Enter a PubMed ID (PMID), PubMed Central ID (PMCID), or DOI. Get the other two identifiers instantly. Convert a PMID to DOI, a PMID to PMCID, or a DOI to PMID - any pairing between the three PubMed identifier types.
One of the most common daily tasks in biomedical research - converting between PubMed, PubMed Central, and publisher identifiers for grant applications, manuscripts, and compliance reporting.
PMID ↔ PMCID ↔ DOI · Batch conversion · Free, no signup
We’ll look up the other identifiers via the NCBI ID Converter. Nothing is stored.
Resolving an identifier confirms the paper exists - it does not confirm the citations in your bibliography point to the right papers. The dominant AI-fabrication pattern is a real, resolvable DOI paired with an invented title. Audit your whole reference list for fabricated citations before you submit.
Enter a PMID and get the corresponding PMCID and DOI. Not all papers have all three identifiers - when a mapping is unavailable, the tool says so.
Input: PMID 39012345
39012345PMC1123456710.1234/jneurosci.2025.04123Input: PMID 38567890
3856789010.5678/molbiol.2024.9012A PMID (PubMed ID) is the number the US National Library of Medicine assigns to every record in PubMed, its biomedical citation database. It identifies the citation for a paper, not the paper’s full text or its publisher page.
A PMID is a plain number with no prefix and no letters — for example 36859578. Recent papers have eight digits; older records have fewer, because the numbers were issued in sequence as PubMed grew. If what you are holding starts with PMC or with 10., it is not a PMID — it is a PMCID or a DOI.
Every paper indexed in PubMed has a PMID. Papers outside PubMed’s scope — which is mainly biomedicine and the life sciences — do not, even when they have a DOI.
A PMCID (PubMed Central ID, often written PMC ID) identifies a paper’s full text in PubMed Central, the NIH’s free full-text repository. It always begins with PMC followed by digits — for example PMC9977688.
The distinction that catches people out: a PMID means the citation is in PubMed, while a PMCID means the full text has been deposited in PMC and is free to read. A paper can have a PMID and no PMCID, which is normal for work behind a paywall. That is also why NIH grant reporting asks specifically for the PMCID — it is evidence the full text is publicly available, which a PMID alone does not show.
These three identifiers each point to a scholarly publication, but they come from different systems and serve different purposes:
36859578.PMC followed by digits. Example: PMC9977688.10.. Example: 10.1038/s41586-023-05881-4.A single paper can have all three - a DOI from the publisher, a PMID from PubMed, and a PMCID from PubMed Central. But not every paper has all three: a PMCID only exists if the full text has been deposited in PMC.
Short definitions of each are in the glossary: PMID, PMCID, and DOI.
Not every paper has all three identifiers:
When a mapping is not available, the tool shows “Not available” for that identifier. This does not mean the identifier you entered is invalid - it means the corresponding record does not exist in the NCBI system.
A PMID means the citation is indexed in PubMed. A PMCID means the full text has been deposited in PubMed Central and is free to read. A paper can have a PMID with no PMCID, which is normal for work behind a paywall. This is why NIH grant reporting asks for the PMCID specifically: it is evidence the full text is publicly available, which a PMID alone does not show.
Eight digits for recently indexed papers. Older records have fewer, because PMIDs were issued in sequence as PubMed grew, so early records can be as short as one or two digits. A PMID never contains letters — if yours starts with PMC it is a PMCID, and if it starts with 10. it is a DOI.
Paste the PMID and the converter returns the DOI (and the PMCID, if the paper has one). PMID to DOI resolution goes through the paper’s PubMed record, which carries the publisher DOI for most journal articles. The reverse - DOI to PMID - works the same way: enter the DOI and get the PMID back.
Not yet - this tool handles one identifier at a time. For batch processing, use the Scholar Sidekick API directly.
This tool uses the NCBI ID Converter API, a free, public service provided by the US National Library of Medicine. The same API powers the NCBI’s own ID converter tool.
Yes. No account required. Nothing you enter is stored.
Once converted, use the DOI to format citations, export to BibTeX or RIS, check open access status, or verify retraction status.
This page is a front end for the public Scholar Sidekick API — the same PMID/PMCID conversion runs over plain HTTP, so you can call it from a script, an AI agent, or your reference manager. Light use needs no key at all. A free account issues an ssk_ key that raises your rate limit.