# PubMed On Tap — Search PubMed while on the go

> Mobile biomedical literature search and reference management tool. (iPhone/iPad app by ReferencesOnTap.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pubmed-on-tap/id301316540 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [ReferencesOnTap](https://appshunter.io/developer/301316543)
- Category: Medical, Reference
- Price: $2.99
- Rating: 4.80/5 from 1,017 App Store ratings · 108 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 5 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2009-01-10
- Data updated: 2026-08-30
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pubmed-on-tap/id301316540/reviews.md

## What is PubMed On Tap?

••• Check out Bookends - PubMed On Tap's big brother ••• 

PubMed On Tap searches PubMed and PubMed Central to find, display, and import reference information and PDFs of the full article (requires access privileges). You can search your personal reference library, organize your references in groups (static and smart), and email references from your device to yourself or others in a form suitable for reading or importing into other reference management apps. Many features are optimized for reference retrieval and management (advanced boolean searches, search for Full Text or Free Full text, recall recent searches, etc.).

## Key features

- Search PubMed and PubMed Central
- Import reference information and PDFs
- Organize references in groups
- Email references for import
- Advanced boolean searches
- Search for full text

## What do users think of PubMed On Tap?

Overall sentiment: neutral

**Pros**

- 👍 Great resource
- 👍 Excellent access to PubMed
- 👍 Very handy
- 👍 Handy App
- 👍 Excellent
- 👍 Fantastic research tool
- 👍 So useful!
- 👍 Good to have
- 👍 Great if you have EzProxy
- 👍 Just all you need for quick reference
- 👍 Powerful and easy to use
- 👍 Very Good Little App!
- 👍 Great app
- 👍 Fantastic Helper App!

**Cons**

- 🐛 Does not work. Does not search pubmed
- 🐛 Useless - Can't select best match
- 🐛 Horrible
- 🐛 Would benefit enormously if it had 'related citations' ability
- 🐛 Developer Out of Business?
- 🐛 Mobile vs Desktop?
- 🐛 Upgrade Ruined
- 🐛 Used to be good ...
- 🐛 What possible excuse...
- 🐛 Update killed the app
- 🐛 Limited. .. Does do complete searches
- 🐛 Don't buy this..
- 🐛 Terrible App

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Your application does not open on my ipad after download
- Crashes on load/run every time, even after reset and/or reinstallation

**Most requested features**

- Ability to save favorite search words
- Ability to highlight parts of abstract text
- Option to sort the library by author, date, publication type
- Option to create more than one library within the app
- Option to save search history for future retrieval
- Option of folders for easy paper organization
- Safari or Zotero integration

## Recent user reviews (10 of 108)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pubmed-on-tap/id301316540/reviews.md

### 1/5 — 開けないので返金していただきたいです

*2023-01-26*

検索できません

**Developer response:** It works fine here. If you see any problems please write directly to a support email link in the app About menu. It's a preferred way of reporting bugs or sending feature requests.

### 5/5 — Great

*2023-01-21*

Great resource

### 5/5 — Superb!

*2022-08-10*

Easy to collect vital information and stock it in a useful way.

### 1/5 — Does not work.  Does not search pubmed

*2021-05-10, version 2.14*

Please refund. Thank you.

Edit 2021-5-10:

Per developer’s response pubmed search does now work to a degree.  However, this app is missing some of the most useful features from pubmed including similar articles, cited by, mesh terms, etc.  And, while I can tag an article with a color, it doesn’t seem that I can actually save articles with any sort of useful tags / labels.  I could be missing something, but I don’t see the point of this app, given that its search capabilities are inferior to the pubmed website and filing capabilities are limited.

### 1/5 — Useless - Can’t select best match

*2020-11-15*

I downloaded this app after reading some good reviews about it. However, when I opened it, I found that I couldn’t set it to sort the articles in PubMed based on the best match, only as “recently added“ or “publication date”. Probably because of that, the search was horrible at finding a match for my query. Completely useless for me at this point. Very disappointed.

**Developer response:** Currently the “Best Match” sort option isn’t available with the PubMed API requests. We add this option if/when it's made available.

