ToxSeek : a meta-search engine from the NLM

ToxSeek (http://toxSeek.nlm.nih.gov) is a meta-search engine that enables simultaneous searching of many different information resources on the World Wide Web. The ToxSeek user interface allows selection of resources from a wide range of authoritative sources in these categories:

TOXNET (NLM): Databases on hazardous chemicals, toxic releases and environmental health from the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
NLM: Additional selected resources from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), including PubMed
NIH: Resources from other institutes of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
U.S. Government: Toxicology/environmental health information from other United States government agencies
International: Other selected international resources, such as the World Health Organization (WHO)
Resources/Societies: Other topic-specific information resources


ToxSeek uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to retrieve, integrate, rank, and present search results as coherent and dynamic sets. ToxSeek searches across diverse biomedical and environmental health resources and so provides a way to efficiently locate information resources on topics related to toxicology and environmental health.

In ToxSeek, select an information category (or choose to “view all categories”) and enter a search term/s in the box. Boolean operators should NOT be used as the search is run against sources which handle queries in different ways. The ToxSeek results page returns resources in relevance order; this can be changed via the pull-down box to either alphabetical or source order.

ToxSeek’s results “clustering” feature helps users to more easily identify particular concepts. These “clusters” are created from what is retrieved in the original query, and can be useful in uncovering a specific concept or focus for more in-depth searching.