PubMed Labs: An experimental platform for improving biomedical literature search
This work addresses the problem of information overload and usability for biomedical researchers and practitioners, but it is incremental as it builds on the existing PubMed system.
The authors tackled the challenge of improving biomedical literature search by developing PubMed Labs, an experimental platform that allows users to test new features and provide feedback, resulting in a mobile-first design to better support access on mobile devices.
PubMed is a freely accessible system for searching the biomedical literature, with approximately 2.5 million users worldwide on an average workday. We have recently developed PubMed Labs (www.pubmed.gov/labs), an experimental platform for users to test new features/tools and provide feedback, which enables us to make more informed decisions about potential changes to improve the search quality and overall usability of PubMed. In doing so, we hope to better meet our user needs in an era of information overload. Another novel aspect of PubMed Labs lies in its mobile-first and responsive layout, which offers better support for accessing PubMed on the increasingly popular use of mobile and small-screen devices. Currently, PubMed Labs only includes a core subset of PubMed functionalities, e.g. search, facets. We encourage users to test PubMed Labs and share their experience with us, based on which we expect to continuously improve PubMed Labs with more advanced features and better user experience.