PubMed Central

PubMed Central (PMC) is the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. It is developed and managed by NIH's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in the National Library of Medicine (NLM). All articles in PMC are free to access.

Content in PMC is contributed by journal publishers who have opted to share their content with PMC. PMC also includes author manuscripts that have been submitted in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy and similar policies of other research funding agencies. NIH evaluates each publication to ensure its meets scientific, editorial, and technical standards.

Many journal publishers make their content available in PMC as soon as it is published. Others delay (embargo) release of content in PMC for a period of time after publication. Most PMC-participating publishers provide free access to journal issues in PMC within a year of publication.