What I Do

Search PubMed for meta-analyses and systematic reviews on medical topics using the NCBI E-utilities API. I help you:

• Find meta-analyses on specific medical conditions, treatments, or interventions

• Retrieve article titles, authors, publication dates, and abstracts

• Filter results to focus on systematic reviews and meta-analyses only

When to Use Me

Use this skill when you need to:

• Look up meta-analyses on a medical topic

• Find systematic reviews for evidence-based research

• Get an overview of aggregated research on a health topic

How to Search PubMed for Meta-Analyses

Step 1: Search for Article IDs

Use the NCBI ESearch API to find meta-analyses. The key is adding the meta-analysis[pt] publication type filter.

Base URL:

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi

Required Parameters:

• db=pubmed

• Search the PubMed database

• term=<SEARCH_QUERY>+AND+meta-analysis[pt]

• Your search term + meta-analysis filter

• retmax=20

• Number of results to return (adjust as needed)

• retmode=json

• Return JSON format

Example Search URL:

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=pubmed&#x26;term=diabetes+treatment+AND+meta-analysis[pt]&#x26;retmax=20&#x26;retmode=json

Alternative Filters:

• systematic+review[pt]

• For systematic reviews

• (meta-analysis[pt]+OR+systematic+review[pt])

• For both types

Step 2: Fetch Article Details

Use the NCBI ESummary or EFetch API to get article details using the IDs from Step 1.

ESummary (for basic info):

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esummary.fcgi?db=pubmed&#x26;id=&#x3C;ID1>,&#x3C;ID2>,&#x3C;ID3>&#x26;retmode=json

EFetch (for full abstract):

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pubmed&#x26;id=&#x3C;ID1>,&#x3C;ID2>,&#x3C;ID3>&#x26;rettype=abstract&#x26;retmode=text

Step 3: Parse and Present Results

From ESummary JSON response, extract:

• title

• Article title

• authors

• List of authors (use first author + "et al." for brevity)

• pubdate

• Publication date

• source

• Journal name

• uid

• PubMed ID (PMID)

Complete Example Workflow

Search for meta-analyses on "hypertension treatment":

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=pubmed&#x26;term=hypertension+treatment+AND+meta-analysis[pt]&#x26;retmax=10&#x26;retmode=json

Get details for returned IDs (e.g., 12345678,23456789):

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esummary.fcgi?db=pubmed&#x26;id=12345678,23456789&#x26;retmode=json

Get full abstracts:

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pubmed&#x26;id=12345678,23456789&#x26;rettype=abstract&#x26;retmode=text

Search Tips

Effective Search Terms

• Use MeSH terms when possible (e.g., "Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2"[Mesh] )

• Combine terms with AND or OR

• Use quotes for exact phrases: "cognitive behavioral therapy"

Common Filters

Filter Description

meta-analysis[pt]

Meta-analyses only

systematic+review[pt]

Systematic reviews only

review[pt]

All review articles

free+full+text[filter]

Only free full-text articles

humans[mh]

Human studies only

english[la]

English language only

Date Filtering

Add date range to search:

• 2020:2024[dp]

• Publication date range

• "last 5 years"[dp]

• Relative date

Example with date filter:

term=cancer+immunotherapy+AND+meta-analysis[pt]+AND+2020:2024[dp]

Output Format

When presenting results, use this format:

Meta-Analyses Found: [N] results

1. [Title]

   • Authors: [First Author] et al.
   • Journal: [Journal Name], [Year]
   • PMID: [ID] | Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/[ID]/

2. [Title] ...

Rate Limits

• NCBI allows ~3 requests per second - be mindful of this when making multiple searches

• Always URL-encode search terms with special characters