DOKK / manpages / debian 13 / ncbi-entrez-direct / elink.1.en
ELINK(1) NCBI Entrez Direct User's Manual ELINK(1)

elink - look up related NCBI Entrez records

elink [-help] [-related] [-target dbname] [-name name] [-db name] [-id ID(s)] [-input filename] [-cmd command] [-cited] [-cites]

elink follows links between Entrez databases, either extending an existing Entrez Direct pipeline or honoring explicit -db and -id (or -input) options.

Look up neighbors in the same database.
Follow links to another database.
Follow an explicit link name such as pubmed_protein_refseq, pubmed_pubmed_citedin, or pubmed_pubmed_refs.

Entrez database name for immediate lookups.
Unique identifier(s) for immediate lookups.
Read identifer(s) from file instead of standard input.

Command type (returns eLinkResult XML):
Instantiate results in ENTREZ_DIRECT message.
Return results as a sorted UID list, with any duplicates consolidated.
Save results in Entrez history server.
Neighbors or links.
Neighbors with computed similarity scores.
All links available.
Existence of neighbors.
Existence of external links (LinkOuts).
Non-library LinkOut providers.
All LinkOut providers.
Primary LinkOut provider.

References to this paper.
Publication reference list.

-cited and -cites use the NIH Open Citation Collection dataset (see PMID 31600197) to follow reference links.

Print usage information.

ecollect(1), efetch(1), efilter(1), einfo(1), epost(1), esearch(1), nquire(1), xfetch(1), xfilter(1), xlink(1), xsearch(1).

2025-05-26 NCBI