New PubMed® Field, Location ID, Includes DOIs

I n April 2008, a new field, Location ID, was added to PubMed® records. This field was created so publishers can include DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) and PIIs (Publisher Item Identifier) after the source data of a citation.

On PubMed's non-tagged formats (e.g., Summary, AbstractPlus) DOIs will display at the end of the source - typically following the pagination or the PII (see Figure 1). PIIs will display only when there is no pagination.

Location ID appears with the field tag LID in the MEDLINE format, and in the ELocationID element of the XML format. (See MEDLINE Data Changes - 2008. NLM Tech Bull. 2007 Nov-Dec; (359):e6. for additional information.)

To search using a Location ID, enter the number in the PubMed search box with the search tag: [lid], e.g., 10.1136/bmj.a295 [lid].

Note: PubMed records will continue to include PIIs and DOIs in the Article ID field (see AID field on the MEDLINE format), if it is supplied by the publisher. This field is used to create links for the LinkOut program; it is not used to create citation source information.

Figure 1: In Process PubMed record with a DOI in the citation.

By Annette M. Nahin
MEDLARS Managment Section

Nahin AM. New PubMed® Field, Location ID, Includes DOIs. NLM Tech Bull. 2008 Jul-Aug; (363):e2.