How to Convert Europe PMC Papers to EPUB — Read Open Access Research on Kindle or Kobo
Europe PMC is the go-to open-access repository for Wellcome Trust, MRC, CRUK, and European Research Council-funded papers. All papers are freely downloadable as PDF. Converting to EPUB makes them significantly more comfortable to read on any e-reader.
What is Europe PMC?
Europe PMC (europepmc.org) is a free life science literature repository maintained by EMBL-EBI in partnership with major European funding bodies:
- Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
- Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
- European Research Council (ERC) and other EU funders
- Also mirrors NIH/PubMed Central content
Papers funded by these organizations must be deposited — making Europe PMC one of the largest collections of freely available biomedical literature in the world.
Downloading PDFs from Europe PMC
- Go to europepmc.org
- Search by title, author, DOI, or PubMed ID
- Open the paper page
- Click the PDF icon or Free full text link (upper right)
- The PDF downloads — no login required
If only 'Request a copy' appears, the paper hasn't been deposited yet. Try PubMed Central, arXiv, bioRxiv, ResearchGate, or the author's university page.
Converting to EPUB
- Go to pdf2epub.toolkit.bot
- Upload the Europe PMC PDF
- Wait ~30 seconds
- Download the EPUB
Life science journal PDFs commonly use two-column formats — the converter handles these correctly, reconstructing proper reading order. Transfer to your Kindle, Kobo, or any e-reader.
Europe PMC vs PubMed Central
| Europe PMC | PubMed Central (PMC) | |
|---|---|---|
| URL | europepmc.org | pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |
| Operated by | EMBL-EBI, European funders | NIH (USA) |
| Strongest for | UK and EU-funded research | NIH-funded US research |
| Coverage overlap | Large — both mirror each other | Large |
| Login required | No | No |
| PDF download | Free for all full-text articles | Free for all full-text articles |
When in doubt, search both — they complement each other. PubMed search (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) searches both databases simultaneously.
Frequently asked questions
What is Europe PMC?
Europe PMC (europepmc.org) is the European equivalent of PubMed Central — a free repository of life science research literature funded by major European and UK funding bodies including the Wellcome Trust, MRC, BBSRC, NERC, CRUK, and the European Research Council. Papers funded by these organizations are required to be deposited in Europe PMC, making it a major source of open-access biomedical literature. It indexes over 42 million abstracts and 9 million full-text articles.
Is Europe PMC free to use?
Yes — Europe PMC is completely free to access and requires no login or registration for basic use. All full-text papers in Europe PMC are open access and freely downloadable as PDF or XML. Europe PMC is particularly strong for UK and European-funded research, Wellcome Trust papers, and NIH-funded research (which also appears in PubMed Central). If a paper you want is not in Europe PMC, also check PubMed Central (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
How do I download a PDF from Europe PMC?
Go to europepmc.org and search for your paper by title, author, DOI, or PubMed ID. Open the paper page. Click the PDF icon or 'Free full text' link on the right side. The PDF downloads directly. Some papers link to the publisher PDF hosted elsewhere — these are also free. If you see 'Request a copy' instead of a PDF button, the paper is not yet in Europe PMC's open-access archive.
What is the difference between Europe PMC and PubMed Central?
PubMed Central (PMC) is run by the NIH and primarily covers US-funded research with an open-access mandate (NIH-funded papers). Europe PMC covers European-funded research (Wellcome Trust, UK research councils, ERC) and also mirrors NIH/PMC content. In practice, both databases overlap significantly for major journals. For UK and European research specifically, Europe PMC often has papers earlier or in addition to PMC. Both are excellent, free, and have the same PDF-to-EPUB workflow.
Can I search Europe PMC by research funder?
Yes — Europe PMC has advanced search filters including funder. Use the 'Advanced Search' page and add a GRANT_AGENCY filter (e.g. 'Wellcome Trust', 'MRC', 'Cancer Research UK'). This is useful if you want to find all open-access papers funded by a specific UK research council. You can also filter by publication date, species, and data availability.