Pubmed Fetch Fulltext
pubmed_fetch_fulltextRead-only
Retrieve structured full-text articles from PubMed Central, with automatic fallback to Europe PMC. Accepts PMC IDs, PubMed IDs, or DOIs and enables section filtering.
Instructions
Fetch full-text articles from PubMed Central with structured sections and references. When PMC misses, transparently falls back to Europe PMC fullTextXML (structured JATS for records with a PMC counterpart). Provide exactly one of pmcids (PMC IDs directly), pmids (PubMed IDs, auto-resolved), or dois (DOIs, auto-resolved to PMC via the ID Converter; preprints with a PMC counterpart recover via Europe PMC).
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| dois | No | DOIs to resolve (e.g. ["10.21203/rs.3.rs-9010375/v1"]). Provide exactly one of `pmcids`, `pmids`, or `dois`. Resolved to a PMCID via the PMC ID Converter and returned as structured JATS when the article is in PMC; DOIs with no PMC counterpart (preprints, EPMC-only OA) fall through to Europe PMC, then Unpaywall, when those layers are enabled. | |
| pmids | No | PubMed IDs. Provide exactly one of `pmcids`, `pmids`, or `dois`. Articles in PMC are returned as structured JATS; articles not in PMC fall through to Europe PMC (when EPMC has a `fullTextXML`), then to Unpaywall when `UNPAYWALL_EMAIL` is set and a DOI is available. | |
| pmcids | No | PMC IDs to fetch (e.g. ["PMC9575052"]). Provide exactly one of `pmcids`, `pmids`, or `dois`. PMC IDs with no retrievable full text fall through to Europe PMC, then to Unpaywall on the DOI the chain resolves for them. | |
| sections | No | Filter to specific sections by title, case-insensitive (e.g. ["Introduction", "Methods", "Results", "Discussion"]). Applies to `source=pmc` results only. | |
| maxSections | No | Maximum top-level body sections. Applies to `source=pmc` results only. | |
| overflowMode | No | How to spend `maxCharacters` across an article that exceeds it. truncate: fill sections in document order, so early sections stay whole and sections past the budget are dropped (counted in `truncation.omittedSections`). outline: split the budget evenly so every section keeps its heading, and an excerpt as far as the budget reaches — use it to survey what an article contains before requesting specific `sections`. Ignored when no budget is set, and identical for `source=unpaywall` bodies, which have no headings to preserve. | truncate |
| maxCharacters | No | Per-article budget for body text, in characters. Counts `source=pmc` section and subsection text, or the `source=unpaywall` `content` body; titles, abstracts, identifiers, and references are never counted or shortened. Applied after `sections`, `maxSections`, and `includeReferences`, so semantic filtering is unaffected. The response-wide ceiling is this value times the number of articles returned. Omit for the full body. | |
| includeReferences | No | Include reference list. Applies to `source=pmc` results only. | |
| maxCharactersPerSection | No | Budget for a single top-level body section, in characters, counting the section text plus its subsections. Combine with `maxCharacters` to cap both one section and the article; the tighter of the two wins. Applies to `source=pmc` results only. |
Output Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| notice | No | Optional guidance for a partial or empty body. A `sections`-filter miss names the requested terms and affected article id(s) and suggests retrying without `sections` or using broader headings. A metadata-only record names the id(s) the chain could retrieve as front matter only and points at `pubmed_fetch_articles` for the abstract. A budgeted response names the characters returned versus carried and points at `truncation`. Absent when none of those applies. | |
| articles | Yes | Full-text articles | |
| truncation | No | Character accounting for full text the budget shortened. Present only when a budget actually removed characters — its absence means every returned article carries its full post-filter body. | |
| unavailable | No | Per-identifier explanations for any requested PMIDs, PMCIDs, or DOIs with no returnable full text. `idType` discriminates which branch the id came from. | |
| totalReturned | Yes | Number of articles returned |