The National Library of Medicine (NLM) decides whether the scientific and editorial character and quality of a journal merit its inclusion in MEDLINE. In making this decision, NLM considers scientific policy set by the NLM Board of Regents, the suitability of the journal for the NLM Collection (according to the criteria in the Collection Development Guidelines), as well as the recommendations of external, expert consultants. MEDLINE’s Scientific Quality Review is a rigorous, multi-step process in which many factors are assessed. The NLM web page "MEDLINE Application and Evaluation Process" describes the process for including a journal in MEDLINE, as well as the pre-application requirements.

The NLM Web page called For Publishers contains links to information relevant to publishers’ needs and the other databases that comprise PubMed.