A Visual Guide to PubMed Citation Tags

Abstract

A record in PubMed is designated by what is known as a “citation tag”. Such a tag or tags can be seen at the end of the citation in square brackets. Some tags indicate the status of the indexing process. Other tags have a relationship to the article’s status of compliance with the National Institutes Public Access Policy. In contrast to text-heavy guides that do not provide examples, this guide is a simple visual with brief explanations. An example of each tag is given that could be posted on a webpage and/or used when providing instruction on PubMed. Each tag example and its description are delineated with a shape, and each shape and example are color coded. The content of the guide is 508 compliant.