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How to search PubMed

Exporting PubMed citations

Getting references (citations) out of PubMed can be done in a variety of ways and is dependent upon how you want to use those citations.

The most common way to get citations out of PubMed is to email the citations to yourself or someone else.

  1. Run a search in PubMed.
  2. Select the citation(s) you want to send.
  3. Click Email (button; located below the PubMed search box).
  4. Type in the To email.
  5. Type in the From email.
  6. Review the Selection (drop down menu) to ensure what you want is included.
  7. From the Format (drop down menu), if you'd like to get the link to the UM Libraries collections, select Abstract.
  8. Check the checkbox for Mesh and other data, if you'd like to also see the subject headings for the selected references.
  9. Click the Send Email (button).

If you are using citation management software you often need to export the references (citations) as a file which can then be imported into different software.

  1. Run a search in PubMed.
  2. Select the citation(s) you want to export.
  3. Click the Send To (button; located below the PubMed search box).
  4. For Selection, use the drop down menu to select either All results on this page or Selection.
  5. Click Create file (button).

Note: The file that is created and saved to your device, is a .nbib file.  When you are importing this file into your citation manager use the same method as you would for a .RIS file.