{"doi":"10.7717/peerj.11071","title":"pmparser and PMDB: resources for large-scale, open studies of the biomedical literature","abstract":"PubMed is an invaluable resource for the biomedical community. Although PubMed is freely available, the existing API is not designed for large-scale analyses and the XML structure of the underlying data is inconvenient for complex queries. We developed an R package called pmparser to convert the data in PubMed to a relational database. Our implementation of the database, called PMDB, currently contains data on over 31 million PubMed Identifiers (PMIDs) and is updated regularly. Together, pmparser and PMDB can enable large-scale, reproducible, and transparent analyses of the biomedical literature. pmparser is licensed under GPL-2 and available at https://pmparser.hugheylab.org. PMDB is available in both PostgreSQL (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4008109) and Google BigQuery (https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery?project=pmdb-bq&d=pmdb).","journal":"PeerJ","year":2021,"id":210649,"datarank":0.2605766963418385,"base_score":1.3862943611198906,"endowment":1.3862943611198906,"self_citation_contribution":0.20794415416798362,"citation_network_contribution":0.05263254217385488,"self_endowment_contribution":0.20794415416798362,"citer_contribution":0.05263254217385488,"corpus_percentile":41.06134447280885,"corpus_rank":7620,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":4,"citers_with_citation_signal":2,"citers_with_endowment":2,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":true,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9484,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":66.6667,"fair_percentile":86.48731274839498,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":19205,"name":"Jacob J. Hughey","orcid":"0000-0002-1558-6089","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":584198,"name":"Joshua Schoenbachler","orcid":"0000-0001-8544-6359","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":10,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:52:12.491146Z","pmid":"33763309","pmcid":"PMC7955988","fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":83.3333,"fair_a":81.25,"fair_i":0.0,"fair_r":50.0,"fair_zscore":1.2752,"fair_rationale":{"fair_score":66.67,"has_llm":true,"taxonomy_version":"fair_taxonomy_v5","dimensions":{"F":{"name":"Findable","score":83.33,"criteria":[{"key":"f_dataset_pid","label":"Persistent identifier for the data","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4008109","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper provides a DOI for the PMDB dataset in the Results section.","anchors":["RDA-F1-01D — FAIR Data Maturity Model: 'Data is identified by a persistent identifier' (priorit","RDA-F1-02D — FAIR Data Maturity Model: 'Data is identified by a globally unique identifier'","FsF-F1-02D — F-UJI/FAIRsFAIR: 'Data is assigned a persistent identifier'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"f_repository_named","label":"Named repository","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"Zenodo","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper names Zenodo as the repository for PMDB. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["RDA-F4-01M — FAIR Data Maturity Model: metadata is offered so it can be harvested and indexed (","NIH DMS Policy Element 4 (NOT-OD-21-014) — name the repository where data will be archived","NSTC Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories (2022) — 'Long-Term Sustainability', 'Reten"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"f_data_availability_statement","label":"Data-availability statement","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.5,"verdict":"partial","evidence":"The following information was supplied regarding data availability: pmparser is available at https://pmparser.hugheylab.org . PMDB is available at Google BigQuery ( https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery?project=pmdb-bq&d=pmdb ) and Zenodo: Hughey, Jacob, & Schoenbachler, Joshua. (2021). PMDB: a relational database for PubMed [Data set]. Zenodo. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4499311 . Code to reproduce our results is also available at Zenodo: Hughey, Jacob, & Schoenbachler, Joshua. (2020). Reproducible results for: pmparser and PMDB: resources for large-scale, open studies of the biomedical literature [Data set]. Zenodo. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4422037 .","grounded":false,"rationale":"The data availability statement points to a repository record (Zenodo) with a DOI. [downgraded to 'partial' — no verifiable quote from the paper] [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["Colavizza, Hrynaszkiewicz, Staden, Whitaker & McGillivray (2020), 'The citation advantage of li","Springer Nature research data policy — Data Availability Statements: standard statement templat","RDA-F3-01M — metadata clearly and explicitly includes the identifier of the data it describes"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"f_discovery_metadata","label":"Description of the dataset as an object","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"pmparser parses the data into a set of tables organized by data type and linked by PMID ( Table S1 ).","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper references Table S1 which itemises the database tables and columns.","anchors":["RDA-F2-01M — 'Rich metadata is provided to allow discovery' (priority Essential)","FsF-F2-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes descriptive core elements to support data findability'","FsF-R1-01MD — F-UJI: 'Metadata specifies the content of the data'"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"f_dataset_cited","label":"Dataset formally