PubMed Articles Scraper

Here is one real result, with every field the actor returns:

{
  "pmid": "42595355",
  "title": "Turning off methylglyoxal stress: an alternative approach to inhibit MDSC expansion and metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer.",
  "authors": ["Mohring V", "Ancion M", "Hubert P", "Lardinois F", "Bizet M", "Stern D", "Nokin MJ", "Herfs M", "Rademaker G", "Peulen O", "Janji B", "Bellahcene A"],
  "source": "J Immunother Cancer",
  "journal": "Journal for immunotherapy of cancer",
  "pubDate": "2026 Aug 13",
  "volume": "14",
  "issue": "8",
  "pages": null,
  "doi": "10.1136/jitc-2026-014841",
  "pubTypes": ["Journal Article"],
  "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42595355/",
  "sourceName": "PubMed",
  "abstract": "BACKGROUND: Metabolic reprogramming through enhanced glycolysis is a hallmark of cancer that supports tumor progression and promotes protumor immune responses. Methylglyoxal (MG), a reactive by-product of glycolysis, has recently emerged as an oncometabolite implicated in cancer progression and therapy resistance. [abstract continues with METHODS, RESULTS and CONCLUSIONS sections]",
  "aiSummary": "This study investigates the role of methylglyoxal (MG) stress in promoting immune evasion and metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The findings suggest that targeting MG stress alongside PD-1 signaling can reduce immune suppression and metastatic spread, offering a potential new treatment strategy for resistant cases.",
  "aiKeywords": ["methylglyoxal", "triple-negative breast cancer", "myeloid-derived suppressor cells", "metastasis", "immunotherapy", "tumor microenvironment"],
  "aiField": "Oncology",
  "observedAt": "2026-08-14T06:29:10.806Z"
}

The most complete PubMed scraper available. It returns the fields most PubMed exports leave out, including the full abstract, MeSH headings, author keywords, chemical/substance names, per-author affiliations, the corresponding-author email, funding agencies, ISSN and the PMC free full-text URL, on top of the standard title, authors, journal, date, DOI and PMID, plus optional paid AI add-ons for a plain-English summary, topical keywords and field classification.

📥 Input · 📤 Output · 💰 Pricing · ▶️ Examples

Table of contents

• What it does
• Quickstart
• Input reference
• Output reference
• Example output record
• Run via API and CLI
• Fetch results
• Billing and limits
• FAQ and troubleshooting

What it does

The actor searches PubMed for your keyword query, paginates the matching biomedical articles, and writes one normalized record per article to the run's dataset. Every record carries the bibliographic fields (PMID, title, authors, journal, publication date, volume, issue, pages, DOI, URL) plus the deeper detail fields PubMed exposes: full abstract with section labels, MeSH terms, author keywords, chemical/substance names, author affiliations, corresponding-author email, funding agencies, PMC ID and free full-text URL, ISSN and language. Missing source values are returned as null.

Three optional paid AI add-ons enrich each article: withAiSummary (a 1-2 sentence plain-English summary), withAiKeywords (5-10 topical keywords) and withAiField (biomedical field classification). They are off by default and require a paid Apify plan.

Quickstart

Open the actor, paste this into the input, and press Run. It returns up to 10 articles on covid vaccine efficacy.

{
  "searchQuery": "covid vaccine efficacy",
  "maxArticles": 10
}

Every input field is optional. Turn on any of the AI add-ons (withAiSummary, withAiKeywords, withAiField) on a paid plan to enrich each article.

Input reference

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
searchQuery	string	no	covid vaccine efficacy	Keyword to search biomedical articles by topic, disease, drug or author, for example alzheimer biomarkers, crispr.
maxArticles	integer	no	10	Maximum articles to collect. Free Apify plans are capped at 10 per run.
withAiSummary	boolean	no	false	Paid add-on. Generates a 1-2 sentence plain-English summary from each abstract (skipped when no abstract). Requires a paid plan. Billed only when a summary is produced.
withAiKeywords	boolean	no	false	Paid add-on. Extracts 5-10 topical keywords per article from title, abstract and MeSH. Requires a paid plan. Billed only when keywords are produced.
withAiField	boolean	no	false	Paid add-on. Classifies each article's biomedical field/specialty. Requires a paid plan. Billed only when a classification is produced.

Output reference

One dataset item per article. Types: string, string[], or null when the source value is absent.

Field	Type	Description
pmid	string	PubMed ID (unique per article).
title	string	Article title.
authors	string[]	Author names.
journal	string	Full journal name.
journalAbbrev	string	Journal abbreviation.
source	string	Journal source string (abbreviated citation).
pubDate	string	Publication date as published (for example 2026 Aug 13).
volume	string	Journal volume.
issue	string	Journal issue.
pages	string	Page range, or null.
doi	string	DOI, where available.
url	string	Direct PubMed article URL.
abstract	string	Full abstract, with section labels preserved.
meshTerms	string[]	MeSH headings assigned to the article.
keywords	string[]	Author-supplied keywords.
chemicals	string[]	Chemical / substance names.
affiliations	string[]	Author affiliations.
correspondingEmail	string	Corresponding-author email, where the journal lists one.
grantAgencies	string[]	Funding agency names.
pmcid	string	PubMed Central ID, or null.
fullTextUrl	string	Free full-text URL (PMC), when an open-access version exists.
issn	string	Journal ISSN.
language	string	Article language.
pubTypes	string[]	Publication types, for example Journal Article, Review.
sourceName	string	Source label. Always PubMed.
observedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp of when the record was collected.
aiSummary	string	Add-on only. Plain-English summary of the abstract.
aiKeywords	string[]	Add-on only. AI-extracted topical keywords.
aiField	string	Add-on only. AI biomedical field classification.

