Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Here’s how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

This is a preview of updates coming to the Technical Bulletin's website in April 2026. Return to current site.
Read more about the modernization release schedule in this announcement.
Comment via the yellow feedback button in the lower right hand corner of the page. Contact the NLM Help Desk with any questions or concerns.

This is archived content.

Links may have become inactive over time. Visit Archive-It   to find the original published layout.

Free Article Indicators on PubMed® Summary Display

Nahin AM. Free Article Indicators on PubMed® Summary Display. NLM Tech Bull. 2009 Jan-Feb;(366):e6.

January 26, 2009 [posted]

The PubMed Summary display format has changed to include information about the availability of free articles from publishers. In addition to the existing link on citations showing what is free in PubMed Central® (PMC), a new link indicates if the article is freely available at the journal's Web site. Some citations have a link indicating the article is free from both PMC and the journal. The links all go to the AbstractPlus display where icon links to PMC and journal sites display.

For some LinkOut library participants, their subscriptions to journals that provide online access can greatly increase the number of "free" articles available to patrons as compared to what is shown by free indicators on the Summary display. Patrons can use My NCBI to create a filter for their library in order to easily determine what additional articles they can view. Instructions for creating filters can be found in the PubMed [link removed] Help.

Alternatively, LinkOut libraries can create a My NCBI shared account that includes a filter for holdings. Patrons who use a library's customized URL to PubMed will automatically have the filter activated. The My NCBI Institutional Account feature for LinkOut has been revamped as the Shared Settings feature. See the article Shared Settings in My NCBI for more information.