cited","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.5,"verdict":"partial","evidence":"DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4008109","grounded":true,"rationale":"The dataset's DOI appears only in the body text, not as a reference-list entry. [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["FORCE11 Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles (2014) — data should be cited as a first-","RDA-F3-01M — metadata clearly and explicitly includes the identifier of the data it describes","FsF-F3-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes the identifier of the data it describes'"],"scored":true,"signal":null}]},"A":{"name":"Accessible","score":81.25,"criteria":[{"key":"a_data_openly_accessible","label":"Access route free of preconditions","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"PMDB is available in both PostgreSQL ( DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4008109 ) and Google BigQuery ( https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery?project=pmdb-bq&d=pmdb ).","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper states PMDB is available at Zenodo and BigQuery with no stated precondition. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["RDA-A1.1-01D — 'Data is accessible through a free access protocol'","FsF-A1-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata contains access level and access conditions of the data'","NSTC Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories (2022) — 'Free and Easy Access'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"a_access_conditions_stated","label":"Access level labelled","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"publicly available","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper labels the data as \"publicly available\" in the Introduction. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["FsF-A1-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata contains access level and access conditions of the data'","RDA-A1-01M — metadata contains information to enable the user to get access to the data","COAR Controlled Vocabularies — Access Rights v1.0 (open / embargoed / restricted / metadata-onl"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"a_controlled_access_for_sensitive","label":"Gatekeeper for sensitive data","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"The data are bibliographic and not sensitive; no gatekeeper is named.","anchors":["NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy (NOT-OD-14-124) — controlled-access via a Data Access Committee","RDA-A1.2-01D — 'Data is accessible through an access protocol that supports authentication and ","NIH DMS Policy Element 5 (NOT-OD-21-014) — Access, Distribution, or Reuse Considerations (conse"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"a_timeline_retention","label":"Availability timing & retention","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.5,"verdict":"partial","evidence":"We plan to update both versions of PMDB monthly.","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper states the timing of updates ('monthly') but does not specify how long the data will persist. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["NIH DMS Plan Element 4 (NOT-OD-21-014) — Data Preservation, Access, and Associated Timelines","NSTC Desirable Characteristics (2022), Organizational Infrastructure: 'Retention Policy'","RDA-A2-01M — 'Metadata is guaranteed to remain available after data is no longer available'"],"scored":false,"signal":null}]},"I":{"name":"Interoperable","score":0.0,"criteria":[{"key":"i_open_nonproprietary_format","label":"Open file format","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No file format for the released data is named in the paper.","anchors":["FsF-R1.3-02D — F-UJI: 'Data is available in a file format recommended by the target research co","RDA-R1.3-02D — data is expressed in a machine-understandable community standard","RDA-I1-01D — data uses a knowledge representation expressed in a standardised format"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"i_community_standard_vocabulary","label":"Community standard / vocabulary","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No community standard vocabulary is named as applied to the data.","anchors":["RDA-R1.3-01M — 'Metadata complies with a community standard' (priority Essential)","RDA-R1.3-01D — 'Data complies with a community standard'","RDA-I2-01M — '(Meta)data use vocabularies that follow FAIR principles'"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"i_qualified_references","label":"Identifiers for the resources the data depend on","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No identifier for an external resource other than the paper's own dataset is given. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["RDA-I3-01M — '(meta)data include references to other (meta)data'","RDA-I3-03M — 'metadata includes qualified references to other metadata'","FsF-I3-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes links between the data and its related entities'"],"scored":false,"signal":null}]},"R":{"name":"Reusable","score":50.0,"criteria":[{"key":"r_reuse_license","label":"Reuse licence","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No license is named for the data (PMDB); only the code package pmparser is licensed.","anchors":["RDA-R1.1-01M — 'Metadata includes information about the licence under which the data can be reu","RDA-R1.1-02M — 'Metadata refers to a standard reuse licence'","RDA-R1.1-03M — 'Metadata refers to a machine-understandable reuse licence'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"r_provenance_methods","label":"Provenance of the data","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"Using pmparser, we created our implementation of the database, PMDB, from the baseline XML files and the latest version of the NIH Open