PMID to DOI
Find DOIs recorded in PubMed from a list of PMIDs. First 10 references free. Records without DOIs are reported; no title-based matches are guessed.
Your references DOI
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Read the DOI attached to a PubMed record
PMID to DOI looks up each PubMed identifier and returns the DOI recorded in that PubMed entry. Paste one numeric PMID per line. This is useful when a search export gives you PubMed IDs but another workflow expects DOIs. The operation is an identifier crosswalk: it does not discover a new publication by comparing titles or manufacture an identifier when the PubMed record has none.
Keep PubMed ID selected as From and DOI as To. Review the successful output together with the reported failures. Maintain your original PMID list, because a DOI-only output does not preserve every input field or necessarily have a line for each unsuccessful record. If you need bibliographic context as well as identifiers, choose a structured output such as CSV or BibTeX and review its metadata.
Worked example: the NumPy publication
PMID 32939066 identifies Array programming with NumPy. Its recorded DOI is 10.1038/s41586-020-2649-2, shown below as an identifier-only output. This known mapping illustrates what the conversion returns; it is not a fresh status check. Verify that the PubMed title is the publication you intended, especially when your input list was copied from a table containing several kinds of accession numbers.
Now consider a second PubMed entry whose metadata has no DOI. That entry should produce an explicit missing-DOI report, not a made-up DOI and not a title-based substitution. Save the successful identifiers, then investigate the unmatched PMID in PubMed. The absence of a DOI in that record does not prove that the publication has never been assigned one elsewhere.
Input → output
Input
32939066
Output
10.1038/s41586-020-2649-2
Known NumPy PMID-to-DOI mapping; illustrative, not a new provider request.
PMID, PMCID and DOI are different identifiers
A PMID identifies a PubMed record. A PMCID begins with PMC and identifies material in PubMed Central. A DOI identifies an object registered in the DOI system. These values are not interchangeable, and removing the letters PMC does not convert a PMCID into a PMID. Check the column heading in an export before pasting numeric values, since a bare number can look valid while referring to an entirely different record.
The mapping retains only the DOI selected from PubMed’s identifier metadata. Titles, abstracts, author lists, journal details and full-text links are not part of the DOI-only result. Repeated PMIDs or multiple identifiers for the same work may need reconciliation in your source list. Do not assume that the number of unique DOIs equals the number of studies in a review; several publications can describe one investigation.
Use the output in another lookup or bibliography workflow
A DOI list is useful for checking publication identities or requesting metadata from a DOI-based tool. It is not a formatted citation and cannot replace a full reference in a manuscript. Use DOI to APA for readable references or DOI to BibTeX for a structured bibliography. Before passing the list onward, reconcile successful and unsuccessful inputs against the original PMIDs so the next stage uses the intended set of publications.
Conversion limits and processing
- The first 10 references are free per browser, shared across all six converter pages. Files: up to 1 MB; batches: up to 100 references.
- File formats are parsed in your browser. Identifier lookups go through the server to Crossref / DataCite (DOI), NCBI PubMed (PMID), Open Library (ISBN) or arXiv. No AI is used to convert references.
- Review any field-loss warnings and keep your original file. Attachments and custom library fields are not a complete portable backup.
Popular reference conversions
Frequently asked questions
Can I paste a PMCID instead?
No. Use the PubMed ID, not a PubMed Central identifier beginning with PMC. Removing the prefix changes the meaning of the identifier rather than translating it. Open the publication’s PubMed record and copy its PMID before trying this conversion.
What is returned for each successful record?
The DOI recorded in PubMed is returned as an identifier. The DOI-only output excludes authors, titles and journal details. Retain the original PMID list for reconciliation or choose a richer output format if you need publication context alongside identifiers.
What is the free allowance?
The first 10 references share an allowance across all converter pages in this browser. A batch can contain up to 100 references. Copying or downloading existing output is free; inspect the per-line reports before retrying a partially successful batch.
What happens when PubMed has no DOI?
The missing DOI is reported. The converter does not guess from the title or silently invent an identifier. Inspect the PubMed record and publication if you need to investigate further; absence from this metadata is narrower than proof that no DOI exists.
Why does a numeric input fail?
It may be a mistyped PMID, a number from a different identifier system or a record that cannot be retrieved. A provider outage also prevents completion. Check the original export and distinguish an invalid input from a temporary lookup failure.
Are duplicate or mixed identifiers merged?
Prepare a list of PMIDs only and review duplicates yourself. This page does not establish which publications belong to the same study. If a batch combines DOIs and PMIDs, separate it by input format so each identifier is interpreted correctly.
Does this use AI or a title search?
No. The PMID lookup reads PubMed metadata through NCBI and uses its recorded DOI. A title-based guess is outside this conversion. Download the output before moving to another research tool; there is no automatic transfer of the identifier list.