PMCID numbers: Where are they?

A PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) just became easier to find! NIH grant proposals, applications and reports are required to include the PMCID for cited articles that have been archived in PubMed Central in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy (mandatory compliance effective April 7, 2008). PubMed Central is a free, publicly-accessible full-text digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. All articles added to PubMed Central are assigned a unique identifier – a PMCID – that will need to be submitted to the NIH. Due to similar terminology with numbers assigned in PubMed, there is confusion over where to find the correct number.

When looking at citations in PubMed, when displaying results in the default “Summary” format, you see a PMID number, a unique identifier assigned to each article as it is added to PubMed. This is NOT the same number assigned to articles in PubMed Central, and will not meet the NIH guidelines. To retrieve the PMCID number, you need to change the Display menu option to “AbstractPlus”. Once in the “AbstractPlus” display, you will see the PMCID to the lower right of the citation. This is the number to include on NIH proposals, applications and reports.

UPDATE: If you do not see a PMCID number in the "AbstractPlus" display, then either a) the article is not archived in PubMed Central, or b) the article has been submitted for archiving, but has not yet been publicly released. As of now, PMCID numbers are assigned only when articles are made publicly available, which can be up to 12 months after official publication.

PLEASE NOTE: Beginning May 25, 2008, if a publication has been submitted to PubMed Central but the PMCID is not yet available, NIH requests that grantees submit the NIH Manuscript Submission system reference number (NIHMS ID) instead. The NIHMS ID will be available to the individual who submitted the manuscript via the NIH Manuscript Submission system. For tutorials on the NIHMS system, click here.

An illustrated handout describing how to locate PMCID numbers can be found on the Tips Sheets page of the Carpenter Library wiki. (While you're there, checkout the other helpful handouts available on the wiki!)