My NCBI Login Transition Tips

Transitioning Early

In June 2021, we will launch a wizard that will walk you through the steps of retiring your NCBI username and password and transition you to using a 3rd party to sign into your My NCBI account. The easiest path through the wizard will be to choose a 3rd-party login option that is already linked to your account. The wizard will also help you get accustomed to logging in to your account via a 3rd-party username and password before it is mandatory.

How to add a 3rd-party login option

    1. Log into your NCBI account as usual.
    2. Click on your username in the upper right corner to access the NCBI Account Settings page.
    3. In the “Linked accounts” (old heading) section, select “Change”.
    4. In the search box, search for your desired 3rd-party option.
    5. Select the link for your desired option.
    6. Authenticate with the 3rd party.

Notes:

    • If you try to add a 3rd-party account that is already associated with a different NCBI account, you will be asked if you want to merge the accounts. We recommend you contact our Help Desk to help with this process rather than merging yourself.
    • If you encounter problems, we recommend that you clear your browser cache or using an incognito/private window. If you continue to have trouble, please write to the Help Desk.

Choosing the Best 3rd-Party Option For You

There are 4,000+ 3rd-party login options to choose from. Which one is right for you? The guidance below includes recommendations based on some of our most common scenarios, but ultimately you will need to choose what is right for you based on your personal circumstances and preferences. Remember, you can add more than one 3rd-party login to your account for added flexibility if you are leaving your institution or if you would like multiple ways to log into your NCBI account.

Remember, if you manage grants from both NIH and NSF, you can link both logins to your NCBI account!

    • If you are a researcher or clinician using NCBI applications:
      • Your InCommon Institution
      • ORCiD (Your NCBI account can connect with your ORCiD account and import bibliography and biographical information. Additionally, an ORCiD account can move with you from institution to institution.)
      • Login.gov
      • National Science Foundation, USA
    • If you are a student or educator:
    • If you are using an NCBI-issued account to access your organization’s data or login to an NCBI tool that requires organization-level permissions:

Please reach out to your NCBI contact if you need additional guidance about this.

    • If you would like one login for multiple government agencies:
    • If the above roles don’t describe you, the most common types of accounts include:
    • If you’d like to create a new 3rd-party account just for your NCBI activity and not necessarily associated with your personal information:

If your scenario is not covered above and you would like to suggest other 3rd-party authentication services for us to consider, please submit your feedback to our Help Desk.

Linking Multiple 3rd-party logins to your account

You can link more than one 3rd-party login to your NCBI account for added flexibility if you are leaving your institution soon or if you would like to have multiple options for logging in. See the “Choosing the Best 3rd-Party Option For You” section above for tips about what may make sense for your situation.

Managing multiple API Keys

We recommend you create Login.gov, Google, or Microsoft accounts for each NCBI account. Both of these services allow you to use whatever email address you like to create an account, so you could set up email aliases if you’d like or use “plus addressing” if that is available to you. Note that you can’t link the same 3rd-party login to more than one NCBI account, so you will need to set up a different 3rd-party login for each NCBI Account.

Once you have a 3rd-party login linked to each NCBI account, the only difference to logging in will be that instead of entering in a username and password on an NCBI page, you will select the Login.gov / Google / Microsoft button on one of our login pages and enter the email address and password instead.

Sharing account logins

NCBI does not recommend sharing account logins. This is not a secure way to manage your account and conflicts with security best practices. The more people that have access to a username and password, the more insecure your account is. This is especially true when you are not using security features such as two-factor authentication. If possible, use our delegation feature to share account management duties.