# Europe PMC Literature Search and Monitor > Europe PMC API tool to search biomedical articles and preprints. Export PMID, PMCID, DOI, abstract and license. Compare snapshots for new papers. URL: https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/europe-pmc-literature-search/ Category: Science & research data · Status: coming soon · Apify profile: https://apify.com/cliqtomedia?fpr=cliqto Search Europe PMC for articles and preprints. Get IDs, abstracts, licenses and full-text links in one table. Pass your last snapshot to see new or updated papers. ## How to use it: 3 steps 1. **Follow us on Apify.** The tool is built and waits in the queue for the Apify Store. Apify is the cloud platform where our tools run. 2. **Paste your input and press Start.** No code needed: you fill in a form (the input). It already has a working example. For example: `CRISPR` in Europe PMC query. Each start is one run. 3. **Download the results.** When the run ends, the results are in a table (the dataset). Open Output, press Export and pick Excel or CSV. JSON and the API are there too. ## What it does Search Europe PMC for biomedical articles and preprints and get one Dataset row per publication: identifiers (PMID, PMCID, DOI), title, authors, journal, dates, abstract, license and full-text links. Pass a previous snapshot to find new or updated records. ### Good for - Literature surveillance: new papers or preprints on a topic in the last N days. - Building a citation list or spreadsheet with DOI, PMID, PMCID, license and links. - Checking which records are open access and under which license before reuse. - Recurring monitoring of one query with a saved snapshot. ### Not a good fit - Full text download: the Actor returns full-text links but does not fetch articles. - More than 500 records per run, or a complete history of a topic. - DOI-based deduplication: the same article in MED and PMC stays as two rows. - Medical conclusions, ranking by quality or relevance scoring. ## Price Prices will be shown after release. ## Questions ### Do I need a Europe PMC key? No. It uses the public Europe PMC REST search. ### Does open access mean I can reuse the text? Not always. Check the license and the publisher terms. ### Does it download full text? No. It gives full-text links only. ### Why does one paper show twice? The same article can be in two sources. They stay as two rows. ### Why are `doi` and `abstractText` empty for some rows? The newest records are often added before the source has a DOI, PMID or abstract. The Actor keeps `null` instead of guessing. Records published some time ago more often have these fields filled. ### Can I get every article on a topic? No. One run inspects up to 500 records, newest first. Use date windows to split larger reviews. ## Data fields - `key` (string): Stable identity source:id. MED and PMC entries are distinct records. - `id` (string): Original Europe PMC ID. - `source` (string): Original literature source code, such as MED, PMC or PPR. - `title` (string): Publication title from the source. - `provider` (string): Europe PMC. - `sourceUrl` (string): Source record page. - `fetchedAt` (string): UTC time when this row was read. - `fingerprint` (string): SHA-256 of normalized content, excluding fetch time and change classification. - `pmid` (string): PubMed ID, null when absent. - `pmcid` (string): PubMed Central ID, null when absent. - `doi` (string): DOI, null when absent. - `authorString` (string): Source author display string. - `journal` (string): Journal title, null for records without one. - `pubDate` (string): First publication date reported by Europe PMC. - `firstIndexDate` (string): First Europe PMC indexing date, not a last-update date. - `abstractText` (string): Source abstract text, possibly with HTML markup. Null when absent. - `license` (string): Source article license. Null means unknown; not an abstract-specific reuse grant. - `authors` (array): Author names in source order; empty if absent. - `pubTypes` (array): Source publication type labels. - `pubYear` (integer): Reported publication year; null if absent. - `citedByCount` (integer): Citation count; zero is preserved, absent is null. - `isOpenAccess` (boolean): Source open-access flag; unknown is null. - `isPreprint` (boolean): True for PPR or publication type Preprint. No medical conclusion. - `sourceUpdatedAt` (string): Source dateOfRevision when supplied. Source revision date, not fetch/index/publication time; null when unavailable. - `changeType` (string): Compared with previousSnapshot. Without baseline all rows are new. - `fullTextUrls` (array): Source-supplied links. Access status can be open, free or subscription. Full text is not downloaded. ## Input settings - `query` (string, required): Required search text or Europe PMC syntax. Blank queries fail before source access. - `lastDays` (integer): Inclusive UTC first-publication window. Optional; do not combine with dateFrom/dateTo. Omit all date fields to search all years. - `dateFrom` (string): Optional inclusive first publication date, YYYY-MM-DD. Do not combine with lastDays. - `dateTo` (string): Optional inclusive first publication date, YYYY-MM-DD, on or