Naming and Delivery Specifications

Learn how to name and package article data files for delivery to PMC. Use these standard formats to allow PMC to efficiently process and archive your publisher-supplied article content.

How to Deliver Files to PMC

PMC will provide you with an FTP account to use, for either your technical evaluation or your production deposits.

• All content sent to PMC must be sent via FTP. PMC recommends using the secure FTP (SFTP) protocol for file deliveries.
• Do not send files as attachments to an email message.
• If your deposit contains substantial change, or is otherwise unusual, please notify your PMC contact via email.

How to Name Article Data Files

Article data files should be named systematically and consistently, and should contain all major article identifying information, such as jour, vol, iss and uid as defined in the box below. Examples of well-named files can be found in the table below.

Guidance for systematic file naming

• All file names must be unique within a volume. No two articles can use the same file name.
• XML and PDF base file names must match exactly.
• Names of image files and supplemental data files must match the names referenced in the XML file.
• File names cannot contain spaces.
• File names cannot contain special characters, such as ?, %, #, /, or :

Examples of well-named article data files

In the examples in this table, file names are constructed for a hypothetical journal, Biological Testing.

File Type	Naming Scheme	Example Name
Article XML	jour-vol-uid.ext jour-vol-iss-uid.ext	biotes-10-bt.12345.xml biotes-10-01-bt.12345.xml
Article PDF	jour-vol-uid.ext jour-vol-iss-uid.ext	biotes-10-bt.12345.pdf biotes-10-01-bt.12345.pdf
Figures and Inline Graphics	jour-vol-uid-type.ext jour-vol-iss-uid-type.ext	biotes-10-bt.12345-g001.tif biotes-10-bt.12345-g002.tif biotes-10-bt.12345-i001.png biotes-10-01-bt.12345-g001.tif biotes-10-01-bt.12345-g002.tif biotes-10-01-bt.12345-i001.png
Supplementary Materials	jour-vol-uid-type.ext jour-vol-iss-uid-type.ext	biotes-10-bt.12345-s001.mpg biotes-10-bt.12345-s002.doc biotes-10-bt.12345-s003.csv biotes-10-01-bt.12345-s001.mpg biotes-10-01-bt.12345-s002.doc biotes-10-01-bt.12345-s003.csv

How to Package Article Data Files

All article content sent to PMC must be packaged in a compressed data file. PMC currently accepts the following compression formats: .zip, .tar, .gz, and .tgz.

PMC requires article data files to be collected into article-based compressed packages.

• Article-based packaging: an individual article's data files are deposited in a single compressed data package.
• Effective Jan. 1, 2026, PMC no longer supports collection-based packaging.

PMC only supports a single level of file decompression. Do not use 'nested' zips or subdirectories.

The elements making up the package naming scheme should reflect the journal's publication model. All identifying information used by the journal, such as volume, issue, and a unique article ID must be included in package names.

Article-based delivery package: naming scheme examples

How to Package Revision Files

Contents of Revision Packages | Naming Revision/Correction Packages

Contents of Revision Packages

Resubmit only files that have been modified, along with their corresponding XML files.

The name of any replacement article data file (.xml, .pdf, .tif, etc.) must be identical to the original (replaced) file names.

Naming Revision/Correction Packages

Each revision package sent to PMC must include a suffix that differentiates the revision from the original package. The acceptable revision indicators are

• a revision notation, e.g. .r1, .r2, .r3 appended to the original file package name, or
• if the original packaging uses timestamps, then an updated timestamp is sufficient.