GET /esummary.fcgi

nih.gov:pubmed-central-api

Summary: Get document summaries
Operation ID: eSummary
Auth: unknown
Description

Returns document summaries for the requested UIDs.

Parameters (10)

WebEnv (string, query, optional)

Web environment string

db (string, query, required)

Database (use 'pmc' for PubMed Central)

Constraints: {'enum': ['pmc', 'pubmed', 'pmcbooks']}

email (string, query, optional)

Email address for contact

id (string, query, optional)

Comma-separated list of UIDs

query_key (string, query, optional)

Query key from previous search

retmax (integer, query, optional)

Maximum number of results

retmode (string, query, optional, default: xml)

Return mode

Constraints: {'enum': ['xml', 'json']}

retstart (integer, query, optional)

Index of first result

tool (string, query, optional)

Tool name for logging

version (string, query, optional)

Version 2.0 for different XML structure

Constraints: {'enum': ['2.0']}

Examples (3)

TitleTypeURLAction
Get summaries for specific PMC articles curl https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/esummary.fcgi?db=pmc&id=12345,67890&retmode=json&tool=robustapi_example&email=user@example.com
Paginated summary results from search curl https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/esummary.fcgi?db=pmc&query_key=1&WebEnv=MCID_01&retstart=0&retmax=20&retmode=json
Single article summary with version 2.0 curl https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/esummary.fcgi?db=pmc&id=PMC13901&version=2.0&retmode=json

Probe History

Latency

Status Codes

TimeStatusLatencySize
2026-03-23 10:12:21.470527 404 506ms
2026-03-23 09:49:44.003375 404 512ms
2026-03-23 09:18:21.615359 404 513ms

Response Changes

WhenOldNew
2026-03-23 09:49:44.003375 af14e8a82073 c9f5ddba76ba
2026-03-23 10:12:21.470527 c9f5ddba76ba 615293abc808