MEDLINE Searching Strategies

Restricting to Focus

Clicking the Focus box to the right of a MeSH subject heading in a result list will limit your search to those citations in which that subject is considered the focus, or major point, of the article. This will usually reduce the number of citations retrieved in a search set.

Sample retrieval with and without using Focus:

Note: The "*" before the second subject heading below indicates that the heading was "restricted to Focus".

Restricting to Focus can be an effective method of reducing the number of citations and increasing their relevancy. Use Focus if you specifically want to retrieve articles on a single topic. You can further refine those articles by selecting from subheadings linked to that term.

A broad search strategy may be best if your search question is complex and involves multiple concepts. If your retrieval is too low, and you have used "restrict to focus" in building your search strategy, you may want to re-enter your MeSH term without using this option.