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Table 3 Queries that yielded no articles in the PubMed result list, queries that resulted in abstract selection and queries that resulted in full-text selection in relation to the number of terms used.

From: Analysis of queries sent to PubMed at the point of care: Observation of search behaviour in a medical teaching hospital

Terms

Query result

 

No articles retrieved by query

Abstract selected

Full-text selected

 

n/N(%)

n/N(%)

n/N(%)

1

101/619 (16)

79/619 (13)

28/619 (5)

2

197/998 (20)

291/998 (29)

108/998 (11)

3

174/716 (24)

277/716 (39)

131/716 (18)

4

86/346 (25)

145/346 (42)

80/346 (23)

5

42/149 (28)

64/149 (43)

32/149 (21)

6

13/39 (33)

12/39 (31)

9/39 (23)

  1. Selection of 2867 queries containing no Mesh headings, limits, wildcards or special operators, "AND" operator allowed. Queries containing more than 6 terms excluded.