Example output record

Real record from a live run (input {"searchQuery":"cancer immunotherapy","withAiSummary":true,"withAiKeywords":true,"withAiField":true}). The authors list and abstract are trimmed here; every value shown is unchanged from the live record:

{
  "pmid": "42595355",
  "title": "Turning off methylglyoxal stress: an alternative approach to inhibit MDSC expansion and metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer.",
  "authors": ["Mohring V", "Ancion M", "Hubert P", "Nokin MJ", "Herfs M", "Bellahcene A"],
  "source": "J Immunother Cancer",
  "journal": "Journal for immunotherapy of cancer",
  "pubDate": "2026 Aug 13",
  "volume": "14",
  "issue": "8",
  "doi": "10.1136/jitc-2026-014841",
  "pubTypes": ["Journal Article"],
  "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42595355/",
  "sourceName": "PubMed",
  "aiSummary": "This study investigates the role of methylglyoxal (MG) stress in promoting immune evasion and metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The findings suggest that targeting MG stress alongside PD-1 signaling can reduce immune suppression and metastatic spread, offering a potential new treatment strategy for resistant cases.",
  "aiKeywords": ["methylglyoxal", "triple-negative breast cancer", "myeloid-derived suppressor cells", "metastasis", "immunotherapy", "tumor microenvironment"],
  "aiField": "Oncology",
  "observedAt": "2026-08-14T06:29:10.806Z"
}

Run via API and CLI

Start a run and wait for it to finish, then read the dataset. Replace <TOKEN> with your Apify API token.

Run synchronously and get dataset items in one call:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scrapers_lat~pubmed-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchQuery":"covid vaccine efficacy","maxArticles":25}'

Start a run asynchronously:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scrapers_lat~pubmed-scraper/runs?token=<TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchQuery":"cancer immunotherapy","maxArticles":100,"withAiSummary":true,"withAiField":true}'

Apify CLI:

apify call scrapers_lat/pubmed-scraper \
  --input '{"searchQuery":"alzheimer biomarkers"}'

Fetch results

Every run writes to a dataset. Fetch items as JSON, CSV, or Excel by changing format:

# JSON
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&clean=true&format=json"

# CSV
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&clean=true&format=csv"

# Paginate large datasets
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&offset=1000&limit=1000"

<DATASET_ID> is returned as defaultDatasetId in the run object. Use offset and limit to page through large result sets. clean=true drops empty and internal fields.

Billing and limits

• Pay per result. You are charged per article returned (result event). See the pricing tab for the current per-result price.
• AI add-ons. Each add-on (withAiSummary, withAiKeywords, withAiField) is billed per article only when it returns usable output, and requires a paid Apify plan. All are off by default.
• No charge on failure. If a run finds nothing or errors, no billable result is charged. Empty runs cost nothing.
• Spend cap respected. Set maxTotalChargeUsd on the run; once reached, the actor stops emitting and charging further billable results.
• Free Apify plans are capped at 10 articles per run and cannot use the AI add-ons. Upgrade for higher maxArticles and AI enrichment.

FAQ and troubleshooting

What can I search for? Any biomedical topic, disease, drug, method or author. A query like covid vaccine efficacy returns the most relevant matching articles.

Do I get the abstract and MeSH terms? Yes. Every record includes the full abstract (with section labels preserved), MeSH headings, author keywords and chemical/substance names where the article provides them.

Can I get author affiliations and a contact email? Yes. Each record lists the author affiliations and, where the journal publishes it, the corresponding-author email.

Can I read the full paper? Where an open-access version exists, the record includes a PMC free full-text link (fullTextUrl) alongside the pmcid.

What do the AI add-ons return? withAiSummary adds a plain-English aiSummary, withAiKeywords adds aiKeywords, and withAiField adds an aiField classification. They are paid add-ons, off by default, and require a paid Apify plan.

Is this an official PubMed tool? No. This actor is independent and has no affiliation with PubMed or the NLM. It accesses only publicly available data.

Example tasks

Preconfigured templates for common scenarios. Open one and press Run, or use it as a starting point:

• Scrape PubMed Articles for Covid Vaccine
• Scrape PubMed Articles for Alzheimer Treatment
• Scrape PubMed Articles for Type 2 Diabetes
• Scrape PubMed Articles for Crispr
• Scrape PubMed Articles for Cancer Immunotherapy
• Scrape PubMed Articles for Gut Microbiome
• Scrape PubMed Articles for Statins
• Scrape PubMed Articles for Obesity
• Scrape PubMed Articles for Depression
• Scrape PubMed Articles for Antibiotic Resistance

Related scrapers

• Clinical Trials Scraper: trials from ClinicalTrials.gov.
• Crossref Scholarly Metadata Scraper: scholarly metadata by DOI or query.
• arXiv Papers Scraper: preprints from arXiv.
• GBIF Species Occurrence Scraper: biodiversity species records.

More scrapers at scrapers.lat

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Independent tool, not affiliated with PubMed or the NLM. Accesses only publicly available data. Use the results in accordance with the source's terms.