mesh-terms-guide
Navigate MeSH vocabulary for precise PubMed and MEDLINE searches
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills --skill mesh-terms-guide --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# MeSH Terms Guide A skill for using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) to construct precise and comprehensive biomedical literature searches. Covers MeSH tree structure, subheadings, explosion, major topics, and strategies for combining MeSH with free-text terms. ## Understanding MeSH Vocabulary ### What Is MeSH? MeSH is a hierarchical controlled vocabulary maintained by the National Library of Medicine. Every article indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed is assigned MeSH terms by trained indexers. Using MeSH ensures you capture articles that discuss a concept even when authors use different terminology. ### Tree Structure and Hierarchy ``` MeSH terms are organized in a tree with up to 13 hierarchical levels. Example tree path for "Breast Neoplasms": Neoplasms [C04] Neoplasms by Site [C04.588] Breast Neoplasms [C04.588.180] Breast Neoplasms, Male [C04.588.180.260] Inflammatory Breast Neoplasms [C04.588.180.390] Phyllodes Tumor [C04.588.180.610] A term can appear in multiple tree branches. "Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2" appears under both: - Endocrine System Diseases - Metabolic Diseases ``` ### Explosion vs. Non-Explosion ``` # Exploded search (default in PubMed): "Breast Neoplasms"[MeSH] -> Retrie
- Understanding MeSH Vocabulary
- What Is MeSH?
- Tree Structure and Hierarchy
- Explosion vs. Non-Explosion
- Working with MeSH in PubMed
- Finding the Right MeSH Term
- Subheadings (Qualifiers)
- Common Subheadings by Research Purpose
- Combining MeSH with Free Text
- Comprehensive Search Strategy
- Handling Unindexed Articles
- Validating Your MeSH Strategy
- Recall and Precision Check
- Documenting MeSH Searches for Systematic Reviews
What does the mesh-terms-guide skill do?
Navigate MeSH vocabulary for precise PubMed and MEDLINE searches
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills --skill mesh-terms-guide --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills, a repository with 3,244 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.