Confused about the difference between PubMed and PMC? Don’t worry, you’re not alone! Perhaps the major difference between these two powerhouse databases is the fact that all articles in PMC contain the full text while not all references in PubMed will have the corresponding full text. Only the citation and abstract may be available in PubMed. Take a look at the table below for a more detailed look at what each resource can and can’t do. Ask us if you have any questions!
|
PubMed |
PMC |
| Created and maintained by the National Library of Medicine since 1996 | Created and maintained by the National Library of Medicine since 2000 |
| Contains citations and abstracts, with full text links for several thousand articles that are open access* | Contains full text articles as well as citation information and abstracts from NIH-funded research projects |
| Indexes “ahead of print” or “in-process” citations from some publishers | A national repository for authors and publishers to submit manuscripts to remain in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy |
| Indexes MEDLINE as well as some “out of scope” citations such as plate tectonics, astrophysics, and general chemistry, for example | Indexes only those citations in scope according to the NLM Collection Development Manual |
| Contains citations to the majority of books in the NCBI Bookshelf | Some PMC content, such as book reviews, is not cited in PubMed |
*Full Text to MSK-subscribed content is available for those who authenticate from off campus using remote access or by accessing PubMed via the Library website from on campus. Look for the FullText@MSK buttons after running a search!