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PubMed contains more than 30 million citations to articles in the biomedical literature with new
material added daily. It also includes citations to a small but useful selection of online books
and documents. With a foundation in clinical medicine, PubMed includes citations to literature
on a wide range of biomedical and health topics including environmental health, social sciences,
microbiology, genetics, and chemical and physical sciences. The largest component of PubMed is
MEDLINE, the National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database containing
citations and author abstracts from more than 5,000 biomedical journals published around the world.
There is a process to determine whether or not to include a journal in MEDLINE.
In making this decision, NLM considers the recommendations of a group of advisors
known as the literature selection technical review committee.
The committee meets three times a year to evaluate journals that have applied to MEDLINE.
Journals are selected based on scope and coverage, editorial policies and processes,
scientific rigor, production and administration, and impact. PubMed also includes citations and
abstracts from articles included in PubMed Central, or PMC, a free online full-text
archive of biomedical and life sciences journals also hosted by the National Library of Medicine.
To be included in PubMed Central, a journal must meet the quality criteria of the National Library
of Medicine collections and meet the scientific, editorial, and technical criteria for PMC.
When research is funded by the National Institutes of Health,
or NIH, the results must be available to the public. Therefore, individual
articles reporting the results of NIH-funded research are also included in PubMed Central.
PubMed Central also serves as a repository for articles reporting on research funded by
other public agencies and private research funders that share a similar mission to NIH.
Records for these articles in PubMed Central that share research results with the public are added
to PubMed even if the article is not published in a journal selected for MEDLINE or PubMed Central.
PubMed also provides access to the National Center for Biotechnology Information's online Bookshelf.
Bookshelf is comprised of more than 7,000 technical reports, systematic reviews, clinical guidelines,
reference works, and other monographs. Most PubMed records represent one journal article
and are composed of fields that provide specific information
about the article including the journal source information, title of the journal article,
names of the authors and their affiliations, abstract published with the article,
and publication type, or description of the type of article like review or letter. For articles not in
English, the PubMed records will also include the language in which the article was published. When
available the PubMed record will provide research funding information and associated study data.
The National Library of Medicine adds Medical Subject Headings, or MeSH, terms to records from
MEDLINE selected journals. MeSH terms provide quick access to the topics of the article.
Most PubMed records are supplied electronically by publishers
and enhanced with MeSH and with links to related resources by the National Library of Medicine.
In addition to providing free access to PubMed via the web, the National Library of Medicine provides
access to PubMed data to researchers, commercial vendors, and the public for repurpose and reuse.
PubMed makes finding biomedical journal information easy
from anywhere you can access the internet.