Adding PMCID to Literature Cited in a NIH grant proposal

seohara · January 11, 2025

Hi,

I am working on an NIH grant proposal. I imported several references from PubMed into Zotero. I am using the "National Institute of Health Research" citation style. I need to include the PMCID in the "Literature Cited" section of the proposal. The PMCID shows in the "Extra" window on Zotero. However, the PMCID is not included when I insert the bibliography into my proposal; just the doi. Can you help?

Thank you,
Sharon

adamsmith · January 11, 2025

NIHR is a UK agency, hence no PMCIDs. You're looking for this style:
https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=id:national-library-of-medicine-grant-proposals

seohara · January 11, 2025

Thank you so much!!!

enozkan · January 11, 2025

I think the following style is designed to use PMCID, and if that does not exist, will fall back to PMID.

https://www.zotero.org/styles/national-library-of-medicine-grant-proposals

If your items in Zotero are missing their PMCIDs (which happens if you saved the item when it was first released), you can use this plugin to quickly fetch them

https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-pmcid-fetcher

though a proper auto-update of all data will be nicer when implemented.

maswali · February 13, 2026

When I import articles directly from PubMed the PMCID and PMID do not go into the Extra field but rather the Zotero fields that are specific to each: "PMCID" and "PMID". However, when generating the citations for NIH grant, Zotero doesn't include these. It is frustrating to have to fill in the Extra fields also. Why can't Zotero retrieve the PMCID and PMID from the actual fields that hold this information?

dstillman · February 13, 2026

@maswali: You shouldn't have to populate Extra — that was just a hack before Zotero had proper fields. The above style is working for me. Make sure you're running the latest version of Zotero, and provide a Debug ID for reproducing it if you're still having trouble.

adamsmith · February 13, 2026

I'm guessing you're using the wrong style. Note that "National Institute of Health Research" is a UK-based research funder, not the US National Institutes of Health. For US NIH grant proposals, use e.g.
https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=id:national-library-of-medicine-grant-proposals

maswali · February 13, 2026

Thanks. I will try this. Any links to specific instructions on how to add this style?

adamsmith · February 13, 2026

You just click it

maswali · February 13, 2026

Never mind. I found it in desktop version to "add additional styles". Looks like it is working

enozkan · 2026-03-11T19:50:22+00:00

With recent changes styles, the NLM styles adding PMCID (for grant writing purposes) can no longer be found with the links above. Search this instead:

https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=nlm

Something like this may work for NIH grants: https://www.zotero.org/styles/nlm-citation-sequence-superscript-year-only-no-issue

dunning · 2026-03-11T20:49:30+00:00

NIH simply points now to the standard NLM style, Citing Medicine:

https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/how-to-apply-application-guide/format-attachments#citations

PMID/PMCID are included in all NLM Citing Medicine styles, per the official style guide.

enozkan · 2026-03-11T21:52:19+00:00

Thank you @dunning. The old style, "National Library of Medicine (grant proposals)", was also based on the NLM style before. Without the style name including "(grant proposals)", people may not realize the appropriate style is still available. Just updating the forums to mention that.

(There is still a style for "National Science Foundation (grant proposals)", though I don't know if the style is up to date.")

enozkan · 2026-03-11T21:53:01+00:00

(and thank you for all the work you've done on the styles!)

dunning · 2026-03-11T22:53:23+00:00

@enozkan Yes, there could be a dependent style for NIH if we could point to a specific parent style, but it looks as if one can submit applications using any of the nine NLM Citing Medicine variants?

enozkan · 2026-03-11T23:55:21+00:00

Yes, NIH does not (and previously did not) care about the details of the style, so any of the nine are fine. Having options is good.

I am not sure if a dependent style pointing to only one is necessary. The suggestion on NIH's webpage for the use of NLM is clear and easy to come across if one searches online or in these forums.