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Creating Links to PubMed

Creating Links to PubMed Citations and Searches

To create a link to PubMed citations for use in a bookmark, Web page, or e-mail message, create or generate a customized URL.  With this URL, you can link to specific citations or link to the current results of your PubMed search strategy. 

Example of links from Bernard Becker Medical Library to citations in PubMed
Example: Recent publications from the Washington University School of Medicine faculty (Bernard Becker Medical Library).  The PMID number links to the citation in PubMed in Abstract format.

To create a link to a single citation in PubMed:

Copy the URL from the address bar when viewing a single citation in the Abstract display.

  1. View the citation in the Summary format
  2. Click the title link to display the Abstract format
  3. Bookmark this page, or copy the URL from the browser’s address bar to paste as a link in a Web page or e-mail message

Browser address bar with PubMed link

To create a customized link to one or more citations in your preferred format:

Use the base URL for PubMed:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

then add the PMID. 
For multiple PMIDs, use commas (but no spaces) between each number, as follows:

18235850,17701905

Add ?&report= followed by your preferred display format (docsum, brief, abstract, medline, xml,– see PubMed Help at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/?rendertype=table&id=pubmedhelp.T40 for descriptions), as follows:

?&report=abstract

Strung together, your URL now looks like:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18235850,17701905?&report=abstract

Note that there are no spaces. 

To create a link to the results for a short PubMed search (e.g., an author’s name):URL button on Details page

  1. Run the search
  2. Click on the Advanced Search link
  3. Go to Details
  4. Click on the URL button, below the search details
  5. Bookmark this page, or copy the URL from the browser’s address bar

Note:  Some browsers have a size limit for URLs in the address bar.  If your link doesn’t work, the search string may be too long for your browser.  Use the “customized link” method, described below.

 

 

 

An example of a link from a personal home page to a search in PubMed
Example: A personal home page with a link that runs a search for the author’s citations in PubMed.

To create a customized link to PubMed search results:

A customized search link allows you to select the display format and number of citations in the PubMed results page. 

Use the base URL for a PubMed “search” function:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=

Add your search terms.  Use the “+” sign between terms instead of spaces, as follows:

gastrointestinal+stromal+tumors

To use specific search fields, use the field tag (see Search Field Descriptions and Tags http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/#pubmedhelp.Search_Field_Descrip).  For example, to limit the above search to articles published in the last ten years, use the [dp] tag, as follows:

+AND+”last+10+years”[dp]

Optionally, add &report= followed by your preferred display format (docsum, brief, abstract, medline, xml), as follows:

&report=abstract

Add &dispmax= followed by the number of items to display on each page, as follows:

&dispmax=100

Your finished URL will look like:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=gastrointestinal+stromal+tumors+AND+”last+10+years”[dp]&report=abstract&dispmax=100  

Note that there are “&” symbols between each element, and there are no spaces.

Troubleshooting:
If your URL isn’t working, the special characters may not be interpreted properly by PubMed.  Try the following substitutions:

  • Use & instead of &
  • Use %20 instead of +
  • Use %5B instead of [
  • Use %5D instead of ]
  • Use %22 instead of “

For more details on creating links to PubMed or other Entrez databases, see Creating a Web Link to the Entrez Databases.