after dateFrom. - `openAccessOnly` (boolean): Add OPEN_ACCESS:Y. Open access does not grant reuse rights; check license. - `source` (string): ALL searches every Europe PMC source, including sources outside these three. MED is PubMed, PMC is PubMed Central, PPR is preprints. Records remain distinct by source:id. - `maxResults` (integer): Inspect at most this many unique records, up to 500. In onlyNew mode the emitted row count can be smaller. - `previousSnapshot` (object): Optional SNAPSHOT record from a prior run with the same query and filters (up to 5,000 records). Paste the entire JSON object; a snapshot from a stopped run is also fine. Do not use Dataset rows here. - `onlyNew` (boolean): With a previousSnapshot, emit new source:id records only. Unchanged rows stay in SNAPSHOT; updated rows stay there with their old fingerprint, because they were not delivered. Without a baseline every record is new. ## Step by step on Apify 1. Open the Input tab. The form is prefilled with the CRISPR example below. 2. Click Start. 3. Open Publications in the Dataset. Check `title`, `pmcid`, `pubDate` and `license`. Full-text links (`fullTextUrls`) and the other fields are in the full JSON, CSV or Excel export. 4. Open Run summary to check counts, source matches and limits. ## Use cases | Task | Input | You get | Key fields | Next step | |---|---|---|---|---| | New research on a topic | `query` + `lastDays` | Publication | `title`, `pubDate`, `doi`, `sourceUrl` | Export CSV or read via API | | Open-access reuse check | `query` + `openAccessOnly: true` | Publication | `isOpenAccess`, `license`, `fullTextUrls` | Check license before reuse | | Preprint tracking | `source: "PPR"` | Publication | `isPreprint`, `title`, `firstIndexDate` | Export or monitor | | Fixed review period | `dateFrom` + `dateTo` | Publication | `pmid`, `doi`, `pubTypes`, `abstractText` | Screening spreadsheet | | Repeat monitoring | `previousSnapshot` + `onlyNew` | Publication with change type | `changeType`, `fingerprint`, `citedByCount` | Save new `SNAPSHOT` | ## Tips - Use date windows to split big searches. One run checks up to 500 records. - Save the snapshot each time for repeat monitoring. - Very new records may have no DOI or abstract yet. ## Limits Europe PMC data access covers metadata, abstracts and full text under different rights. Free or open access does not mean every use is allowed: check the record license and publisher terms before reusing abstracts or following full-text links. The `license` field is the article license, not an abstract-specific legal guarantee. This Actor is independent of Europe PMC. - Maximum 500 unique inspected records per run. A 500-record run usually takes under a minute (about 10 seconds in our tests); with slow source responses it can stop as `PARTIAL` at the internal deadline. - Source requests are sequential, at least one second apart, each with a 15-second timeout. Source work has a 180-second deadline, a 25-request cap including retries, a 12 MiB limit per response and an 8 MiB total response limit. Two source timeouts stop the run. Memory is 256 MB. - The source can add or update records later, and publication date is not index date. For systematic reviews, verify your search strategy and export criteria. This Actor returns data, not medical conclusions or recommendations. ## Sample result ```json { "key": "PMC:PMC9467582", "id": "PMC9467582", "source": "PMC", "pmid": null, "pmcid": "PMC9467582", "doi": null, "title": "Prion 2022 Conference abstracts: pushing the boundaries", "authors": ["Author A"], "authorString": "Author A.", "journal": "Prion", "pubYear": null, "pubDate": "2026-10-12", "firstIndexDate": "2026-10-12", "pubTypes": ["Abstract"], "abstractText": null, "isPreprint": false, "isOpenAccess": true, "license": "cc by", "citedByCount": 0, "fullTextUrls": [ {"url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9467582", "site": "Europe_PMC", "availability": "Free", "documentStyle": "html"}, {"url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9467582?pdf=render", "site": "Europe_PMC", "availability": "Free", "documentStyle": "pdf"} ], "provider": "Europe PMC", "sourceUrl": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC9467582", "fetchedAt": "2026-10-13T08:53:26.062Z", "sourceUpdatedAt": "2026-10-12", "changeType": "new", "fingerprint": "246e0e5a9fd93eff41e313e76282f946e67484bb15b83a8a476cd981598af7cc" } ``` ## Similar tools - [Google Patent Details Scraper](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/google-patents-scraper/) - [DOI Metadata & Bibliography Enrichment](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/doi-bibliography-enrichment/) - [ClinicalTrials.gov Studies Search & Monitor](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/clinicaltrials-gov-studies-monitor/) - [DataCite Research Dataset Search](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/datacite-dataset-search/) - [GBIF Biodiversity Occurrence Search](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/gbif-occurrence-search/) - [Google Scholar Search Scraper - Citations & PDFs, No Login](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/google-scholar-scraper/)