Activate Addgene's "Find Plasmids" Badge on Pubmed Abstracts

Have you ever thought - Is there an easy way to find published plasmids? Do you spend a lot of time in PubMed searching for research articles? Well then, my scientist friend, do I have a handy tool for you.  

With a few quick steps, you can use PubMed to see which articles contain plasmids deposited at Addgene from the abstract page. Check out that beautiful Addgene “Find Plasmids” badge in the image below. If an abstract on PubMed has the “Find Plasmids” badge, you’ll know that within that article you’ll find new plasmids. Simply click on the badge to be taken directly to the plasmids on Addgene’s site (Side note: I always recommend you read the article to ensure you understand the features of the plasmids, how they were created, and how to use them in experiments. Best practices!).

Making the find plasmids badge appear

So how do you make this magical Addgene badge appear? First you’ll need to create an account on PubMed. Once you have an account, simply click on your account name in the top right corner of PubMed to navigate to your account settings. Next, click on the link in the “NCBI Site Preferences” box. Once on the Preferences page, navigate to “PubMed Preferences” and click on the “Filters & Icons” link (see image to the right).

Once on the “Filters” page, select the category “LinkOut” and search for “Addgene”. Then check the “Link Icon” box next to the “Addgene Nonprofit plasmid repository” choice. This selection should populate your “PubMed filter list” to the left of your screen. That’s it! Next time you log-in to your PubMed account and are browsing article abstracts you should see the “Find Plasmids” box on papers that have deposited plasmids.

Now that you know how to navigate to the PubMed Preferences and Filters pages, be sure to check out the other “LinkOut” badges you can add and use your new PubMed account to set-up emails to alert you when papers are published on your favorite topic.

If you have any other cool tricks to make PubMed browsing even easier and more useful, let us know in the comments. I hope this helps!

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Additional Resources on the Addgene Blog

• Get Tips on Keeping Up with the Literature
• How to Write a Scientific Review Article
• Tips for Improving Your Next Manuscript

Resources on Addgene.org

• Learn How to Order Plasmids from Addgene
• Check Out Our FAQ Pages
• Browse Plasmids