Agent skill

Literature Search Europepmc

by google-deepmind in google-deepmind/science-skills

Search Europe PMC for scientific literature and download open-access full texts and PDFs.

Apache-2.0Auto-check passedResearch & Science

Install Literature Search Europepmc

skills CLI
$ npx skills add google-deepmind/science-skills --skill literature-search-europepmc -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install google-deepmind/science-skills literature-search-europepmc --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/google-deepmind/science-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/literature_search_europepmc .claude/skills/literature-search-europepmc && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
literature-search-europepmc
GitHub stars
3.2k
Used in
2 other repos
Token cost
~2.1k tokens
SKILL.md length
753 words
Files
3 (incl. scripts, references)
Skills in repo
40
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Search Europe PMC for scientific literature and download open-access full texts and PDFs.

  • Works in 5 steps: Search (search) → Download PDF (download_pdf) → Get Full Text (get_fulltext) → …
  • Tasks that involve Citation management
  • SKILL.md covers Prerequisites, Core Rules, Utility Scripts and Common Workflows
  • Runs Python scripts from its folder; calls uv and jq

What it does

Literature Search Europepmc is an agent skill from google-deepmind/science-skills. Search Europe PMC for scientific literature and download open-access full texts and PDFs. Retrieve full-text XML/plain text by PMCID, get citation lists and bibliography.

Its SKILL.md is about 2.1k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 4 other files, including scripts and reference files (for example `scripts/europepmc_api.py`).

It sits in Research & Science, covering Citation management and Literature review. It works with Python. The repository describes itself as: GDM Science Skills to speed up agentic scientific workflows with better grounding and higher token efficiency. Integrate insights from AlphaGenome, AFDB, UniProt and 30+ other… The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Citation management
  • Tasks that involve Literature review

Example prompts

  • “/literature-search-europepmc”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Search (search)
  2. Download PDF (download_pdf)
  3. Get Full Text (get_fulltext)
  4. Get Citations (get_citations)
  5. Get References (get_references)

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 8ab7672. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Ships 1 file in scripts/ (Python), which the agent can run.

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • uv
    • jq

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

    • europepmc.org

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Literature Search Europepmc loads about 2.1k tokens when it runs, and up to ~2.6k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 50 tokens; SKILL.md has 753 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~50
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.1k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~2.6k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from google-deepmind/science-skills at commit 8ab7672, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© google-deepmind). 753 words, ~2,074 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/literature-search-europepmc/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 2 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
literature-search-europepmc
description
Search Europe PMC for scientific literature and download open-access full texts and PDFs. Retrieve full-text XML/plain text by PMCID, get citation lists and bibliography.

Europe PMC Database

A skill for searching, downloading, and exploring open-access papers from Europe PMC — a comprehensive, free life-science literature database with over 43 million abstracts and 9 million full-text articles.

Prerequisites

  1. uv: Read the uv skill and follow its Setup instructions to ensure uv is installed and on PATH.
  2. User Notification: If .licenses/literature_search_europepmc_LICENSE.txt does not already exist in the workspace root directory then (1) prominently notify the user to check the terms at https://europepmc.org/ and to always check the license of the papers retrieved by the skill for any restrictions, then (2) create the file recording the notification text and timestamp.

Core Rules

  • Open Access Only: This skill exclusively searches open-access content. The script automatically appends OPEN_ACCESS:y to every search query. Do NOT remove or override this filter.
  • NEVER run python3 or python3 -c directly: the system Python does not necessarily have all key dependencies. Do not attempt to pip install or create new venvs.
  • Use the Wrapper: ALWAYS use the provided script rather than calling the API directly. The script handles rate limiting (1 req/s) and errors.
  • Output Files: All subcommands require --output to write results to a file. Read the output file separately to avoid context overflow.
  • List Sources. If this skill is used, ensure this is mentioned in the output AND list the URLs of all papers that were used in producing the output.

Utility Scripts

All commands are subcommands of scripts/europepmc_api.py. Rate limiting and retries are handled automatically.

