The NCBI Account

Creating a personal NCBI account (also called My NCBI) provides many benefits, including the option to create an NIH Biosketch and maintain a bibliography of your research output. You can also use your account to save searches in PubMed and other NCBI databases and set up e-mail alerts for new articles or other updates on your topics of interest. NCBI has created a playlist of tutorials on the many features of the NCBI account.

Usernames and Passwords for NCBI Accounts (My NCBI)

NCBI is no longer handling the creation of usernames and passwords for NCBI accounts. Instead, there are a number of third-party options for creating accounts and signing-in.

What does this mean for me if I already have an NCBI account (My NCBI)?

If you have an existing NCBI account, your account will remain the same with the same content. It's just that the way you access your account will need to change. By June 2022, you will need to transition the way you access your account to a third-party login. Third-party credentials that will work for signing-in to your account include eRA Commons, NIH, Login.gov, ORCiD, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. You can also use your Johns Hopkins JHED credentials for logging-in.

In order to transition to this new way of accessing your NCBI account, you need to link your third-party login to your account. To do so, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to your account with your existing username and password.
  2. Click your username, which is located on the top right of the browser page.
  3. Click "Change" in the "Linked Account" portlet.
  4. Locate the third-party account of your choice using the search bar.
  5. You will be transferred to the third-party’s sign-in page. Enter your credentials there for the third-party account.

What does this mean for me if I am setting up a new NCBI account?

If you are setting up an NCBI account for the first time, click on the "Log in" button at the top of the PubMed homepage and then click on the "Sign up" link at the bottom of the "Log in" page. Then sign up for an account using one of the third-party options listed.

More Information about NCBI Account (My NCBI) Login Changes

Visit the following websites for additional details about NCBI account login changes:

  1. Important Changes to NCBI Accounts Coming in 2021
  2. NCBI Account Login Changes FAQs
  3. My NCBI Login Transition Tips