Who Adds Citations to PubMed?
Have you wondered how citations are added to PubMed? PubMed is a scientific literature database that is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of the National Library of Medicine.
Citations listed in PubMed are from academic publications, academic institutions, scholarly societies, governmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations. Publishers are the primary source of new citations. Publishers must apply and be selected by the National Library of Medicine before they can add citations. Citations and abstract data must be submitted electronically via Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). Details can be found at XML Help for PubMed Data Providers .
NIH-funded investigators and authors can submit manuscripts accepted for publication to PubMed Central (PMC). Accepted manuscripts are submitted through the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) System. The submission is processed and formatted for PMC. After the Principle Investigator approves the final version, a citation will populate in PubMed.
How can I tell if citations are being added to PubMed? PubMed is updated daily. You can see records added for any day using the search format: 2026/01/22[crdt]. PMC is updated daily. You can see records added for any day using the search format: 2026/01/22[pmclivedate].
Citations listed in PubMed are from academic publications, academic institutions, scholarly societies, governmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations. Publishers are the primary source of new citations. Publishers must apply and be selected by the National Library of Medicine before they can add citations. Citations and abstract data must be submitted electronically via Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). Details can be found at XML Help for PubMed Data Providers .
NIH-funded investigators and authors can submit manuscripts accepted for publication to PubMed Central (PMC). Accepted manuscripts are submitted through the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) System. The submission is processed and formatted for PMC. After the Principle Investigator approves the final version, a citation will populate in PubMed.
How can I tell if citations are being added to PubMed? PubMed is updated daily. You can see records added for any day using the search format: 2026/01/22[crdt]. PMC is updated daily. You can see records added for any day using the search format: 2026/01/22[pmclivedate].