Citation Collection.","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper names the specific tool pmparser used to produce the data. [majority verdict 'yes' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["RDA-R1.2-01M — 'Metadata includes provenance information according to community- specific standa","FsF-R1.2-01M — F-UJI: 'Metadata includes provenance information about data creation or generati","W3C PROV-O (W3C Recommendation, 2013) — the entity/activity/agent model of provenance"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"r_documentation_codebook","label":"Documentation / codebook","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.5,"verdict":"partial","evidence":"Supplemental Information 1 Table names and column names for PMDB.","grounded":true,"rationale":"The variable definitions are provided inside the article as a supplemental table, not as a separate documentation object shipped with the data. [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["RDA-R1-01M — '(Meta)data are richly described with a plurality of accurate and relevant attribu","FsF-R1-01MD — F-UJI: 'Metadata specifies the content of the data'","NIH DMS Policy Element 3 (NOT-OD-21-014) — Standards (documentation and metadata to accompany t"],"scored":false,"signal":null},{"key":"r_versioning","label":"Snapshot identified","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.0,"verdict":"no","evidence":null,"grounded":false,"rationale":"No version token or date is provided for the data snapshot. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","anchors":["DataCite Metadata Schema 4.6 — the 'Version' property","RDA-R1.2-01M — provenance information (which version was used is provenance)","NSTC Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories (2022) — 'Provenance', 'Retention Policy'"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"x_code_availability","label":"Analysis code available","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4004909","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper provides a DOI for the analysis code on Zenodo.","anchors":["NIH DMS Policy Element 2 (NOT-OD-21-014) — 'Related Tools, Software and/or Code'","FAIR4RS Principles v1.0 (Chue Hong et al., 2022; RDA/FORCE11/ReSA) — FAIR Principles for Resear","FORCE11 Software Citation Principles (Smith, Katz & Niemeyer, 2016, PeerJ CS 2:e86)"],"scored":true,"signal":null},{"key":"x_funding_attribution","label":"Funder and award number","kind":"llm","weight":0.5,"fraction":1.0,"verdict":"yes","evidence":"R35GM124685","grounded":true,"rationale":"The paper provides a grant number from the National Institutes of Health.","anchors":["DataCite Metadata Schema 4.6 — 'FundingReference' property (funderName, funderIdentifier, award","Crossref Funder Registry — canonical funder identifiers for funding metadata","RDA-F2-01M — rich metadata provided to allow discovery (funding is part of the descriptive reco"],"scored":true,"signal":null}]}},"actions":[{"key":"r_reuse_license","dimension":"R","label":"Reuse licence","action":"Attach a standard, machine-readable open licence to the deposit — CC0 or CC BY, which is what Horizon Europe and most funders expect — and print the licence identifier in the paper. 'Free to use' is not a licence: it grants nothing a reuser's institution can rely on.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No license is named for the data (PMDB); only the code package pmparser is licensed.","gain":16.67,"priority":"essential","scored":true},{"key":"i_open_nonproprietary_format","dimension":"I","label":"Open file format","action":"Release the data in an open, community-standard format (CSV/TSV, JSON, HDF5, NetCDF, FASTQ, VCF, NIfTI…) instead of — or alongside — any proprietary or instrument-native format, and name the format in the paper. A dataset that needs a €2,000 licence to open is not reusable.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No file format for the released data is named in the paper.","gain":8.33,"priority":"important","scored":true},{"key":"f_dataset_cited","dimension":"F","label":"Dataset formally cited","action":"Cite the dataset in the reference list like a publication — creator, year, title, repository, DOI/accession — and cite it in-text where it is used. Only a reference- list entry is machine-readable to Crossref/DataCite, and only a citation lets the data earn credit.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"partial","current":0.5,"evidence":"DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4008109","why":"The dataset's DOI appears only in the body text, not as a reference-list entry. [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":4.17,"priority":"important","scored":true},{"key":"r_versioning","dimension":"R","label":"Snapshot identified","action":"Version the deposit and cite the exact version analysed (a version-specific DOI, or an accession with its version suffix). A reader reproducing your work against 'the current release' is reproducing it against a different dataset.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No version token or date is provided for the data snapshot. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":4.17,"priority":"useful","scored":true},{"key":"f_data_availability_statement","dimension":"F","label":"Data-availability statement","action":"Replace the statement with the repository template: name the repository and give the accession or DOI (Colavizza category 3). This is the only DAS class associated with a measured citation advantage; 'available on reasonable request' and 'within the article' are not.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"partial","current":0.5,"evidence":"The following information was supplied regarding data availability: pmparser is available at https://pmparser.hugheylab.org . PMDB is available at Google BigQuery ( https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery?project=pmdb-bq&d=pmdb ) and Zenodo: Hughey, Jacob, & Schoenbachler, Joshua. (2021). PMDB: a relational database for PubMed [Data set]. Zenodo. