PubMed Daily Citations Tracker: by Query

Pull daily-new PubMed citations matching any query. One clean row per article: PMID, title, abstract, authors, journal, year, DOI, MeSH terms, full URL.

Built for cron: pass sinceDays: 1 and get just yesterday's new articles for your watchlist. No PubMed account, no API key, no scraping: uses NCBI's E-utilities.

Inputs

{
  "queries": ["CRISPR[ti]", "(mRNA vaccine) AND COVID-19"],
  "sinceDays": 1,
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 500,
  "includeAbstract": true,
  "includeMeshTerms": true
}

input	default	notes
queries	none	Required. PubMed search syntax: same as the search box at pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Multi-query = union.
sinceDays	7	entrez_date >= now-sinceDays. Use 1 for daily cron.
maxResultsPerQuery	500	Hard cap after date filter.
includeAbstract	true	Set false to keep rows light.
includeMeshTerms	true	Set false to drop the MeSH array.
email	ops@voiddo.com	NCBI politeness header.

Output

One row per article:

field	example
pmid	42225850
title	Targeted CRISPR-Cas9 ...
abstract	(when present, set includeAbstract: true)
authors	["Wang Y", "Chen X", ...]
journal	Nat Biotechnol
year	2026
publicationDate	2026-05-30
entrezDate	2026-05-31
doi	10.1038/s41587-025-0xxxx
meshTerms	["CRISPR-Cas Systems", "Genome Editing", ...]
query	the originating query (helps when you batch-search several)
url	https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42225850/

Daily cron pattern

{ "queries": ["CRISPR[ti]"], "sinceDays": 1 }

Schedule every morning. Each run yields only the prior day's new citations. Dedupe on pmid if you join across days.

What it doesn't do

• No full-text PDFs (those live behind publisher paywalls, not on PubMed).
• No prediction or sentiment: raw metadata only.
• No literature graph traversal: for that, see Crossref / OpenAlex actors.

Pricing

Pay per event. Price per 1,000 events:

Event	Base price	Bronze	Silver	Gold
PubMed citation extracted	$1.00	$0.90	$0.80	$0.70

Bronze, Silver and Gold are the discounts Apify gives users of its paid plans. The Pricing tab always shows the current prices.

Run it through the API

Python, with the apify-client package:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("v0iddo/pubmed-daily-citations-tracker").call(run_input={"queries": ["CRISPR[ti]"], "maxResultsPerQuery": 20})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

JavaScript, with the apify-client package:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('v0iddo/pubmed-daily-citations-tracker').call({"queries": ["CRISPR[ti]"], "maxResultsPerQuery": 20});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

One HTTP call that waits for the run and returns the rows (for runs that finish within 5 minutes):

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/v0iddo~pubmed-daily-citations-tracker/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"queries": ["CRISPR[ti]"], "maxResultsPerQuery": 20}'

Use it from an agent (MCP)

Claude, Cursor, VS Code and other MCP clients can call this actor as a tool through the Apify MCP server. Add it to the client's MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=v0iddo/pubmed-daily-citations-tracker",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

FAQ

Do I need an account, cookies or an API key?

No. The actor reads public data without logging in. You only need an Apify account to start it.

How many results can one run return?

Set Max results per query (up to 10,000) to the number you need. Large jobs can also be split into several runs or scheduled.

How am I charged?

Pay per event, at the prices on the Pricing tab for your Apify plan (the Pricing section of this page lists them). The platform usage of the run is included in those prices, and your spending limit for a run is always respected.

Why did my run return no results?

The status message and the log of the run say why: usually nothing matched the input, or the source did not answer for a moment. Check the input against the example above and run it again.

Can I run it on a schedule?

Yes. Save your input as a task and add a schedule in the Apify Console (daily, hourly or with a cron expression). Each run gets its own dataset, so you keep a history.

Which formats can I export?

JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, HTML table and RSS from the Output tab or the API. Integrations send the rows to Google Sheets, Slack, Make, Zapier, n8n or a webhook.

Is collecting this data allowed?

The actor collects data that the source publishes openly, without a login. Public data can still be personal data under laws such as the GDPR, and sources have their own terms: make sure your use of the data follows the rules that apply to you.

What happens when the source changes?

An automated test runs the actor every day on the example input and checks the rows, not only that the run finished. When a check fails, the actor is repaired and rebuilt; the build history on this page shows each update.

Something is missing or wrong. Where do I report it?

Open an issue on the Issues tab of this actor with the run link. Requests for a new field are welcome too.

Related actors

• Crossref Scraper: Recent Publications by Query
• NIH RePORTER Scraper: Research Grants by Query
• News Article Extractor: Full Text from Links and RSS
• Substack Posts Scraper: Archive, Reactions, Comments
• Hacker News Scraper: Stories and Comments by Query

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