1. Literature search

1.2 Source documents

a. Searching on Internet PubMed

More and more articles are available online before they appear in print. As such, they are referenced with the mention [Epub ahead of print], and can sometimes be accessed 6 months before they appear in printed format.

Finally, more and more institutions (universities, research facilities, hospitals) presently offer group online subscriptions for the benefit of their members and staff (students, professionals).

Publications can be accessed on specialized websites that often list all the publications of a publisher, and these websites are shown as hypertext links by PubMed. Access to the original article in this case is quick and cost-free, if the user connects to the website on a computer that is part of network of the subscribing institution.