### 1/5 — Horrible

*2020-11-13*

Waste of money
Better off search google than this
Try DynaMed 
You will get no results with searches

**Developer response:** Please contact our tech support and we'll figure out what is going on with your searches.

### 5/5 — excelent

*2020-04-10, version 2.13.1*

Excelente

### 1/5 — Ok

*2020-03-04, version 2.13.1*

Would benefit enormously if it had 'related citations' ability to bring up related articles as in the Pubmed website thus it's just OK.

### 1/5 — Developer Out of Business?

*2019-12-10*

This used to be a great app.  NCBI has changed their URL and the app no longer connects to PubMed.  Efforts to find the developer failed.  If you are considering buying this app, think twice.

**Developer response:** It works fine here. If you see any problems please write directly to a support email link in the app About menu. It's a preferred way of reporting bugs or sending feature requests.

### 4/5 — PubMed: great resource to see-find research

*2019-11-17*

Great resource to see-find research on clinical studies of drug - human malady remedies.

## Frequently asked questions about PubMed On Tap

### What does PubMed On Tap do?

PubMed On Tap allows you to search the PubMed and PubMed Central databases to find, display, and import reference information. It also helps you retrieve full-text articles, provided you have the necessary access privileges.

### How can I organize my references with this app?

The app enables you to organize your references into static and smart groups. This feature helps you manage your research literature efficiently and recall recent searches easily.

### Is PubMed On Tap free to use?

Yes, based on the provided information, PubMed On Tap is a free application. There are no indications of subscription fees, in-app purchases, or advertisements.

### Can I share references from the app?

Yes, you can email references directly from your device. These can be sent to yourself or others in a format suitable for reading or importing into other reference management applications.

### What kind of searches can I perform?

The app supports advanced boolean searches for more precise literature retrieval. You can also specifically search for Full Text or Free Full text articles to quickly access the content you need.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.18.1 — 2024-08-25

• Fixed a text display issue when editing a reference.
• Fixed a bug that prevented smart groups from searching for references where a field is empty.

### 2.18 — 2024-05-15

• Modernized app appearance and menus.
• Search All now searches the text in all fields, not just the few shown under the search bar.
• Internal Web Viewer uses iOS native downloader for PDFs, so more PDFs should be automatically downloaded.
• Selecting an export reference style is now menu-based, so you no longer need to change it in Settings first.
• Export all library references and attachments to Bookends for iOS. This will allow you to migrate to our more powerful reference management app.

### 2.17 — 2022-12-13

• Improved main library view with new icons.
• Updated Color labels menu for references.
• Updated Group Management view for both single and multiple references selection.
• This release requires iOS 15 or later.

• If you like PubMed On Tap, please take the time to give us a nice review: it really helps.

### 2.16 — 2022-03-13

#StandWithUkraine

• When the iOS native PDF engine is used, annotations will be stored in the file. Previously this option wasn't available.
• Updated and modernized internal components.
• Dropped iOS 12 support.

• If you like PubMed On Tap, please take the time to give us a nice review: it really helps.

### 2.15 — 2021-10-12

• iOS 15 support.

• If you like PubMed On Tap, please take the time to give us a nice review: It really helps.

## Apps similar to PubMed On Tap

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Osler Medicine Survival Guide](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/osler-medicine-survival-guide/id1037056212) | 4.9 (229) | Free | Medical |
| [Prime: PubMed Journals & Tools](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/prime-pubmed-journals-and-tools/id554157746) | 4.8 (690) | Free | Medical |
| [MediPub - Research on PubMed](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/medipub-research-on-pubmed/id6451085959) | 4.6 (16) | Free | Medical |
| [Journal Club: Medicine](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/journal-club-medicine/id512153051) | 4.3 (166) | $6.99 | Medical |
| [Read by QxMD](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/read-by-qxmd/id574041839) | 4.8 (6,042) | Free | Medical |
| [PubMed PMC Bookshelf Search](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pubmed-pmc-bookshelf-search/id1523851247) | 4.2 (181) | Free | Medical |

## More apps by ReferencesOnTap

- [References On Tap](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/references-on-tap/id1092709557)
- [PDF Noted](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pdf-noted/id6744330375)

All apps by ReferencesOnTap: https://appshunter.io/developer/301316543

## Related topics

[pubmed on tap](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/pubmed-on-tap) · [referencesontap](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/referencesontap) · [pubmed pmc bookshelf search](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/pubmed-pmc-bookshelf-search)

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-30.*