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literature-search-europepmc

Search Europe PMC and download open-access full texts, PDFs, citations, and references.

Updated Sep 9, 2026
Search Tags:#citations#literature search#scientific papers#open access#pubmed#pdf download#europe pmc
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/xlinh2301/EditCTC --skill literature-search-europepmc-xlinh2301
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: literature-search-europepmc
Source: https://github.com/xlinh2301/EditCTC/tree/main/.agents/skills/literature-search-europepmc
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/xlinh2301/EditCTC --skill literature-search-europepmc-xlinh2301

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill requires polite-http, and includes scripts (resource) components.

What problem does it solve? Finding and retrieving open-access scientific literature manually through the Europe PMC website is slow and hard to automate. This Skill provides scripted access to the Europe PMC REST API so you can search 43 million abstracts, download full texts and PDFs, and traverse citation graphs directly from your workflow. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Literature Search: Query Europe PMC by DOI, PMID, author, keyword, journal, or date range using the full Europe PMC search syntax, with automatic open-access filtering and cursor-based pagination. - Full-Text & PDF Retrieval: Download open-access PDFs by PMCID or extract full text as plain text or raw JATS XML. - Citation Graph Traversal: Retrieve the articles citing a paper or its reference list to map out a research area. - Use Case: Given a DOI of a landmark paper, look up its PMCID, download the PDF, pull the full text for analysis, and then fetch the 50 most recent citing articles to survey follow-up work. ## Quick Start Use the Europe PMC skill to search for open-access papers on CRISPR cancer therapy and download the full text of the top result.

Frequently Asked Questions about literature-search-europepmc

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I search Europe PMC for papers by DOI or keyword?▼

Run the search subcommand with a query like "DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2" or a keyword phrase, writing results to a JSON file with --output. The script automatically appends OPEN_ACCESS:y so only open-access results are returned.

How to download an open-access PDF from Europe PMC by PMCID?▼

Use the download_pdf subcommand with the PMCID, for example PMC8371605, and an --output path. The script verifies the response starts with a valid PDF header and exits with an error if the article is not available in open access.

Can I get full text for any article in Europe PMC?▼

No, full text is only available for articles in the PMC Open Access Subset. If get_fulltext fails, run a search first to check the isOpenAccess field and fall back to the abstract from the search metadata.

How do I find papers that cite a given article?▼

Use the get_citations subcommand with a source database such as MED and the article's PMID, plus --page_size to control results per page. The output JSON contains a hitCount and a citations array you can paginate through.

Why does the skill require uv instead of running python3 directly?▼

The system Python may lack required dependencies, and the script declares its dependency on polite-http inline for uv to resolve automatically. Running via uv run guarantees the correct environment without manual pip installs or virtualenv creation.

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