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Searching PubMed: My NCBI Accounts

Created by Health Science Librarians

Getting Started with My NCBI

My NCBI is a user account within PubMed that allows you to save citations and searches, set unique search preferences, and set up search alerts, and have other advanced options within PubMed. Anyone can register for My NCBI with an email address and password.

Begin by simply clicking the "Log In" link in the top right corner of the PubMed screen:

The log in button for My NCBI in PubMed

You can sign up for a My NCBI account using any email address and chosen password or you can use your Onyen. To use your Onyen, click on "more login options" and select University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

My NCBI More Login Options  My NCBI Institutional Login University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

To create an account that is not linked to other sign in options, click on the "Register for a NCBI account" link found below the Sign In button. You will be asked for a user name and password, the answer to a security question (in the event you forget your password), and your email address. In order to use the automatic emailing option in My NCBI you MUST register your email.

Keep in mind:

  • My NCBI cannot access your user name and password for you if you forget them. Please write down this information!
  • Registration information such as User Name and Password are case sensitive.

Logging In
You must login to access the features of My NCBI. This login will remain active for 12 hours, or you may choose to have your personal computer automatically log you in. If you've already registered, click "Sign In" to get to the login screen.

Signing Out
Click the "Sign Out" link in the top right corner of the PubMed screen to exit.

Additional Administrative Options
To get into the My NCBI system options, click the "My NCBI" link in the top right corner of the PubMed screen (between the "Sign Out" link and your username). You should now be in the general My NCBI system.

You can edit your personal information and links display format by clicking "NCBI Site Preferences" from the menu across the top right side of the page. You can also customize your My NCBI homepage by clicking "Customize this page" from the same menu.

My NCBI Site preferences

 Note: Transitioning between My NCBI and PubMed pages

To go from PubMed to the My NCBI home screen, click on the “My NCBI” link (or your username, when already logged in) in the top right corner of the page.

To go from the My NCBI screen back to PubMed, you can use the “Search NCBI databases” box on the left of the page. Make sure that the drop down menu says “PubMed” and leave the search box blank, and then click the “Search” button. This will return you to the PubMed home page. (You can also perform a search in this way by entering terms in the search box.)

search pubmed from MyNCBI

Additional Resources and Help with My NCBI

NCBI and the National Library of Medicine offer several guides and online tutorials on using the features of My NCBI.