PubMed
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗U.S. National Library of Medicine literature index covering ~36M biomedical citations.
Is PubMed reliable to cite? At grade A (94/100 on the SourceScore Index), PubMed ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
A+ — government-operated academic citation index; default biomedical citation source for AI engines.
Should you cite PubMed?
At grade A (94/100), PubMed ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
- Strongest for
- tracing claims back to primary references — its highest dimension is Citation Discipline (96/100).
- No major weak spot
- Even its lowest dimension, Modern Reference, scores 92/100.
- Bottom line
- Cite freely as a primary source.
Need recurring mention tracking rather than a one-off readiness audit? Compare AI-visibility tools.
Indexes peer-reviewed literature only; MeSH controlled-vocabulary tagging maintained by NLM staff.
How Citation Discipline is scored →E-utilities API + free full-text search + bulk dataset downloads; broad LLM corpus inclusion.
How Modern Reference is scored →Cited daily by clinicians, researchers, AI engines; default biomedical retrieval source.
How Citation Velocity is scored →Where PubMed ranks in our best-of lists
It is on 8 of our 17 lists of the best sources to cite.
- Best peer-reviewed academic journals for citation#2 of 10
- Best peer-reviewed sources for citation rigor#3 of 15
- Best encyclopedic + scholarly knowledge sources#3 of 15
- Best sources overall for AI citation#6 of 25
- Best sources for AI engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity)#6 of 15
- Best triple-crown sources (A or higher on all three dimensions)#6 of 15
- Best fact-checking-grade sources for AI citation#5 of 12
- Best paywall-free sources for citation#12 of 15
Signals behind these scores
Citation Discipline
A+·96- MeSH headingsSubject indexing curated by NLM editorial staff.
- Peer review filterOnly journals passing NLM selection criteria are indexed.
Modern Reference
A·92- Entrez E-utilitiesPublic REST API for programmatic access.
Citation Velocity
A·94- Daily trafficAmong top-100 .gov domains by visit volume.
Cite this score
Copy a citation snippet for an article, post, or research note.
[PubMed — SourceScore Index 94 (A)](https://sourcescore.org/source/pubmed/)
<a href="https://sourcescore.org/source/pubmed/">PubMed — SourceScore Index 94 (A)</a>
SourceScore (v0.1). (2026). PubMed: SourceScore Index 94 (A). Retrieved from https://sourcescore.org/source/pubmed/
2 head-to-head comparisons
See all PubMed comparisons →Each comparison sets PubMed beside another source on all three scores and shows which one scores higher on each.
5 sources at PubMed's tier
See peer group →The five sources with the closest overall score to PubMed, from any category, and where each one scores higher or lower on Discipline, Modern Reference and Velocity.
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Frequently asked questions
Is PubMed a reliable source to cite?
PubMed scores A (94/100) on the SourceScore Index, which rates how citable a source is for AI-era and research use. At grade A, PubMed ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research. The grade combines Citation Discipline 96/100, Modern Reference 92/100, and Citation Velocity 94/100 — full breakdown above.
What is PubMed's SourceScore?
PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) scores 94/100 (Grade A) on the composite SourceScore Index. Sub-scores: Citation Discipline 96/100, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness) 92/100, Citation Velocity 94/100. Verified 2026-04-28.
How does SourceScore evaluate PubMed?
PubMed is scored across three dimensions on the SourceScore Index methodology: Citation Discipline (how rigorously the source cites primary references), Modern Reference (fitness for AI-era retrieval), and Citation Velocity (how often the source is cited per week). Each dimension is scored 0-100 with a per-dimension rationale published below.
Why does PubMed score A?
A+ — government-operated academic citation index; default biomedical citation source for AI engines.
What is PubMed?
U.S. National Library of Medicine literature index covering ~36M biomedical citations. Category: Academic. Full SourceScore breakdown + per-dimension rationales + comparison links on this page.