PubMed Technical Evaluation Overview
Step 1
Create a sample XML file, which will be evaluated to ensure the journal's data meets PubMed's technical quality standards.The simplest way to get started is to copy the Example of a Standard XML file into a text editor and edit the text within each tag to fit your journal. If a tag is not used by your journal, simply delete it from your file.
The sample file must:
- conform to our DTD.
- contain a citation for each indexable article in a recently published issue.
- satisfy all requirements in the PubMed Minimum Data Criteria.
- validate with the PubMed citation validator.
- be saved as .xml, .sgml, .txt, .zip, or .tar file format. The filename should be unique, include the journal title abbreviation, volume, and issue, no spaces or UTF-8 characters, and not exceed 32 characters.
Step 2
Submit the sample XML file to the NCBI FTP site and email publisher@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov with the following information:
- File name
- Journal Title
- ISSN
- Volume
- Issue
- URL of issue
To request the login and password for the FTP site, contact publisher@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
Upon receipt of a journal's sample file, PubMed first verifies that the submission satisfies the Minimum Requirements for PubMed Data Evaluation Submissions.
If a submission satisfies the minimum data criteria, PubMed reviews the file more extensively, specifically checking that the data in the XML file are accurate, error-free, and complete. This check is made against the published article of record, typically the PDF or full text article at the journal's own site.
Once the data evaluation is complete, PubMed sends the publisher a report specifying what needs to be corrected. The publisher corrects the problems and resubmits the sample for evaluation. If, on the third submission, there are still problems, the journal's application may be rejected.
Step 3
After NCBI approves the sample data, the new data provider will be supplied with a private FTP account and may begin routine submissions of citation data. The journal must continue to meet PubMed's production data requirements consistently to stay in PubMed.
Minimum Requirements for PubMed Data Evaluation Submissions
The XML file must conform to the PubMed Publisher DTD. PubMed does not accept articles in PDF, Word, or other DTDs. We strongly recommend that you validate your file with our Citation Validator prior to submission.
The following information must be present (if applicable) and tagged with correct values in the sample file:
- Journal Title
- Publisher Name
- ISSN
- Volume
- Issue
- Pagination
- Publication Date
- Author List
- Author Affiliation
- Author Identifiers
- Investigators/Collaborators
- Publication Type
- DOI/PII
- Abstract
- Conflict of Interest Statement
- ClinicalTrials.gov and other databank identifiers
- Grants/Funding information
- PMID/DOI/PII for related articles, e.g., errata, retractions, comments