A brief look at finding free-full-text articles in a PubMed search from the archive at PubMed Central.

1. Finding Free Full Text PMC Articles within
The National Library of Medicine’s
PUBMED
Database
Mark D. Puterbaugh
Information Services Librarian
Eastern University, Warner Memorial Library, St. Davids, PA
mputerba@eastern.edu
Tuesday, February 4, 2014

2. Presented by
Mark D. Puterbaugh
Information Services Librarian
Warner Memorial Library
Eastern University
St. Davids, PA 19087

3. PubMed and PubMed Central (PMC)
PubMed comprises over 22 million citations for biomedical literature
from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. PubMed
citations and abstracts include the fields of biomedicine and health,
covering portions of the life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical
sciences, and bioengineering. PubMed also provides access to
additional relevant web sites and links to the other NCBI molecular
biology resources.
PubMed is a free resource that is developed and maintained by the
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), at the U.S.
National Library of Medicine (NLM), located at the National Institutes
of Health (NIH).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
While primarily a citations resource, searches in PubMed can be
limited to locate full-text articles from publications freely available in
the National Library of Medicines’ PMC journal archive.

4. PubMed can be searched at http://www.pubmed.gov/
The initial screen
presents a simple
Search sox.
Type in the search term
then press “Search”.

5. Find All Full Text Available.
The search found
citations for over
3,200 articles.
Limit Search to “Free full text available”.

6. Results from Limited “Free full text available” Search.
The search found
citations for 45
full text articles.
Follow “Free Article” or “Free PMC Article”
links to retrieve the text.

7. Find PMC Full Text Exclusively.
PMC holds full-text to 25 articles on the results
lists. Select this to view a results list of PMC full
text articles.
Follow the “See All” link
for this content.

8. PMC Results List
From the results list select
the “Free PMC Article” link.

9. PMC Citation Display
Following the “Free PMC Article” link returns an informational page.
The article citation and abstract (if available) screen appears.
To bring up the article from PMC select the
button or to view
the article through BioMed Central select the
button.

10. Viewing the Full Text
Once at PMC there may be a variety of ways to access
the article. Here in addition to the HTML format there
are options for PubReader, ePub (for mobile devices
and e-readers) and an Acrobat Reader PDF file.

11. PubReader View
Excellent for reading on a tablet computer.

12. Acrobat Reader PDF View
Excellent for reading on a computer or print out.

13. Pros & Cons
Pros
• The articles are from professional or peer-reviewed publications.
•This method can provide the searcher with immediate access to
full-text articles.
Cons
• This search eliminates many important articles found in PubMed.
• Leaves the researcher dependent on a small sampling of
relevant resources. This can be frustrating.
While the list of free full text academic publications found on the
Web and in PMC is growing, the set is small compared to the vast
amount of literature produced.
Consult with a librarian, they can help you find further
resources for your research.