Creating a My NCBI Account

You do not need an account to search PubMed.  However,  a My NCBI account in PubMed is a way to save your searches, organize citations, and access more NIH resources. Sign up for an account before getting started. 

Follow these instructions to sign in: 

  1. On the PubMed website, select Login in the top right corner
  2. Scroll down and click on "New here? Sign up."
  3. Link your Google, ORCID, or other login to your new My NCBI account, as prompted.

 

My NCBI

My NCBI is a free service that allows you to create email alerts, save searches and even records, filter results by subject, and more! You need an account but that is free and easy.

You can see Saved Searches; create or view your Bibliography (if you have one); your Recent Activity; and any Collections of references that you have saved.

After signing into your account, when you search you will have the options to: 

  • Save searches, not only in PubMed but in many of the other NCBI databases as well
  • Set up email alerts for your searches and see new articles as they are published
  • Set up a Bibliography
  • See your Recent Activity
  • Save Collections of citations
  • Set up My NCBI Filters. These will appear in the left hand corner of your search results and will allow you to quickly refine your results. There are three categories:
    • Popular (Caution: if you select the Free Full Text filter, those results will not include all the material to which Harvard subscribes)
    • Properties such as Age Groups, Dates, etc.; and Links.

Note: Once you set your filters, your PubMed searches will all include those refinements. Remember to select Manage Filters if you want to widen your search.