FAQ - Smart Linker Linking Service

Linking Solution provided OpenURL based service through Outside Tool in Pubmed.
Implementing an OpenURL based service through Outside Tool in PubMed.
PubMed supports OpenURL-based services through Outside Tool.
Outside Tool allows to place a link to Open URL based service on PubMed records.

Print holdings records will be created and applied based on the print holdings information that library provides.
Search for articles from PubMed, a list of available full-text is displayed with full-text providers listed.

LinkOut provides direct links from PubMed and other Entrez databases to a wide range of information and services beyond the Entrez system.
LinkOut aims to facilitate access to relevant online resources to extend, clarify, and supplement information found in the Entrez databases.
LinkOut resources include full-text publications, biological databases, consumer health information, research tools, and more

OpenURL is a syntax to create web-transportable packages of metadata and/or identifiers about an information object and to point to a user-specific appropriate copy of the object. The syntax has been approved as a NISO standard.

Outside Tool allows an institution to place a link on every PubMed record. This link points back to a resource offered by the institution for their users.
Outside Tool can be used to implement OpenURL-based and other types of services in PubMed. For more information about PubMed and OpenURL

  • What is the difference between LinkOut and Outside Tool?

LinkOut provides links from PubMed to online full text or print holdings records, using either links provided by LinkOut or an OpenURL-based service.
Library links (icons) appear on PubMed citations that are included in the library's LinkOut holdings. LinkOut users can search PubMed for library holdings and display library holdings as a filter tab in My NCBI.

Outside Tool places a link on every PubMed record. Links are to a resource or service offered an institution.
Outside Tool users cannot search PubMed for library holdings and cannot display library holdings as a filter tab in My NCBI.
Outside Tool does not differentiate between citations that are readily available to the user and citations that will have to be ordered.

PubMed supports OpenURL-based services through LinkOut, the Entrez feature that handles external linking in PubMed and other Entrez databases, and through Outside Tool. Using LinkOut, links to the OpenURL-based service are applied to a subset of PubMed records designated by a library.
Searches in PubMed can be limited to links from a the library, and library links can be displayed as a filter tab in My NCBI. Using Outside Tool, links to the OpenURL-based service appear on all PubMed records.

  • How does LinkOut provide open linking in the scholarly information environment?

LinkOut is truly open. Link providers, including full-text providers, libraries, and providers of a variety of web-accessible resources, submit links to NBCI as XML files defined by the LinkOut DTD. Providers are not required to follow any specific URL syntax in constructing the links to their resources.
Of course, providers are welcome to provider URL using the syntax recommended by the OpenURL standard committee.

Providers are free to select the targets that will be linked to, as long as the resources that they are linking to follow the general LinkOut guidelines.
PubMed users can then choose relevant links from the LinkOut display, or customize the PubMed display by activating link icons in My NCBI.

A library or organization can specify resources, i.e. licensed journals, that their patrons are eligible to access and apply a branded library link to that resource. Providing clearly marked links to the appropriate restricted resources optimizes the information environment for their users. In this way, LinkOut supports context-sensitive linking.

  • Does open, context-sensitive linking have to be done by a third party?

The OpenURL framework being discussed in the literature assumes there is a third-party service between an information provider, e.g. Entrez/PubMed, and a library's end users. The information provider would set up a hook in all of their database records and redirect the library's users to the third-party service for their linking needs.

PubMed approaches the problem differently. LinkOut performs the function the the third-party service is trying to serve. Libraries can simply submit holdings information, in which they specify the resources and resource providers they would like to link to, directly to NCBI. No third-party service is necessary to provide context-sensitive linking from PubMed.

Yes, LinkOut supports the OpenURL syntax. Resource providers can specify any URL syntax in their LinkOut holdings files. They can certainly user OpenURL syntax.

LinkOut supports most of the meta-tags recommended in the OpenURL Syntax Description through LinkOut entities, defined in the LinkOut DTD.
The few that are not currently supported could be added to the LinkOut entities if necessary, provided the data are present in the PubMed record.

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