PubMed ID to BibTeX Converter

What you get

PMID 23193287 is the 2013 GenBank update in Nucleic Acids Research. Pasted into the field above, it gives this entry:

@article{benson2013genbank,
  author  = {Benson, Dennis A. and Cavanaugh, Mark and Clark, Karen and Karsch-Mizrachi, Ilene and Lipman, David J. and Ostell, James and Sayers, Eric W.},
  title   = {GenBank},
  journal = {Nucleic acids research},
  year    = {2013},
  volume  = {41},
  number  = {Database issue},
  pages   = {D36--42},
  issn    = {0305-1048},
  doi     = {10.1093/nar/gks1195},
  pmid    = {23193287},
  pmcid   = {PMC3531190}
}

Besides the usual fields of an @article entry, it carries three identifiers: doi, pmid and, because the paper is open access, pmcid. Most styles print the DOI, biblatex ones as a link. The pmid and pmcid fields are kept as metadata: standard styles ignore fields they do not know, so the entry works everywhere. If you want a PubMed link in a biblatex bibliography, add eprint = {23193287} and eprinttype = {pubmed}.

PMID, PMCID and DOI

The PMID is the number PubMed gives every record, from 1 to eight digits. The PMCID, which starts with PMC, belongs to the free full text in PubMed Central and exists only for open-access papers. The DOI is assigned by the publisher and resolves to the article on the journal's site. Paste the PMID: you get the same bibliographic data the DOI would give, with the PMID and PMCID added. PMCIDs on their own are not accepted. If you already have the DOI, either works; the DOI to BibTeX converter takes it on the main page.

Accepted forms

• The bare number: 23193287
• With a prefix, as PubMed displays it: PMID: 23193287
• The address of the article page: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23193287/

Where the data comes from

Your browser asks Europe PMC, a mirror of MEDLINE and PubMed run by EMBL-EBI, and falls back to NCBI's E-utilities when Europe PMC has no record. Author names appear as MEDLINE stores them, with full first names for most papers since 2002 and initials before that. The journal is given by its full title, as in Nucleic acids research; MEDLINE writes it in sentence case and also keeps an abbreviation such as Nucleic Acids Res in the record, which you can put in the journal field yourself if your style wants it. The abstract and keywords are dropped unless you tick the option to keep them.

Several articles at once

Put one PMID or link per line, for instance copied from a PubMed search export, and the entries come back in the same order. Any line that fails is listed above the results with the reason. Download .bib saves everything as references.bib for your .bib file; the format guide explains the fields if you want to edit them.

Questions

Is the PubMed to BibTeX converter free?

Yes. It is free, needs no account and runs in your browser. The lookups go straight from your browser to Europe PMC and, if needed, to NCBI, not through bibtex.org.

Does it work for articles published this week?

Usually. Europe PMC usually picks up new PubMed records within days, and if it has not yet, the converter asks NCBI directly. Articles published ahead of print may still lack volume, issue and pages; look the PMID up again once the issue is out.

Why is a field missing from the entry?

The entry contains only what the MEDLINE record holds. Older records often have no DOI, only open-access papers have a PMCID, and some journals publish without issue numbers or with article numbers instead of pages. The abstract and keywords fields are left out on purpose unless you tick the option to keep them.

Can it search PubMed by title or author?

No. It converts identifiers, not search terms. Search on pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, copy the PMID or the address of the article page, and paste it here.