[Utilities-announce] Updated PubMed E-Utilities Now Live!

[utilities-announce at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Updated PubMed E-Utilities Now Live!

We’ve launched the updated version of E-Utilities API for PubMed. Thank you to all who tested the updated API on the test server and provided feedback.

This updated version now aligns the functions of the E-utilities with the web version of PubMed<https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?utm_source=ncbi_insights&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubmed-eutilities-live-20221122> released in 2020. For example, search results returned by the updated ESearch E-utility<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25499/?utm_source=ncbi_insights&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubmed-eutilities-live-20221122#chapter4.ESearch> will now match those of web PubMed. To be clear, this update only affects E-utility calls with &db=pubmed. The behavior of all other Entrez databases will not change.

Why did NCBI do this?

NCBI released this new API version to provide both consistent behavior for both web and API PubMed interfaces, as well as more reliable performance. To accomplish this, we transferred all E-utility functions to the technology stack that supports web PubMed, so that all PubMed requests use the same stack. This means that previous version of the PubMed E-utilities is no longer available, but that the new version provides the benefits listed above

Have the URLs for PubMed E-utility calls changed?

Previous E-utility URLs for PubMed (&db=pubmed) will continue to function with this updated release, with one exception. To obtain more than 10,000 PubMed records, consider using <EDirect>, which now contains additional logic to batch PubMed search results automatically so that an arbitrary number can be retrieved. See our updated documentation<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25499/?utm_source=ncbi_insights&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubmed-eutilities-live-20221122#chapter4.ESearch> for more details.

Has the output of PubMed E-utility calls changed?

Again, in almost all cases, no. Here are the exceptions:

  *   ESearch<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25499/?utm_source=ncbi_insights&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubmed-eutilities-live-20221121#chapter4.ESearch> will now return the same PubMed IDs (PMIDs) that are currently returned by web PubMed

  *   EFetch <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25499/?utm_source=ncbi_insights&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubmed-eutilities-live-20221121#chapter4.EFetch>will now return XML data by default (&retmode is not set) rather than ASN.1. In other words, the default value of &retmode will become “xml”.

What should I do if I have trouble using the new API?

Write to us<mailto:info at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov?subject=NCBI%20Insights%20PubMed%20API%2020210929>  if you have any questions or concerns.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mailman/pipermail/utilities-announce/attachments/20221128/7b36e62f/attachment.html>