NIH and NCBI have created a PM/PMC ID converter to help in translating one ID number to another in order to meet the NIH requirements for including those numbers in reports and proposals.

This "converter" is useful if you already have the PubMed ID (PMID) number and need to find the PMCID number (if one exists) OR if you have the PMCID number for your manuscript and want to find the PubMed ID number.

If you already have the numbers, you can type them or cut and paste them directly into the converter. Enter one per line OR put them all on one line, separated by a comma or space.

If you don't have the numbers, you can conduct a search in PubMed (PM) or PubMed Central (PMC), save the citations on the clipboard, and then use the converter to translate the numbers!

Instructions

1. Open an Internet browser
2. Go to PubMed
3. Perform search in PubMed
   Enter PMIDs into search box one at a time and send each to the clipboard or
   Use the Single Citaton matcher to locate PMIDs for articles in hard copy and send each to the clipboard as found
4. Select citations for which you would like to see any PMCIDs
5. Send selected citations to the PubMed Clipboard
   Click "Send To" dropdown and select "Clipboard"
6. Open a second Internet browser window or tab
7. Open the NIH Converter (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/pmctopmid)
8. Choose the PMID to PMCID radio button (it's the default)
9. Click the Get IDs from PubMed Clipboard button
10. Click the Convert button
11. Results will be displayed as two columns (PMID and PMCID) on the same page below the information about entering IDs directly

1. Open an Internet browser
2. Go to PubMed Central (PMC)
3. Perform search in PMC
4. Select citations for which you would like to see any PMIDs
5. Send selected citations to the PubMed Central Clipboard
   Click "Send To" dropdown and select "Clipboard"
6. Open a second Internet browser window or tab
7. Open the NIH Converter (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/pmctopmid)
8. Choose the PMCID to PMID radio button (change PMID default to PMCID)
9. Click the Get IDs from PMC Clipboard button
10. Click the Convert button
11. Results will be displayed as two columns (PMCID and PMID) on the same page below the information about entering IDs directly

Useful Tips

The PubMed citation (PMID) will have a PMCID number ONLY if the manuscript was submitted to NIH or if the journal uses PubMed Central for publishing its articles. If the article/manuscript is not in PubMed Central, the converter will not find a match.

However, a PMCID number will always generate a PubMed ID (PMID) number since all articles and manuscripts in PubMed Central are indexed in PubMed.