Ovid MEDLINE Search Instructions

Step Four - Choosing Subheadings

After you have chosen a subject heading and decided whether you want to explode and/or focus the heading (see Step Two and Step Three), the next screen prompts you to choose subheadings. Subheadings describe the type of information that you want about the MeSH term that you just selected (for example: therapy, diagnosis, etiology, etc.) You can choose one or more subheadings, or you can check the box to include all subheadings.

Once you have chosen subheadings, click "Continue;" the next screen will show the final results of your search. See Step Eight for information about viewing, printing, or saving results.

If the database does not present the subheading screen, it is because you selected more than one subject term in Step 2 or Step 3, and the subject terms that you selected do not share the same subheading categories. In this case, the database skips the subheading page.

EXAMPLE -- Choosing subheadings

Because you are searching for information about drug therapies for hypertension, you might check off the subheading for "drug therapy" as shown in the screen shot below.