PMID and PMCID
Also called: PubMed ID, PMID, PMCID
PubMed's numeric identifier for a biomedical citation (PMID) and PubMed Central's identifier for a full-text copy (PMCID).
A PMID is a plain number identifying a record in PubMed — the index. A PMCID, written like PMC3339580, identifies a full text deposited in PubMed Central — the repository. An article can have a PMID with no PMCID, which usually means the full text is not openly deposited.
Vancouver, AMA, and NLM styles often include the PMID in the reference, and NIH-funded work is required to record PMCIDs in progress reports. Elsewhere they are mainly a lookup key: a PMID resolves to complete metadata in one call.
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See also
DOI (Digital Object Identifier)A permanent identifier for a document — usually a journal article — that resolves to its current location no matter how many times the publisher moves it.arXiv IDThe identifier for a preprint on arXiv, in the form 2403.01234, with a version suffix marking which revision you read.