Holly Miller -- BioMail Team
Dmitry Mozzherin -- BioMail Team
This documentation was last updated for BioMail version 0.61. Please
make any comments and additions to the authors.
BioMail is a program that simplifies and automates searching for biological
and medical literature. BioMail will search PubMed, the largest publically
available online database for biomedical journals, using your search terms.
BioMail then e-mails you the results weekly, biweekly or monthly as you
choose.
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BioMail searches PubMed which is updated daily, so you get the most recent
information.
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Using BioMail allows you all the advantages of doing PubMed searches but
you only have to do it once and then sit back and BioMail will send you the
search results up to twice a week by e-mail.
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It is possible to get the e-mail in HTML format with direct links to
PubMed, output in different formats for import into reference manager programs
and storage of important papers in a Reference Treasury.
To start using BioMail, go to the BioMail Login page and open a new account.
Follow these steps to open your account:
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Click on the button.

This will bring you to the BioMail New Account
Registration page.

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Fill in your E-mail address.

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Choose a Username and Password, entering the password a second time to confirm
it.

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Select the Number of searches, 20 is the
maximum.

The number you choose here will determine how many blank search forms will
be available on your BioMail Configuration Page
(you can change the number later).
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After all the information is entered click the button and you
are ready to begin entering your search patterns.
This is the BioMail Configuration Page. Here
you change your password, change the number of searches, or delete your
account if you don't want to receive BioMail e-mails any more.
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Scroll down until you see your E-mail address,
check to see if it is correct.

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Begin entering your Search terms.
The first blank space (Search #1) is for your
search terms. You can use boolean operators 'AND, OR, NOT', wild cards
'baculovir*', and other special symbols and nomenclature to refine your search
precisely.
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In the next blank space (E-mail subject#1), you
can enter a short description of the search. It will appear as the e-mail
subject. Or, you leave it blank, and the search parameters will be the e-mail
subject.
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Choose either html or text Format for e-mail
messages.
If you use Netscape Messenger, Microsoft Outlook, or another html-enabled
mail application, or web-based e-mails (e.g. Yahoo mail, Hotmail), it is
better to select html format. You will get much
more functionality in your mail messages, direct links to PubMed, export
formats and Reference Treasury. If you use Pine or an e-mail reader that
cannot read html messages, select text format
NOTE:
All html-based functionality is broken if you use Hotmail because Hotmail
modifies web-links in BioMail's messages. If you want to use web-based mail
program and still enjoy all functionality, use another site instead of
Hotmail. Yahoo mail works fine for example.
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Select how often you want to Perform the search
and how many references maximum per e-mail.
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Finally, Test your search by clicking on the
button.
You will see the results of you search in the format that you will receive
by e-mail. If you selected html format it will
have links to PubMed and buttons. If you selected text
format, it will be a plain text page.
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Repeat steps 7-11 for all the different searches that you want BioMail to
do.
For at least one of your searches use the button to make
sure that your address is correct and you receive BioMail e-mails.
NOTE:
Test searches do not use the maximum number of
references or the frequency parameters that
you have set. For all test searches the results are from the last 30 days and
have a limit of 50 references.
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Click the button either at the top or bottom of the page.
Now you are registered, just sit back and wait for your informative e-mails
from BioMail!
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