Do I need an API key?

No. The PubMed E-utilities API is public. An optional free API key from NCBI increases rate limits from 3 to 10 requests per second.

MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) is the NLM's controlled vocabulary for indexing biomedical articles. It provides standardized terms for precise searching — for example, using 'Neoplasms' will find all cancer-related articles regardless of which synonym the authors used.

Can I retrieve full-text articles?

PubMed provides abstracts for all articles and links to free full text when available through PubMed Central. Use the free full-text filter to find open-access articles you can read immediately.

Stanford PubMed MCP Connector for Claude

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Search biomedical literature from the world largest database of life science and medical research publications.

16 tools Official Updated Oct 1, 2026 Official Vinkius Partner

More Details Connect to Claude

Connect to the PubMed E-utilities API from the National Library of Medicine — the gold standard for biomedical literature search.

What you can do

Full-Text Search — Search across 36M+ biomedical articles from MEDLINE
MeSH Vocabulary — Use Medical Subject Headings for precise, controlled-vocabulary searches
Clinical Trials — Filter specifically for clinical trial publications
Reviews & Meta-analyses — Find systematic reviews and meta-analyses
Gene Search — Search articles mentioning specific genes (TP53, BRCA1, EGFR)
Drug Search — Find articles about specific drugs and compounds
Citation Tracking — Find articles that cite a given paper
Related Articles — Use NCBI's similarity algorithm to discover related literature
Abstracts — Retrieve full structured abstracts for quick evaluation
Free Full Text — Filter for open access articles available in PubMed Central
Batch Retrieval — Fetch multiple articles by PMID in a single request

Who is this for?

Medical Researchers — literature reviews, evidence-based medicine
PhD Students — comprehensive biomedical search
Clinicians — find clinical trial evidence for treatment decisions
Pharmacologists — drug interaction and efficacy research

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16 tools expose this connector's capabilities to your AI agent.

get_citations

Essential for understanding an article's impact, finding follow-up studies, and tracking how findings have been built upon by other researchers. Get articles that cite a given PubMed article

get_related_articles

The algorithm considers title, abstract, MeSH headings, and substances to compute similarity scores. This is often more effective than keyword search for discovering relevant literature. Find related articles using NCBI similarity algorithm

search_by_author

Use "LastName FirstInitial" format for best results (e.g. "Doudna JA", "Zhang F"). Returns the author's publication list with article metadata. Find PubMed articles by author name

search_clinical

This includes Phase I-IV trials, randomized controlled trials, and clinical study reports. Essential for evidence-based medicine and systematic reviews. Search for clinical trial publications

search_genes

Uses the Gene Name field tag for precise matching. Examples: "TP53", "BRCA1", "EGFR", "KRAS", "MYC". Can be combined with a topic query for more specific results. Search articles mentioning specific genes

search_reviews

These are the highest level of evidence synthesis in medicine and provide comprehensive overviews of research on a topic. Search for review articles and meta-analyses

search_trending

This surfaces papers that are generating the most attention and engagement in the research community. Find trending articles in a subject area

batch_get_articles

Useful for building reading lists, comparing studies, or analyzing a collection of articles from a reference list. Retrieve multiple articles by PMID list

get_abstract

For structured abstracts, returns all sections (Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions). Essential for quickly evaluating whether a paper is relevant without accessing the full text. Get the full abstract text of a PubMed article

get_article

Returns title, all authors, journal name, publication date, volume, issue, pages, DOI, publication types, and language. Get article details by PubMed ID (PMID)

search_by_journal

Can be combined with a topic query. Use journal abbreviations or full names (e.g. "Nature", "N Engl J Med", "Lancet", "Cell", "Science", "JAMA", "BMJ"). Find articles published in a specific journal

search_by_mesh

MeSH terms provide precise topic classification. Examples: "Neoplasms", "Diabetes Mellitus", "Machine Learning", "Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats", "COVID-19". Search using MeSH controlled vocabulary terms

search_drugs

Uses the Substance Name field for precise matching. Examples: "metformin", "pembrolizumab", "remdesivir", "aspirin", "dexamethasone". Search articles mentioning specific drugs or compounds

search_free_full_text

This filters to only return open access or author-deposited articles where the complete manuscript can be read for free. Essential for researchers without institutional journal subscriptions. Search for articles with free full-text available

search_pubmed

Returns article titles, authors, journals, dates, DOIs, and publication types. Sort options: "relevance" (default), "date", "pub_date", "first_author", "journal". Search 36M+ biomedical articles on PubMed

search_recent

Use this to stay up-to-date with the latest publications in your research area. Default is last 30 days. Find the most recent articles in a field

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