PubMed

PubMed is an openly accessible, free database which primarily includes the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez system of information retrieval.

From 1971 to 1997, online access to the MEDLINE database was provided via computer, using phone lines primarily through institutional facilities, such as university libraries. PubMed, first released in January 1996, ushered in the era of private, free, home and office-based MEDLINE searching. It was released alongside "Internet Grateful Med" (web-version of Grateful Med). In 2001 Grateful Med was deleted and entirely replaced by PubMed. The PubMed system was offered free to the public starting in June 1997.