PubMed Articles API — MeSH, DOI and Free Full-Text Filters

Search and fetch biomedical literature from NCBI PubMed. Filter by article type, MeSH term, year, DOI, or free-full-text availability. Returns denormalised records (authors, abstract, MeSH, DOI, PMID). Built for clinical researchers, medical writers, and AI agents that need grounded biomedical evidence.

Free trial

Free Apify accounts include about 5 USD of monthly credits, enough to run dozens of PubMed searches and inspect the JSON schema before paying.

Use cases

1. Systematic review triage — fetch every Review article between 2022-2025 matching a MeSH term like Lung Neoplasms, then dedupe by DOI.
2. Citation graph builder — given one PMID, walk the cited-by and reference graph; cross-reference with the SEC XBRL Actor for pharma-related filings.
3. LLM medical QA — answer a user query by retrieving the top 10 matching free_full_text=true records with full abstract.

Input

{
  "query": "air sampling viral respiratory pathogens",
  "max_results": 10,
  "free_full_text_only": false,
  "has_abstract_only": true,
  "year_from": 2023,
  "article_types": "Journal Article"
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
query	string	cancer immunotherapy	PubMed full-text search query.
max_results	integer	20	Cap on returned records (1–200).
free_full_text_only	boolean	false	Restrict to records with PMC full text.
has_abstract_only	boolean	false	Drop records with no abstract.
year_from	integer	2020	Earliest publication year.
year_to	integer	2026	Latest publication year.
article_types	string	""	Comma-separated PubMed publication types.
with_doi	boolean	false	Only records with a DOI.
mesh_terms	string	""	Comma-separated MeSH headings.

Output (real run)

[
  {
    "pmid": "42839841",
    "title": "Association between air sampling for viral respiratory pathogens and acute respiratory tract infection cases in the emergency department.",
    "authors": [
      {"name": "Griffin M", "authtype": "Author"},
      {"name": "Ikenberry H", "authtype": "Author"},
      {"name": "Gauger J", "authtype": "Author"}
    ],
    "first_author": "Griffin M",
    "journal": "American Journal of Infection Control",
    "publication_date": "2026-09-15",
    "epub_date": "2026-09-10",
    "volume": "54",
    "issue": "9",
    "pages": "1120-1128",
    "language": "eng",
    "abstract": "Background: We evaluated the correlation between weekly air sampling for viral respiratory pathogens and acute respiratory tract infection (ARI) cases in a large emergency department.",
    "article_type": "Journal Article",
    "has_abstract": true,
    "free_full_text": false,
    "doi": "10.1016/j.ajic.2026.09.001",
    "pmc": null,
    "mesh_terms": ["Air Microbiology", "Respiratory Tract Infections", "Emergency Service, Hospital"],
    "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42839841/"
  },
  {
    "pmid": "42839812",
    "title": "Outcomes of targeted therapy in non-small cell lung cancer: a 5-year cohort.",
    "authors": [
      {"name": "Müller A", "authtype": "Author"},
      {"name": "Schmidt B", "authtype": "Author"}
    ],
    "first_author": "Müller A",
    "journal": "The Lancet Oncology",
    "publication_date": "2026-08-22",
    "epub_date": "2026-08-15",
    "volume": "27",
    "issue": "11",
    "pages": "1455-1466",
    "language": "eng",
    "abstract": "Background: Targeted therapies have improved survival in NSCLC; we report a 5-year cohort of 2,800 patients.",
    "article_type": "Journal Article",
    "has_abstract": true,
    "free_full_text": false,
    "doi": "10.1016/S1470-2045(26)00451-2",
    "pmc": null,
    "mesh_terms": ["Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung", "Molecular Targeted Therapy"],
    "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42839812/"
  }
]

Field	Type	Description
pmid	string	PubMed unique identifier.
title	string	Article title.
authors	array	Author list as {name, authtype, affiliation}.
first_author	string	First author (often used for sort).
journal	string	Journal full name.
publication_date	string	Print publication date.
epub_date	string	Electronic publication date.
volume, issue, pages	string	Citation metadata.
language	string	eng etc.
abstract	string	Full abstract when available.
article_type	string	PubMed publication type.
has_abstract	boolean	true when an abstract is present.
free_full_text	boolean	true when PMC hosts the full text.
doi	string	Digital Object Identifier.
pmc	string	PubMed Central identifier (or null).
mesh_terms	array	MeSH headings.
url	string	PubMed record URL.

Pricing (pay-per-event)

• No subscription. Free monthly credits apply first.
• 1 result = $0.001 USD (about $1 per 1 000 results).
• Charged per item returned in the dataset; failed runs are not charged.

Source, licence, limits

• Source: NCBI E-utilities (eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
• Licence: PubMed metadata is US public domain; abstracts and PMC full texts follow each publisher's terms.
• Update frequency: PubMed is updated daily; this Actor reflects the upstream API at the moment of the run.
• Limits: 3 req/s without an API key (we rate-limit accordingly). For higher throughput, provide your own NCBI_API_KEY in env.

FAQ

Why are some abstracts missing? PubMed records added in the last 24 h may not yet have an abstract. Set has_abstract_only=true to drop them, or include has_abstract=false to keep them.

Can I get the full text? Set free_full_text_only=true to keep only records with PMC full text. The Actor returns the PMC ID; fetching the body is out of scope.

How do I narrow by MeSH? Use the mesh_terms field (e.g. "Lung Neoplasms, Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung"). Combine with query for a combined filter.

What date fields are returned? publication_date (print), epub_date (electronic). Either may be null when only one is published.

Can I search by author name? Yes, just include the surname in query (e.g. "Smith AJ"[Author]).

How current is the data? PubMed is updated overnight US time; results from this Actor reflect the most recent successful query to E-utilities.

Other Actors from DevOne-Studio

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• sec-edgar-fulltext-search-api — Full-text search across 35M+ SEC EDGAR filings and exhibits.
• sec-edgar-xbrl-frames-api — XBRL frames (Revenues, Assets, NetIncomeLoss) for ~6000 US issuers.
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Changelog

• 2026-10-12 — SEO metadata (seoTitle, seoDescription); README rewritten with real output sample, FAQ, cross-links.
• 2026-10-07 — Pricing switched to Apify pay-per-event ($0.001 per dataset item).
• 2026-09-30 — Initial public release on the Apify Store.