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Citation Policies: References and Examples

References and examples for citing RCSB PDB resources
PDB entries	PDB entries are assigned a PDB ID and are frequently described in a publication by the structure authors.
	A PDB entry with a corresponding publication should be referenced by the PDB ID and the publication.	PDB ID: pdb_00001ema M. Ormo, A.B. Cubitt, K. Kallio, L.A. Gross, R.Y. Tsien, S.J. Remington, Crystal structure of the Aequorea victoria green fluorescent protein (1996) Science 273: 1392-1395 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.273.5280.1392
	A PDB entry without a corresponding publication should be referenced by the PDB ID, deposition year, deposition authors, citation title, and the DOI for the entry.	PDB entries deposited prior to July 21, 2027 will use the 4-character PDB ID DOI format 10.2210/pdbXXXX/pdb (where XXXX is the 4-character PDB ID). PDB ID: pdb_00001ci0 \| 1ci0 (deposited 1999-04-06) W. Shi, D.A. Ostrov, S.E. Gerchman, V. Graziano, H. Kycia, B. Studier, S.C. Almo, S.K. Burley, New York SGX Research Center for Structural Genomics (NYSGXRC), PNP Oxidase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (1999) https://doi.org/10.2210/pdb1ci0/pdb
		PDB entries deposited on or after July 21, 2027, will use the 12-character PDB ID DOI format 10.2210/pdb_1000axyz/pdb (where pdb_1000axyz is the 12-character PDB ID).
RCSB PDB	RCSB PDB should be referenced with the URL RCSB.org and the citation: H.M. Berman, J. Westbrook, Z. Feng, G. Gilliland, T.N. Bhat, H. Weissig, I.N. Shindyalov, P.E. Bourne, The Protein Data Bank (2000) Nucleic Acids Research 28: 235-242 https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/28.1.235. New website features and resources are also described in articles listed on our Publications page and in regular contributions to the Nucleic Acids Research Database Issue, including the most recent article: Updated resources for exploring experimentally-determined PDB structures and Computed Structure Models at the RCSB Protein Data Bank (2025) Nucleic Acids Research 53 D564–D574 https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkae1091
wwPDB	The RCSB PDB is a member of the worldwide PDB (wwPDB). wwPDB should be cited with the URL wwpdb.org and the following citations: H.M. Berman, K. Henrick, H. Nakamura Announcing the worldwide Protein Data Bank (2003) Nature Structural Biology 10:980 https://doi.org/10.1038/nsb1203-980 wwPDB consortium (2018) Protein Data Bank: the single global archive for 3D macromolecular structure data Nucleic Acids Research: gky949 doi: 10.1093/nar/gky949
Molecular Images	Images from and/or of Structure Summary and Group Summary pages and tabs (including screenshots) should cite the RCSB PDB and PDB entry: Image from the RCSB PDB (RCSB.org) of PDB ID pdb_00001bna (H.R. Drew, R.M. Wing, T. Takano, C. Broka, S. Tanaka, K. Itakura, R.E.Dickerson, Structure of a B-DNA dodecamer: conformation and dynamics (1981) Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.USA 78: 2179-2183). Images created using PDB data and Mol* should cite the PDB ID, the corresponding structure publication, Mol, and the RCSB PDB: Image from the RCSB PDB (RCSB.org) of PDB ID pdb_00004hhb (G. Fermi, M.F. Perutz, B. Shaanan, R. Fourme, The crystal structure of human deoxyhaemoglobin at 1.74 A resolution (1984) J Mol Biol* 175: 159-174) created with Mol* (D. Sehnal, S. Bittrich, M. Deshpande, R. Svobodová, K. Berka, V. Bazgier, S. Velankar, S.K. Burley, J. Koča, A.S. Rose (2021) Mol* Viewer: modern web app for 3D visualization and analysis of large biomolecular structures (2021) Nucleic Acids Research 49:W431-W437 https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab314). Images created using PDB data and another molecular graphics program, should replace the Mol* reference as appropriate in the citation.
2D Chemical Images	Images created using the 2D Chemical Drawing tool should cite Marvin JS by Chemaxon
Computed Structure Models	Refer to the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database and ModelArchive for the preferred citations.
Molecule of the Month	Molecule of the Month articles are copyrighted by RCSB PDB and the article authors. Text can be reprinted with permission, with attribution, and without the right to manipulate or change content. Contact info@rcsb.org for permission. Individual Molecule of the Month articles may be referenced using a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) with format: https://doi.org/10.2210/rcsb_pdb/mom_YYYY_MM, where YYYY is the year, and MM the number of the month (one or two digits). For example: https://doi.org/10.2210/rcsb_pdb/mom_2020_1 Molecule of the Month illustrations are available under a CC-BY-4.0 license. Attribution should be given to the article author (listed at the bottom of the article), RCSB PDB, and the DOI of the article in which it appeared. For example: Image from the RCSB PDB (RCSB.org) September 2008 Molecule of the Month feature Ribonuclease A by David S. Goodsell (doi: 10.2210/rcsb_pdb/mom_2008_9). Image from the RCSB PDB (RCSB.org) August 2026 Molecule of the Month feature Hantavirus by Janet Iwasa (doi: 10.2210/rcsb_pdb/mom_2026_6) References for the Molecule of the Month series: A new chapter for RCSB Protein Data Bank Molecule of the Month in 2025 (2025) Structural Dynamics 12: 021101 https://doi.org/10.1063/4.0000302 Insights from 20 years of the Molecule of the Month (2020) BAMBed 48: 350-355 https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.21360
Other PDB-101 Content	PDB-101 content is free for use under a CC-BY-4.0 license and should be referenced with the URL PDB101.rcsb.org) and the citation: PDB-101: Educational resources supporting molecular explorations through biology and medicine. (2022) Protein Science 31: 129-140 10.1002/pro.4200 Global Health articles are copyrighted by RCSB PDB and the article authors. Individual Global Health articles may be referenced using a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) listed at the bottom of the page (with format: https://doi.org/10.2210/rcsb_pdb/GH/etc.). Text from these articles can be reprinted with permission, with attribution, and without the right to manipulate or change content. Contact info@rcsb.org for permission.
Other RCSB.org Content	Other RCSB.org content (e.g., user guide documentation, statistics graphs, other screenshots) is available under a CC-BY-4.0 license. Attribution should be given to RCSB PDB as described above.
Early PDB Citations	The PDB archive was first announced in: Protein Data Bank (1971) Nature New Biology 233:223. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) PDB ceased operation on June 30, 1999. The original journal reference for the BNL PDB is: F.C. Bernstein, T.F. Koetzle, G.J.B. Williams, E.F. Meyer Jr., M.D. Brice, J.R. Rodgers, O. Kennard, T. Shimanouchi, M. Tasumi, The Protein Data Bank: a computer-based archival file for macromolecular structures (1977) J. Mol. Biol. 112: 535-542.

Usage Policies

The wwPDB policy states that data files contained in the PDB archive are available under the CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication.

Data provided by RCSB PDB programmatic APIs are available under the same license unless they originate from an integrated external resource, in which case the licensing restrictions applied by the data provider must be followed.

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Full RCSB PDB usage policies are available.

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