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Glama
cyanheads

pubmed-mcp-server

by cyanheads

Server Configuration

Describes the environment variables required to run the server.

NameRequiredDescriptionDefault

No arguments

Instructions

Guidance the server publishes about itself, which clients place ahead of the tool catalog so the model reads it before choosing anything.

This server publishes no instructions, or was last inspected before Glama recorded them.

Capabilities

Features and capabilities supported by this server

Protocol revision2025-11-25

CapabilityDetails
tools
{
  "listChanged": true
}
logging
{}
prompts
{
  "listChanged": true
}
resources
{
  "subscribe": true,
  "listChanged": true
}

Tools

Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions

NameDescription
pubmed_search_articlesA

Search PubMed with full query syntax, filters, and date ranges. Returns PMIDs and optional brief summaries. Supports field-specific filters (author, journal, MeSH terms), common filters (language, species, free full text), and pagination via offset for paging through large result sets.

pubmed_fetch_articlesA

Fetch full article metadata by PubMed IDs. Returns detailed article information including abstract, authors, journal, MeSH terms, and linked retraction, erratum, and comment notices; grants and the members of a collective author are opt-in (includeGrants, includeInvestigators). Set maxResponseCharacters to bound the whole response: articles past the ceiling are deferred whole and listed in deferred.ids for a follow-up call.

pubmed_fetch_fulltextA

Fetch full-text articles from PubMed Central as structured sections — the body, then back matter such as acknowledgments, declarations, and appendices — with tables and references. When PMC misses, transparently falls back to Europe PMC fullTextXML (structured JATS for records with a PMC counterpart). Name articles by pmcids (PMC IDs directly), pmids (PubMed IDs, auto-resolved), dois (DOIs, auto-resolved to PMC via the ID Converter; preprints with a PMC counterpart recover via Europe PMC), or any mix of the three — up to 50 distinct identifiers; the first 10 are fetched per call, the rest returned in overLimit; an article several of them name is fetched and returned once. Two independent character controls: maxCharacters caps body text per article, maxResponseCharacters caps the whole response and defers articles past the ceiling whole, listing them in deferred.ids for a follow-up call.

pubmed_format_citationsA

Get formatted citations for PubMed articles in one or more formats (apa, mla, bibtex, ris, vancouver). Pass a single format as a string or multiple as an array. Retractions, errata, and expressions of concern NCBI links to an article come back in notices; Vancouver and APA also cite a retraction in the reference itself.

pubmed_find_relatedA

Find articles related to a source article — similar content (similar), articles citing this one (cited_by), or articles this one cites (references). Uses NCBI ELink as the primary source; falls back to Europe PMC then OpenAlex when NCBI is unavailable.

pubmed_spell_checkA

Spell-check a PubMed search query against NCBI ESpell and get the corrected query back. Use after a zero-hit or thin pubmed_search_articles result, or when a drug, gene, disease, or author name may be misspelled. Corrections are applied in place, so field tags, operators, spacing, and gene symbols stay as written (alzhiemer diseese treatmnt outcomse → alzheimer disease treatment outcomes). Words in all capitals, with digits or non-ASCII letters, or differing only in case are never changed, words after a number or symbol ESpell skips are left as written, and hasSuggestion is false when no correction was applied. Re-run the search with corrected.

pubmed_lookup_meshA

Search and explore the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) controlled vocabulary. Returns descriptor records with tree numbers, scope notes, and entry terms, plus pagination via offset for paging past the maxResults cap.

pubmed_lookup_citationA

Look up PubMed IDs from partial bibliographic citations. Useful when you have a reference (journal, year, volume, page, author) and need the PMID — deterministic citation matching, more reliable than free-text search for structured references. Each citation must include at least journal or a four-digit year (ECitMatch primary-keys on journal+volume+page; author-only or volume-only inputs guarantee no match); more fields = better match accuracy.

pubmed_convert_idsA

Convert between article identifiers (DOI, PMID, PMCID). Accepts up to 50 IDs of a single type per request. Only resolves articles indexed in PubMed Central — for articles not in PMC, use pubmed_search_articles instead.

pubmed_europepmc_searchA

Search Europe PMC, a broad open-access biomedical corpus. Surfaces preprints (source: PPR), patents (source: PAT), Agricola (source: AGR), plus everything in PubMed (MED) and PMC. Use when additional coverage is needed — preprints and EPMC-only OA records are the typical recovery. Paginate via cursorMark. Defaults to MED, PMC, and PPR; pass sources to include PAT / AGR. Abstracts arrive as a bounded abstractSnippet with abstractTruncated marking the cut ones — pass a hit to pubmed_europepmc_fetch as records: [{ source, epmcId }] for the complete abstract.

pubmed_europepmc_fetchA

Fetch complete Europe PMC records — including the full, untruncated abstract — addressed as records: [{ source, epmcId }], an array even for one record. Pairs with pubmed_europepmc_search, which returns bounded abstractSnippet values and flags cut ones with abstractTruncated: true; copy each hit's source and epmcId into records here to read the whole abstract. This is the retrieval path for preprint (PPR), patent (PAT), and Agricola (AGR) records, which frequently carry no PMID and no DOI, so pubmed_fetch_articles and pubmed_fetch_fulltext cannot address them. Up to 25 records per call. Set maxResponseCharacters to bound the whole response: records past the ceiling are deferred whole and listed in deferred.records for a follow-up call.

Prompts

Interactive templates invoked by user choice

NameDescription
research_planGenerate a structured research plan outline for a biomedical research project.

Resources

Contextual data attached and managed by the client

NameDescription
database-infoPubMed database metadata including field list, last update date, and record count.

TDQS

A4.1/5.0

Scored across 11 tools

Disambiguation4/5

Most tools have clearly distinct purposes (search vs fetch vs fulltext vs citation formatting vs spell check vs MeSH lookup). Two potential overlap points exist: pubmed_fetch_articles (metadata by PMID) and pubmed_fetch_fulltext (full text by PMC/DOI/PMID) could be confused, as could pubmed_search_articles and pubmed_europepmc_search, though descriptions do clarify the boundaries (metadata vs full text; PubMed vs broader Europe PMC corpus).

Naming Consistency5/5

All 11 tools follow a strict, predictable prefix naming convention: pubmed_<verb>_<noun> (search_articles, fetch_articles, fetch_fulltext, format_citations, spell_check, lookup_mesh, lookup_citation, convert_ids, find_related) with europepmc variants clearly signposted. The pattern is uniform and readable throughout.

Tool Count5/5

11 tools is a well-scoped count for a literature database server, covering search, retrieval, full text, identifier conversion, citation lookup/formatting, vocabulary lookup, and related-article discovery. Each tool earns its place with a distinct role.

Completeness4/5

The surface covers a full research lifecycle: querying (PubMed, Europe PMC), retrieving metadata and full text, converting IDs, resolving structured citations, exploring MeSH, spell checking, formatting citations, and finding related articles. Minor gaps include no export/save functionality or batch citation export, but core workflows are well covered.

Maintenance

ActivityActive
ResponsivenessResponsive