PubMed is the major source for medical articles since 1947. The National Library of Medicine offers search guides. For pre-1947 articles see the Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office, below.
--Be sure to look at the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) on pertinent records found with a keyword search by opening "+MeSH Terms". Very recent articles may not as yet received their MeSH terms. So look at older records to find the MeSH terms, and use a variety of keywords as well as MeSH terms to find the new records.
--The MeSH terms are the same as the Medical Subject terms found in HOLLIS.
--Hit Free article or Try Harvard Library, not the publisher's name to see full text
--You can narrow by going down to the bottom of the left hand column and hitting Additional filters. A list of Article types opens up. Choose one or more types and hit Show. The Article Type now shows up in the short list of article types near the top of the left hand column. Now hit the Types desired. You can also filter by date range.
--MeSH Database defines MeSH terms and shows their place in the hierarchy. Narrower terms are automatically searched when searching a broader term (called term explosion). Entry Terms section gives related and obsolete terms.
PubMed Central offers full text of numerous medical journals but allows only single word full text searching
See also:
Index-catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office (U. S. Army), Authors and Subjects. Print version:
LOCATION: Countway Medicine: Ref. Z 675 I48
LOCATION: Widener: Med 100.22.1
The Library of the Surgeon General’s office, now called the National Library of Medicine, published its catalog in book form 1880-1895. The catalog includes an author and a subject entry for books and just a subject entry for articles. Having reached authors and subjects beginning with the letter Z in 1895, they started a 2nd series covering material purchased since the first series. They did this twice more, until, in the 4th series, when cataloging literature beginning with Mn (as in Mnemonic) for the year 1949, they were overwhelmed by the periodical literature and terminated periodical indexing. The 5th series covers books only. Each volume covers the literature for its letter span until about a year before its publication date. Thus, although series 4 indexes the literature through 1949, authors and subjects beginning with the letter A are indexed through about 1935 only. The Library continued to buy older material, so 17th century books may occur in any series. Use Index Medicus for article author access. Biographical data and obituaries are included.
- 1st ser.: 1880-95, 16 v.
- 2nd ser.: 1896-1916, 21 v.
- 3rd ser.: 1918-32, 10 v.
- 4th ser.: 1936-55, 11 v.; Covers A - Mn only; 11th volume (Mh-Mn) includes literature through 1949 (v.1:A(1936); 2:B(1937); 3:C(1938); 4:D(1939); 5:E-F (1940); 6:G(1941); 7:H(1942); 8:I-J(1943); 9:K-L(1945);10:M-Mez(1948); 11:Mh-Mn(1955 but indexed -1949)
- 5th ser. (suppl.): 1959-61, 3 v.; Books only, periodicals not indexed
Alphabetical list of abbreviations of titles of medical periodicals employed in the Index-catalogue of the library of the Surgeon-general's office, United States Army. 1895.
HathiTrust Full Text 1895
Internet Archive Full Text (1916)
Internet Archive Full Text (1937; 4th series only)
You can also browse and search online via Hathitrust versions. There is not one master record. This is the most complete record (The volume numbers without series given are from Series I, and some occur in the list among the later series). Missing volumes can be found in the records in the left-hand column. Avoid the 1873 record, as that is a preliminary catalog.
--You can also search the whole Index Catalog full text in Hathitrust Advanced Full Text search. Put your search term in one search box and the phrase "Index-catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon" in the other, choosing Title from the menu
For the years 1930 through 1946 (when PubMed coverage begins), there is a gap in coverage. This applies to all subjects beginning with Mo and after, and with pre-Mo subjects depending on the letter of the alphabet. For example, the volume covering the letter A appeared in 1936, so there is no coverage for Angina for about 1935-1946 when PubMed begins. For this era use Index Medicus:
Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus (1927-1956) American Medical Association. 60 v.
HOLLIS Record
--Alphabetical arrangement, subjects and authors in one alphabet.
Current List of Medical Literature (1941-1959). Army Medical Library; Armed Forces Medical Library, 36 volumes
HOLLIS Record
HathiTrust Version (1941-1958)
Although the most complete sources for medical bibliography, the Index Medicus and the Index-Catalogue are not exhaustive. They include roughly 50% of the total medical literature. Articles judged of real medical significance and lasting value were selected. The Index Medicus was a current literature supplement to the Index-Catalogue. It contained more material of ephemeral interest than was selected for the Index-Catalogue. Literature for fields considered unscientific by the medical profession, such as homeopathy, osteopathy, etc., was scanned but only material on the history of the fields was selected; medical practice from these areas was not included.
Leonard, L. 1967. Selection of journals for Index Medicus: A historical review. Bull Medical Library Assoc., 55(3): 259–278.
Web of Science Citation Indexes (1900- ) articles in all areas of science. Includes medical articles not in PubMed. You can use the Cited Reference search in the Web of Science find primary source articles that cite a specified article, thus getting an idea of its reception. More information.
JSTOR offers full-text of complete runs (up to about 5 years ago) of over 400 journals. JSTOR allows simultaneous or individual searching, full-text searching optional, numerous journals in a variety of fields of science and medicine. JSTOR searches the "Notes and News" sections of journals (Science is especially rich in this material). In Advanced Search choose Item Type: Miscellaneous to limit largely to "Notes and News".
More periodical sources listed in the Library Research Guide for the History of Science
Most online sources, other than HathiTrust (for pre-1923 issues), contain articles only, not advertisements. The Medical Heritage Library has digitized most of the state medical journals up to the present.
State Medical Society Journals. Open the collection tab. You may wish to change Sort by from Views to Titles, then shift to List on extreme right. Note search box on left.