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I'm trying to use the PubMed API to search for articles with an exact title. As an example, I want to search for the title

The cost-effectiveness of mirtazapine versus paroxetine in treating people with depression in primary care

I want up to 1000 results in JSON format, so I know that the first part of my URL should look like this:

http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=pubmed&retmode=json&retmax=1000&term=

How do I add a title search as a GET parameter?

I've been using the Pubmed advanced search constructor, and that suggests that the query should look like The cost-effectiveness of mirtazapine versus paroxetine in treating people with depression in primary care[Title].

But if I try just adding that to the URL term=, PubMed tries to break down the title into all kinds of peculiar queries:

http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=pubmed&retmode=json&retmax=1000&term=The%20cost-effectiveness%20of%20mirtazapine%20versus%20paroxetine%20in%20treating%20people%20with%20depression%20in%20primary%20care[Title]

How can I specify an exact title as a GET param?

Nico Schlömer
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Richard
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2 Answers2

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Use field=title

http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=pubmed&retmode=json&retmax=1000&term=The%20cost-effectiveness%20of%20mirtazapine%20versus%20paroxetine%20in%20treating%20people%20with%20depression%20in%20primary%20care&field=title

Check out ESearch API for more information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25499/#_chapter4_ESearch_

Bless
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Use + instead of %20 (space).

For example:

http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=pubmed&retmode=json&retmax=1000&term=cost+effectiveness+of+mirtazapine[title]

Eric Leung
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Mark
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  • Thanks - but the `translationset` field in the results suggests that the query is still being broken down into lots of alternate queries, rather than just being a pure phrase search. – Richard Aug 18 '15 at 12:44