and see what happens!

Anyway else got any suggestions?