Search Europe PMC by query. Supports DOI lookup, keyword search, author search, PMID lookup, and the full Europe PMC search syntax.

bash
# Look up a paper by DOI
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py search "DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2" --output result.json

# Keyword search
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py search "CRISPR cancer" --max_results 5 --output results.json

# Author search
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py search "AUTH:Jumper J" --max_results 10 --output results.json

# PMID lookup
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py search "EXT_ID:34265844 AND SRC:MED" --output result.json

# Sorted by citations
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py search "machine learning" \
  --sort "CITED desc" --max_results 20 --output results.json

Arguments:

  • query (str, required) — search query using Europe PMC syntax
  • --output (str, required) — output JSON file path
  • --max_results (int, default 10) — maximum results per page (max 1000)
  • --result_type (str, default core) — core (full metadata) or lite
  • --cursor (str, default *) — cursor mark for pagination; pass the nextCursorMark value from a previous response to get the next page
  • --sort (str) — sort order, e.g. CITED desc, P_PDATE_D desc (publication date descending), P_PDATE_D asc

Output: JSON file with three fields:

  • hitCount (int) — total number of matching articles
  • nextCursorMark (str) — cursor for next page; empty string if no more pages
  • results (list) — array of article metadata objects

Search Syntax Quick Reference:

  • DOI:10.xxxx/yyyy — look up by DOI
  • EXT_ID:12345678 AND SRC:MED — look up by PMID
  • AUTH:surname initials — author search
  • TITLE:keyword — search in title only
  • JOURNAL:name — search by journal
  • PUB_YEAR:2024 or (FIRST_PDATE:[2023-01-01 TO 2023-12-31]) — date filter
  • HAS_FT:y — restrict to articles with full text in Europe PMC
  • Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT

Note: OPEN_ACCESS:y is automatically appended to all queries. You do not need to add it manually.

Show full SKILL.md (315 more words)Show less
2. Download PDF (download_pdf)

Download an open-access PDF from Europe PMC by PMCID.

bash
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py download_pdf PMC8371605 --output alphafold.pdf

Arguments:

  • pmcid (str, required) — PubMed Central ID (e.g., PMC8371605)
  • --output (str, required) — filepath to save the PDF

Output: Saves the PDF to the specified file. Exits with an error if the PMCID is not found or the response is not a valid PDF. Whenever you download a PDF, check the pdf downloaded is not empty or corrupted.

3. Get Full Text (get_fulltext)

Retrieve the full text of an open-access article and save to a file. Returns plain text (XML tags stripped) by default, or raw XML with --format xml.

bash
# Get plain text (default)
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py get_fulltext PMC8371605 --output fulltext.txt

# Get raw XML
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py get_fulltext PMC8371605 --format xml --output fulltext.xml

Arguments:

  • pmcid (str, required) — PubMed Central ID
  • --output (str, required) — output file path
  • --format (str, default text) — text (plain text) or xml (raw JATS XML)

Output: Full text written to the specified file. Exits with an error if the article is not in the Europe PMC open-access subset.

Important: Only articles in the PMC Open Access Subset have full text available. If retrieval fails, use search to check the isOpenAccess field and fall back to the abstract.

4. Get Citations (get_citations)

Retrieve articles that cite a given paper.

bash
# Get citations for the AlphaFold paper (PMID 34265844)
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py get_citations MED 34265844 \
  --page_size 25 --output citations.json

Arguments:

  • source (str, required) — source database: MED (PubMed), PMC, PPR (preprints), PAT (patents)
  • article_id (str, required) — article ID in the source database
  • --output (str, required) — output JSON file path
  • --page (int, default 1) — page number
  • --page_size (int, default 25) — results per page

Output: JSON file with hitCount and citations array.

5. Get References (get_references)

Retrieve the reference list (bibliography) of a given paper.

bash
# Get references from the AlphaFold paper
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py get_references MED 34265844 \
  --page_size 100 --output references.json

Arguments:

  • source (str, required) — source database: MED, PMC, PPR, PAT
  • article_id (str, required) — article ID in the source database
  • --output (str, required) — output JSON file path
  • --page (int, default 1) — page number
  • --page_size (int, default 25) — results per page

Output: JSON file with hitCount and references array.

