IEEE Position Statement on NIH Public Access Policy

IEEE acknowledges that the broad and open dissemination of NIH funded research results may benefit not only future science and engineering initiatives, but may also serve the greater interests of society as a whole. A carefully considered and practical application of this principle is essential so as to ensure the scholarly value of the original work and the value added to the work throughout the editing and publishing processes. IEEE's position with respect to public access to NIH-funded work published in IEEE journals is as follows:

• In accordance with the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, (PL 110-161, Division G, Title II, Section 218), governing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy, IEEE encourages authors to submit electronic versions of their NIH-funded manuscripts to PubMed Central (PMC) upon acceptance for publication, and authors must inform NIH that their manuscripts be made publicly available 12 months after the official date of publication

• IEEE will supply authors of funded work with the final versions of their papers, which authors may then submit directly to PMC

IEEE already makes its content available to the general public worldwide through its content delivery web site, IEEE Xplore, and remains committed to the idea of convenient, timely and affordable access to scholarly and professional publications.