PubMed Summary API

Operations for retrieving document summaries

Operations 1

GET /esummary.fcgi ESummary - Retrieve document summaries #

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OpenAPI Specification

pubmed-summary-api-openapi.yml Raw ↑
openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: NCBI Entrez E-utilities History Summary API
  description: The Entrez Programming Utilities (E-utilities) provide a stable interface to the NCBI Entrez query and database system. Nine server-side programs allow searching, fetching, posting, linking, and summarizing records across PubMed and 38 NCBI databases including PubMed Central, Gene, Nuccore, and Protein. Supports searching 35M+ biomedical citations, retrieving abstracts, full-text links, MeSH terms, and related article metadata.
  version: v1.0.0
  termsOfService: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/about/policies.shtml
  contact:
    name: NCBI Help Desk
    url: https://support.nlm.nih.gov/
    email: info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  license:
    name: NCBI Data Use Policies
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/about/policies.shtml
servers:
- url: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  description: NCBI E-utilities production server
tags:
- name: Summary
  description: Operations for retrieving document summaries
paths:
  /esummary.fcgi:
    get:
      summary: ESummary - Retrieve document summaries
      description: Returns document summaries (DocSums) for a list of input UIDs or for a set of UIDs stored on the Entrez History server.
      operationId: ESummary
      tags:
      - Summary
      parameters:
      - name: db
        in: query
        description: Database containing the UIDs (e.g., pubmed, gene, assembly).
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
          example: pubmed
      - name: id
        in: query
        description: Comma-delimited list of UIDs.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
          example: 36328499,36328500
      - name: retstart
        in: query
        description: 'Sequential index of first DocSum to retrieve (default: 1).'
        required: false
        schema:
          type: integer
          default: 1
      - name: retmax
        in: query
        description: 'Number of DocSums to retrieve (max: 10000).'
        required: false
        schema:
          type: integer
          maximum: 10000
      - name: retmode
        in: query
        description: 'Response format. Values: xml (default), json.'
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - xml
          - json
          default: xml
      - name: version
        in: query
        description: Set to '2.0' to use version 2.0 ESummary XML with database-specific fields.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - '2.0'
      - name: WebEnv
        in: query
        description: Web environment string from a previous ESearch, EPost, or ELink call.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: query_key
        in: query
        description: Integer query key from a previous call.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: integer
      - name: tool
        in: query
        description: Name of application making the call.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: email
        in: query
        description: Contact email address.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
          format: email
      - name: api_key
        in: query
        description: API key to enable higher request rate.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Document summaries in requested format
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ESummaryResult'
            application/xml:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ESummaryResult'
components:
  schemas:
    ESummaryResult:
      type: object
      properties:
        result:
          type: object
          description: Object with UIDs as keys and document summaries as values.
          properties:
            uids:
              type: array
              items:
                type: string
              description: List of UIDs in the result set.
          additionalProperties:
            type: object
            description: Document summary for a UID.
  securitySchemes:
    ApiKeyAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: query
      name: api_key
      description: 'Optional NCBI API key. Without a key: 3 requests/second. With a key: 10 requests/second. Register at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/'