# PubMed to BibTeX

Retrieve a medical-literature record from its PMID, review the fields, and export BibTeX or a formatted citation.

PubMed to BibTeX gives biomedical references a direct route into your project. Start with the PMID from PubMed, then inspect the article record before saving it.

## Use it when

- the source is indexed in PubMed;
- you have a PMID or PubMed URL;
- medical journal details and author order need to be carried into BibTeX.

A PMID is not a DOI. Keep each identifier in its own field, and cite the version you read. Use [DOI to BibTeX](/docs/tools/doi-to-bibtex/) when the DOI record is the better match for the final publication.

## Retrieve the citation

1. Open **PubMed to BibTeX**, or run `/pubmed-to-bibtex`.
2. Enter a PMID such as `31452104`, or paste a PubMed URL.
3. Choose **Look up**.
4. Review the title, authors, journal, year, volume, issue, pages or article number, DOI, and PMID.
5. Copy the BibTeX, reference, or in-text form, or save a `.bib` file.

The lookup contacts a public medical-literature catalog and needs a network connection. Edits and style formatting stay local.

## Verify clinical and publication details

Check the record against the article and note whether it is an online-ahead-of-print version, correction, retraction notice, protocol, or final report. Citation metadata does not assess the study's quality or clinical relevance.

:::caution[Do not confuse retrieval with appraisal]
The tool makes a record easier to cite. It does not tell you whether the evidence is current, applicable, or safe to use in a clinical decision.
:::

For topic discovery and comparison across scholarly indexes, use [Find Citations](/docs/tools/find-citations/).