PubMed to BibTeX Converter
Free. No signup. Runs in your browser.
Paste one PMID, or up to 50, and get BibTeX entries for your .bib file. PubMed links and "PMID:" labels work too. Each record comes from Europe PMC, which holds the same MEDLINE data as PubMed, with the DOI and the full page range filled in.
How to convert a PMID to BibTeX
Step 1
Paste your PMIDs
One per line, up to 50. A plain number (26017442), PMID: 26017442 or a PubMed link all work.
Step 2
Pick the output
BibTeX keeps accents as UTF-8 for biblatex and biber. Legacy BibTeX writes them as LaTeX macros for older bibtex setups.
Step 3
Check, then copy
Look over each entry (see below), then Copy one entry, or Copy all and Download .bib for the batch.
The lookups go from your browser straight to Europe PMC, not to our server. If one PMID fails, the result says why, and the rest of the batch still converts.
Where to find the PMID
On a PubMed article page, the PMID is under the abstract, next to "PMID:". It is also the number in the page address: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26017442/.
A PMCID (it starts with PMC) is different: it is the free full-text copy in PubMed Central. The PMCID is not read here, so use the PMID shown on the same page, or the article's DOI with the DOI to BibTeX converter.
Many references from one search? Select them in PubMed, then Send to > Citation manager. That gives you a .nbib file with every result, which the NBIB to BibTeX converter turns into a .bib file in one go.
What the converter fixes for you
- Shortened page ranges. PubMed writes pages the NLM way,
436-44. The entry gets the full range,436--444, which every bibliography style reads correctly. - Journal names in full. You get "The New England Journal of Medicine", not "N Engl J Med", properly capitalised.
- PMID and DOI both kept, so the entry can be traced back either way.
- Preprints marked as preprints. A paper still on medRxiv or bioRxiv comes out as a preprint, not as a journal article, and its preprint ID stays out of the
pagesfield. - Capitals protected. Terms such as DNA, mRNA, COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 are wrapped in braces, so styles that lowercase titles leave them alone.
Check these before you use the entries
- Journal abbreviations. If your journal wants NLM abbreviations (N Engl J Med), replace the full name, or use a style that abbreviates for you.
- Article types. Reviews, letters and editorials come out as
@article, which is right for most styles. Change one with the Type menu if your style treats it differently. - A preprint that has since been published: cite the published version. Its PMID or DOI is usually on the preprint's PubMed page.
Frequently asked questions
Paste the PMID into the box above and press Convert. The converter fetches the article's record and writes it as a BibTeX entry you can copy or download as a .bib file.
Use the DOI when the paper has one: it works outside medicine too. Use the PMID when there is no DOI or your style asks for it. The PMCID identifies the full-text copy in PubMed Central, not the article, so it is rarely the identifier to cite.
Usually a typo (a PMID is digits only) or a very new record that has not reached Europe PMC yet. Try the article's DOI with the DOI to BibTeX converter instead.
Europe PMC mirrors the same MEDLINE records and lets a browser fetch them directly. That is what keeps the lookups between your browser and the database, with no server of ours in between.
Yes. The Vancouver citation generator and AMA citation generator take PMIDs too and give numbered references.
It is free and needs no signup. The PMIDs go from your browser to Europe PMC and never reach our server. The result is gone when you close the tab, unless you choose to have it emailed to you.
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