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4499311 . Code to reproduce our results is also available at Zenodo: Hughey, Jacob, & Schoenbachler, Joshua. (2020). Reproducible results for: pmparser and PMDB: resources for large-scale, open studies of the biomedical literature [Data set]. Zenodo. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4422037 .","why":"The data availability statement points to a repository record (Zenodo) with a DOI. [downgraded to 'partial' — no verifiable quote from the paper] [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"essential","scored":false},{"key":"i_community_standard_vocabulary","dimension":"I","label":"Community standard / vocabulary","action":"Adopt and NAME your domain's data standard — the minimum-information checklist, metadata schema, or ontology your community uses (MIAME/MINSEQE, ISA-Tab, BIDS, an OBO ontology, HL7 FHIR/OMOP) — and say which one you followed. A reporting checklist standardises your paper; it does nothing for your data.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No community standard vocabulary is named as applied to the data.","gain":0.0,"priority":"important","scored":false},{"key":"r_documentation_codebook","dimension":"R","label":"Documentation / codebook","action":"Ship a README and a data dictionary IN the deposit — every file, every variable, its units, its allowed values, its missing-value codes. It is the cheapest single thing that makes a dataset usable by someone who was not in the lab, and a table buried in the article does not travel with the data.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"partial","current":0.5,"evidence":"Supplemental Information 1 Table names and column names for PMDB.","why":"The variable definitions are provided inside the article as a supplemental table, not as a separate documentation object shipped with the data. [majority verdict 'partial' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"important","scored":false},{"key":"a_controlled_access_for_sensitive","dimension":"A","label":"Gatekeeper for sensitive data","action":"Route sensitive data through an institutional gatekeeper — deposit in a controlled- access repository (dbGaP, EGA) with a Data Access Committee and a published DUA — rather than through the corresponding author's inbox. An author-gated dataset dies with the author's email address, and 'on reasonable request' has been shown repeatedly not to yield data.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"The data are bibliographic and not sensitive; no gatekeeper is named.","gain":0.0,"priority":"useful","scored":false},{"key":"i_qualified_references","dimension":"I","label":"Identifiers for the resources the data depend on","action":"Cite by identifier every resource the data depend on — the source datasets' accessions, the reference build (GRCh38 / GCA_000001405.28), the cohort application number, the code DOI — and register those relations on the dataset record (IsDerivedFrom, IsSupplementTo). A name is not a link: it cannot be resolved, versioned, or followed by a machine.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"no","current":0.0,"evidence":null,"why":"No identifier for an external resource other than the paper's own dataset is given. [majority verdict 'no' (4/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"useful","scored":false},{"key":"a_timeline_retention","dimension":"A","label":"Availability timing & retention","action":"State when the data become available AND how long they will be retained — cite the repository's preservation policy. NIH DMS Element 4 asks for both; most papers give neither.","anchors":["yes","partial","no"],"verdict":"partial","current":0.5,"evidence":"We plan to update both versions of PMDB monthly.","why":"The paper states the timing of updates ('monthly') but does not specify how long the data will persist. [majority verdict 'partial' (3/5 passes agreed)]","gain":0.0,"priority":"useful","scored":false}],"suggestions":["Attach a standard, machine-readable open licence to the deposit — CC0 or CC BY, which is what Horizon Europe and most funders expect — and print the licence identifier in the paper. 'Free to use' is not a licence: it grants nothing a reuser's institution can rely on.","Release the data in an open, community-standard format (CSV/TSV, JSON, HDF5, NetCDF, FASTQ, VCF, NIfTI…) instead of — or alongside — any proprietary or instrument-native format, and name the format in the paper. A dataset that needs a €2,000 licence to open is not reusable.","Cite the dataset in the reference list like a publication — creator, year, title, repository, DOI/accession — and cite it in-text where it is used. Only a reference- list entry is machine-readable to Crossref/DataCite, and only a citation lets the data earn credit.","Version the deposit and cite the exact version analysed (a version-specific DOI, or an accession with its version suffix). A reader reproducing your work against 'the current release' is reproducing it against a different dataset.","Replace the statement with the repository template: name the repository and give the accession or DOI (Colavizza category 3). This is the only DAS class associated with a measured citation advantage; 'available on reasonable request' and 'within the article' are not."],"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash","agent_version":"fair_agent_v8","fulltext_source":"epmc_xml"},"fair_model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash","fair_agent_version":"fair_agent_v8","fair_fulltext_source":"epmc_xml","fair_has_llm":true,"fair_computed_at":"2026-07-20T13:11:26.347101Z","clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}