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Finding Article Identifiers

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Article ID and metadata mappings

If you have a standard identifier (PMCID, PMID, Manuscript ID or DOI) for an article in PMC and would like to find the other unique identifiers that apply to the article, you have the option of using the ID Converter tool (below) or the ID Converter API. In addition, from the FTP service, you can get a file that contains these ID mappings as well as other article metadata for all the articles in PMC.

PMCID - PMID - Manuscript ID - DOI Converter

Enter IDs into the text box using the specified format. Separate multiple IDs with spaces or commas. Note: you cannot mix different types of IDs in a single request.

  • PMID: use simple numbers, e.g., 23193287.
  • PMCID: include the ‘PMC’ prefix, e.g., PMC3531190. You may drop the prefix if you select the checkbox for ‘Process as PMCIDs’.
  • Manuscript ID: include the relevant prefix, e.g., NIHMS236863 or EMS48932.
  • DOI: enter the complete string, e.g., 10.1093/nar/gks1195.

Or get IDs from the NCBI clipboard: or

Choose the result format:           

This utility allows you to start with any of the following unique identifiers for an article in PMC (PubMed Central) and get back the other IDs that apply to the article:

  • PMID (PubMed ID)
  • PMCID (PMC ID)
  • Manuscript ID – (available only for articles that came in through a manuscript submission system, e.g., NIHMS, Europe PMC, PMC Canada)
  • DOI – (Digital Object Identifier, if the article has one)

Tips for entering IDs

Each lookup request can contain one or more unique identifiers, but you cannot mix the types of IDs in a single request. Either enter the IDs in the box above or call up a list of IDs that you have stored in the PubMed or PMC Clipboards. This utility can process a maximum of 200 IDs in a single request. If you have a larger number of IDs, split your list into smaller subsets.
When entering IDs in the text box, you may enter one per line, or multiple IDs per line, separated by commas or spaces.

Note that some articles, particularly older ones, will not have a DOI, and many articles will not have a Manuscript ID.

If you look up an ID for an article that is not in PMC, you will receive an "Identifier not found in PMC" message.

ID Converter API

The ID Converter API is the backend web service that is used by the PMCID - PMID - Manuscript ID - DOI Converter (see above) This API allow you to programmatically convert between the various IDs used in our system.

FTP Service

The PMC-ids.csv.gz file, available through the FTP service, maps an article’s standard IDs to each other and to other article metadata elements. PMC-ids.csv.gz is a comma-delimited file with the following fields:

  • Journal Title
  • ISSN
  • Electronic ISSN
  • Publication Year
  • Volume
  • Issue
  • Page
  • DOI (if available)
  • PMCID
  • PubMed ID (if available)
  • Manuscript ID (if available)
  • Release Date (Mmm DD YYYY or live)

Articles that show a Release Date are under embargo and not yet available on the PMC public site. When embargoed articles are released to the PMC public site, the Release Date field value changes to "live".

If any information is not available, entries will contain an empty space.

Format

Journal Title,ISSN,eISSN,Year,Volume,Issue,Page,DOI,PMC accession number,PMID,Manuscript Id,Release Date

Sample entries

  • Mol Biol Cell,1059-1524,1939-4586,2000,11,6,2019, ,PMC14900,10848626, ,live
  • J Neurosci,0270-6474,1529-2401,2005,25,24,5740,10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0913-05.2005,PMC1201448,15958740,NIHMS3372,live
  • Cancer Res,0008-5472,1538-7445,2007,67,17,8022,10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-06-3749,PMC1986634,17804713,NIHMS25090,Sep 1 2008
  • Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,0027-8424,1091-6490,2007,104,43,17075,10.1073/pnas.0707060104,PMC2040460,17940018, ,live
  • Cell Host Microbe,1931-3128,1934-6069,2007,2,6,404,10.1016/j.chom.2007.09.014,PMC2184509,18078692,NIHMS36164,live
  • Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,0027-8424,1091-6490,2008,105,21,7382,10.1073/pnas.0711174105,PMC2396716,18495922, ,Nov 27 2008
  • PLoS Med,1549-1277,1549-1676,2008, ,Immediate Access,e168,10.1371/journal.pmed.0050168,PMC2494565,18684010, ,live
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