# PubMed Search — Fast NCBI API (`quartz_apple_dnx/pubmed-search-fast-ncbi-api`) Actor

Search PubMed through official NCBI E-utilities and export abstracts, authors, journal, DOI, MeSH terms, keywords, publication types, and dates.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/quartz_apple_dnx/pubmed-search-fast-ncbi-api.md
- **Developed by:** [Piven Core](https://apify.com/quartz_apple_dnx) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.25 / 1,000 pubmed articles

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## PubMed Search — Fast NCBI API

Search PubMed through official NCBI E-utilities and export structured biomedical article metadata.

Use it for **biomedical literature discovery, research monitoring, systematic-search inputs, academic datasets, and automated literature workflows** without a browser, proxy, cookies, login, or API key.

### Common use cases

- Search PubMed for articles matching biomedical topics
- Collect abstracts and bibliographic metadata for research
- Monitor literature around diseases, treatments, genes, or other search terms
- Build structured source datasets for review or analysis workflows
- Feed PMID/DOI/PMC identifiers into downstream research systems

### What you get

Rows include PMID, title, abstract, authors, journal, publication date, volume/issue/pages, DOI/PMC identifiers, MeSH terms, keywords, publication types, languages, PubMed URL, query provenance, and capture timestamp.

### Official source and access discipline

The Actor uses ESearch with NCBI History followed by batched EFetch.

NCBI allows no-key clients up to three requests per second; this Actor stays below that rate and includes tool/contact parameters.

### Try it

```json
{"queries":["cancer immunotherapy"],"sort":"relevance","maxRows":25}
```

### Pricing

Private factory target: **$0.25 per 1,000 saved article rows**, only if live cloud economics clear the existing 3× gate and exact PAY_PER_EVENT pricing is accepted.

### Important limitations

This Actor retrieves bibliographic information from PubMed; it does not evaluate study quality, establish medical consensus, diagnose conditions, recommend treatment, or replace clinical or professional review. Search results depend on the query and NCBI's indexed records.

### About Piven Core

Built and maintained by **Piven Core** — focused data APIs and automation utilities for reliable, production-ready workflows.

Learn more: https://pivencore.com

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

One to ten PubMed search expressions; native PubMed field syntax is supported.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

PubMed ESearch result ordering.

## `maxResultsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Maximum PubMed articles fetched for each search expression.

## `maxRows` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on saved query × PMID rows across the run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "cancer immunotherapy"
  ],
  "sort": "relevance",
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 25,
  "maxRows": 25
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        "cancer immunotherapy"
    ],
    "sort": "relevance",
    "maxResultsPerQuery": 25,
    "maxRows": 25
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("quartz_apple_dnx/pubmed-search-fast-ncbi-api").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "queries": ["cancer immunotherapy"],
    "sort": "relevance",
    "maxResultsPerQuery": 25,
    "maxRows": 25,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("quartz_apple_dnx/pubmed-search-fast-ncbi-api").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "cancer immunotherapy"
  ],
  "sort": "relevance",
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 25,
  "maxRows": 25
}' |
apify call quartz_apple_dnx/pubmed-search-fast-ncbi-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,quartz_apple_dnx/pubmed-search-fast-ncbi-api"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/yE9waqaqK7U1omrhq/builds/ONMF8sGKUBM9jAHxG/openapi.json