Guide · Export and import

How to export PubMed results for a literature review

Short answer

Click Save, choose All results and the PubMed format, and create the file. It keeps the abstract, MeSH terms and identifiers of up to 10,000 records.

1On the results page, click Save.
2Set Selection to All results.
3Set Format to PubMed.
4Click Create file and keep the .txt file it downloads.

By Kushan Liyana Arachchige, Research MindUpdated 27 Oct 2026

Start a review Jump to the steps

01Before you export: record the search

PubMed is the free search interface to MEDLINE and other biomedical literature, run by the US National Library of Medicine. It is the reference point for most health and clinical reviews, and its records carry MeSH terms, the controlled vocabulary indexers use to describe each article.

Record the date, the query and the number of results before you save anything. The full query, with the way PubMed translated each term, is under Advanced in the search history and its details. PRISMA-S asks for the query as run, so copy it from there.

02Save every result in the PubMed format

PubMed calls exporting Save. Click it above the results to open Save citations to file. Set Selection to All results; the default saves only the results on the current page. Set Format to PubMed, then click Create file.

occupational stress AND sri lankaSearch

AdvancedCreate alertCreate RSSUser Guide

Save1

EmailSend to

Sort by: Best match ▾

Save citations to file

Selection:All results2Format:PubMed3

Create file4

Cancel

Selection also offers: All results on this page, Selection. Format also offers: Summary (text), PMID, Abstract (text), CSV.

Steps 1 to 4: Save, every result, in the PubMed format. Simplified drawing of the screen as seen on 26 Oct 2026; labels are copied from the real screen.

The browser downloads a text file, usually named pubmed- followed by the start of your query, ending in .txt. Keep it as it is. The PubMed format, sometimes called MEDLINE or NBIB format, writes each field on its own tagged line, such as AB for the abstract and MH for MeSH terms, which is why it keeps everything.

One file holds up to 10,000 records. If your search returns more, split it by publication date and save each part.

03What a PubMed export brings into your review

The PubMed format carries the abstract, MeSH terms, other keywords supplied by authors or publishers, affiliations, grant numbers, publication types and the publication status. MeSH terms are useful twice: at screening, to see what an article is about, and when you check your search, because terms that appear often among relevant records may belong in the query.

Abstract
Keywords
Subject terms
Affiliations
Funding
Times citednot included
Cited referencesnot included
Open accessnot included

Every export also has the title, authors, year and source. Identifiers: PMID, PMCID, DOI.

Every record has a PubMed ID (PMID), and many have a PubMed Central ID and a DOI. Scopus, Web of Science and Embase often carry the PMID too, so SLReviewFlow can match the same article across databases even when the DOI is missing from one of them.

PubMedYour search, with its date and query
Import filePubMed format (.txt) with all results
Search in SLReviewFlowUpload the file under the search it came from
PoolDuplicates matched on PMID, PMCID, DOI, then title, authors and year

One search, one import file. Repeated imports of the same search are recognised and counted once.

04What PubMed leaves out, and how to work around it

No citation counts or cited references. PubMed does not count citations or list each article's references. If your review needs them, add Scopus, Web of Science, Lens.org or OpenAlex.
Biomedicine first. PubMed covers health and life sciences. Reviews that reach into psychology, education or engineering need databases from those fields too.
Recent records may lack MeSH. New records wait for indexing, and some are never indexed. Free-text terms in your query catch them where MeSH alone would not.

05Doing it in SLReviewFlow

Add the PubMed file in SLReviewFlow

In Sources, add PubMed, then record the search with its date, query and number of results.
Upload the .txt file under that search.
Build the pool with your other databases. The duplicates guide explains what happens next.

Start a review See how it worksFree while in early access

06Common problems

Why not export PubMed as CSV?

PubMed's CSV holds a short summary of each record without the abstract or MeSH terms, and SLReviewFlow does not import it. The PubMed format keeps every field.

My search has more than 10,000 results. What now?

Save citations to file stops at 10,000 records. Split the search into date ranges that each return fewer than 10,000 results, save each one, and upload every file under the same search. Better still, check whether the query is more specific than it needs to be.

Is MEDLINE the same as PubMed?

No. MEDLINE is the indexed core of PubMed: records with MeSH terms assigned by indexers. PubMed also holds records that are not yet indexed, or never will be, so a PubMed search finds more than MEDLINE alone. If you search MEDLINE through Ovid or EBSCOhost instead, report that platform.

Does the file include the full text?

No. PubMed holds citations and abstracts. Where a free full text exists, the record includes its PubMed Central ID, which helps at the full-text stage.

07References

National Library of Medicine. PubMed User Guide: saving and emailing citations. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/help/
Columbia University Irving Medical Center Library. How can I export hundreds of PubMed articles in bulk? https://library.cumc.columbia.edu/faq/my-search-pubmed-resulted-hundreds-articles-how
Rethlefsen ML, Kirtley S, Waffenschmidt S, et al. PRISMA-S: an extension to the PRISMA statement for reporting literature searches in systematic reviews. Syst Rev. 2021;10:39. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-020-01542-z