Finding a magazine article at PubMed does not mean that the article is any good

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) has an amazing medical database called PubMed, whose home page explains that:  

 

“PubMed comprises more than 32 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.”

 

Its companion, PubMed Central (aka PMC) is smaller, with only 7.1 million articles. The PMC home page explains that:

 

“PubMed Central (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).”

 

These databases are the crown jewels of the world’s medical literature, and contradict silly claims by libertarians that government never ever can do anything better than the private sector could.   

  

At the McGill Office for Science and Society on June 10, 2021 there is an article by Jonathan Jarry (who writes about critical thinking) titled Finding a paper on PubMed does not mean the paper is any good. He wrote it as a reply to encountering the argument that if an article is listed there, then it must be good and trustworthy. Jonathan notes that there are more than a few stinkers listed in PubMed, and even some articles from predatory journals (low-quality academic magazines catering to those researchers who need to publish so they do not perish). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He says you can think of PubMed as being like a Google search engine for the life sciences, (a vacuum cleaner which sucks up everything, as is shown above).

 

Conversely, PubMed does not cover everything. Reputable polling organizations like Gallup, Pew, and YouGov put their stuff out on the web, not into medical magazines. So, if you wanted to know if Gallup had ever done a survey on fear of public speaking, then you could Google to find the well-known article by Geoffrey Brewer on March 19, 2001 titled Snakes Top List of Americans’ Fears.

 

You really need a whole box of search tools. On April 25, 2021 I blogged about how The Joy of Search, a 2019 book by Daniel M. Russell, is an extremely useful guide about how to do research both offline and online.

 

Images of the NLM building and a Numatic Henry vacuum cleaner both came from Wikimedia Commons.