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KU Medical Library - PubMed Guide

This guide will give you an overview of the medical research database PubMed.

Creating a Personal PubMed Account

Like other databases, PubMed allows you to create a personal account. With this you can save citations, create search alerts, and set custom filters. Unlike other databases, you can keep this account once you leave KU since PubMed is freely available.

Creating Your Account

When you open PubMed, you will see a box in the upper right that says Log In. Click that to get started and to log into PubMed again in the future.

PubMed log in

One of the drawbacks to the new PubMed is that you can no longer create an account within PubMed. As you see below you will need to create an account using a third-party log in. Using Google might be the most popular choice.

Benefits of a PubMed Account

With a PubMed account you can customize different aspects of the database:

  • Dashboard: Your PubMed Dashboard will show you items saved from your searches such as your Bibliography, Collections, and Saved Searches.
  • Account Settings: Here you will find your Site Preferences where you can set things like your highlighting color and specialized search preferences.