PMID Citation Generator
Paste a PubMed ID, a PMC ID or a PubMed link, and the generator fetches the article's record from the National Library of Medicine and formats it for you. You get the reference and the in-text citation in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 and 10,834 other styles. Free, no sign-up.
How to Use the PMID Citation Generator
- 1. Find the identifier. A PMID is the number shown as PMID: on the article's PubMed page, a string of up to eight digits. A PMCID looks like PMC5334499.
- 2. Paste it. The URL / DOI / ISBN box accepts a bare PMID, a pmid:-prefixed one, a PMCID or the address of a PubMed page. Paste several, one per line, to cite a list.
- 3. Choose a style. Pick APA, MLA, Chicago or any of the 10,834 styles.
- 4. Generate and check. The tool contacts the NCBI citation service, then returns the reference with its in-text form. Compare the journal name and the author initials with the paper.
- 5. Copy, or use Edit to fix a field and regenerate.
Which Tool Do You Need?
The same article can be cited from several starting points. Use the one that matches what you have in front of you.
| You have… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A PubMed ID, PMCID or PubMed link | This page | It queries PubMed's own record |
| A DOI | DOI Citation Generator | It reads the publisher's record from Crossref |
| A PDF of the paper | PDF Citation Generator | It finds the DOI inside the file |
| Only the details printed on the paper | Journal Article Citation Generator | You type the details yourself |
What a PubMed Citation Looks Like
A PubMed record carries the authors, title, journal, year, volume, issue, pages and DOI, and the generator turns those fields into the style you choose. APA 7, MLA 9 and Chicago 18 do not print the PMID itself; the DOI does that job, as a link. When an article has no DOI, APA 7 and Chicago 18 point to the PubMed address in the form pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PMID. The NLM's own Citing Medicine format is the one that prints PMID: at the end.
PubMed's own record is cleaner than a web page but has quirks. Some journal names come back as NLM abbreviations, such as N Engl J Med, where APA, MLA and Chicago want the full title; each author is stored with a limited number of initials; and article titles are sometimes recorded in sentence case. Check these three things before you paste.
PMID Citation Examples
Watson and Crick's 1953 paper on the structure of DNA, whose PubMed record is PMID 13054692. The entries below show the style, as the generator would produce them from a record with complete initials.
Journal article, PMID 13054692
APA 7:
Watson, J. D., & Crick, F. H. C. (1953). Molecular structure of nucleic acids: A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature, 171(4356), 737–738. https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0
APA in-text:
(Watson & Crick, 1953)
MLA 9:
Watson, J. D., and F. H. C. Crick. “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.” Nature, vol. 171, no. 4356, 1953, pp. 737–38, https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0.
MLA in-text:
(Watson and Crick)
Chicago 18 note:
J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick, “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid,” Nature 171, no. 4356 (1953): 737–38, https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0.
Chicago 18 bibliography:
Watson, J. D., and F. H. C. Crick. “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.” Nature 171, no. 4356 (1953): 737–38. https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0.
Privacy and Limits
The identifier you paste is sent from CitationEasy's server to the NCBI citation service, which returns the record. Nothing else about you is sent. If the lookup fails, because PubMed is busy or the ID does not exist, you get an error message and can switch to Manual Entry.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a PMID?
- A PMID is the PubMed identifier, a unique number the National Library of Medicine gives each record in PubMed. It appears on the article's PubMed page and is different from a DOI. A PMCID, which starts with PMC, identifies a free full-text copy in PubMed Central.
- Can I cite an article with only a PMID?
- Yes. Paste the PMID and the generator fetches the authors, title, journal and date from PubMed. Use the DOI in the final entry when the record has one, because it is the preferred link in APA 7, MLA 9 and Chicago 18.
- Where do I find the PMID?
- On the article's page at pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, under the title and abstract, labelled PMID. Many journal sites and reference lists also print it. A PMCID is shown on the PubMed Central copy.
- Do I include the PMID in an APA reference?
- No. APA 7 asks for the DOI as a link, and for the PubMed URL only when there is no DOI. The same goes for MLA and Chicago; the PMID itself is a lookup key, not part of the reference.
- Why does the journal name look abbreviated?
- PubMed stores NLM's abbreviated title for many journals, so a result may read N Engl J Med. APA, MLA and Chicago want the full title, so edit it in your document. Vancouver-style medical references often keep the abbreviation.
- Can I cite a PMCID from PubMed Central?
- Yes. Paste the PMC identifier, and the generator fetches the article's record. Cite the published article, with its DOI, rather than the PMC copy, unless the PMC copy is the only version you used.
- Which citation styles does the PMID generator support?
- All 10,834 styles in the library, including APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 and the medical styles.