Common Workflows

DOI to PDF
bash
# Step 1: Search for the PMCID
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py search "DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2" --output result.json
PMCID=$(jq -r '.results[0].pmcid // empty' result.json)

# Step 2: Download the PDF
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py download_pdf "$PMCID" --output paper.pdf
PMID to Full Text
bash
# Step 1: Find the PMCID from a PMID
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py search "EXT_ID:34265844 AND SRC:MED" --output result.json
PMCID=$(jq -r '.results[0].pmcid // empty' result.json)

# Step 2: Get the full text
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py get_fulltext "$PMCID" --output fulltext.txt
Citation Graph Traversal
bash
# Find what papers cite a landmark study, then check their references
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py get_citations MED 34265844 --page_size 50 --output citing.json
# Parse a cited paper's PMID and explore its references
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py get_references MED <CITING_PMID> --output refs.json
Search with Pagination
bash
# First page
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py search "CRISPR" --max_results 100 --output page1.json
# Extract cursor for next page
CURSOR=$(jq -r '.nextCursorMark // empty' page1.json)
# Next page
uv run scripts/europepmc_api.py search "CRISPR" --max_results 100 --cursor "$CURSOR" --output page2.json

© google-deepmind, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files (scripts, references) in skills/literature_search_europepmc of google-deepmind/science-skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/citation.bib
  • scripts/europepmc_api.py

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 8ab7672

Used in 2 other repositories

We found 2 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 2 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in google-deepmind/science-skills, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Literature Search Europepmc next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Literature Search Europepmc compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Literature Search Europepmc this skillgoogle-deepmind/science-skills3.2k2 repos~2.1kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Preprint Search on bioRxivLigphiDonk/Oh-my--paper73912 repos~3.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Paper Research on arXivXiaomiMiMo/MiMo-Code14k—~1.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
NSFC Literature Review WriterHuiyuLi-2000/Chinese-Grant-Writer-Skills4391 repos~1.4kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Autonomous Researchfedericodeponte/opendraft507—~8.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Literature Reviewer Skillstephenlzc/AI-Powered-Literature-Review-Skills1751 repos~4.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Questions about Literature Search Europepmc

What does Literature Search Europepmc do?

Search Europe PMC for scientific literature and download open-access full texts and PDFs. Literature Search Europepmc is an agent skill from google-deepmind/science-skills. Search Europe PMC for scientific literature and download open-access full texts and PDFs.

When should I use Literature Search Europepmc?

Literature Search Europepmc fits situations like: tasks that involve Citation management; tasks that involve Literature review.

How do I install Literature Search Europepmc in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add google-deepmind/science-skills --skill literature-search-europepmc -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/literature_search_europepmc in google-deepmind/science-skills) into .claude/skills/literature-search-europepmc in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Literature Search Europepmc in Codex?

Run `npx skills add google-deepmind/science-skills --skill literature-search-europepmc -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/literature_search_europepmc in google-deepmind/science-skills) into .agents/skills/literature-search-europepmc in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Literature Search Europepmc in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add google-deepmind/science-skills --skill literature-search-europepmc -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/literature-search-europepmc, .gemini/skills/literature-search-europepmc, .github/skills/literature-search-europepmc and .opencode/skills/literature-search-europepmc in your project.

What does Literature Search Europepmc need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Literature Search Europepmc needs Python for the scripts in its folder and the command-line tools its instructions call (uv and jq). Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Literature Search Europepmc access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. As links in the text: europepmc.org. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Literature Search Europepmc safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. The check reads SKILL.md only: the scripts in the folder are not scanned, so read them before running anything.

What licence does Literature Search Europepmc use?

Literature Search Europepmc is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Literature Search Europepmc use?

About 2.1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8.3k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 506 tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Literature Search Europepmc?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Literature Search Europepmc: Preprint Search on bioRxiv (LigphiDonk/Oh-my--paper, 739 stars), Paper Research on arXiv (XiaomiMiMo/MiMo-Code, 14k stars), NSFC Literature Review Writer (HuiyuLi-2000/Chinese-Grant-Writer-Skills, 439 stars) and Autonomous Research (federicodeponte/opendraft, 507 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Literature Search Europepmc?

google-deepmind (a GitHub organization) maintains it in google-deepmind/science-skills, which has 3,233 GitHub stars. The repository holds 40 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: google-deepmind/science-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.