Funding News - NIH Issues New Public Access Policy

NIH recently announced its new Public Access Policy regarding peer-reviewed publications. The new policy will ensure published NIH-funded research is accessible to the public, healthcare providers, educators, and scientists and will help advance science and improve human health.

In accordance with federal law, NIH now requires that published articles resulting from NIH-funded research be submitted to PubMed Central. These articles will be made publicly available on PubMed Central within 12 months of the publication date. The length of this delay period is determined by the copyright holder, which may be the author, institution, or publisher.  NIH will work with all three groups to make this new policy a success.

There are three actions grantees must take to comply with the policy:

1.  Address copyright.  Beginning April 7, 2008, authors of articles resulting from NIH-funded research are responsible for ensuring that publishing agreements allow for full compliance with the policy.

2.  Submit the article to NIH. Beginning April 7, 2008, authors must submit to PubMed Central an electronic version of every peer-reviewed article resulting from NIH-funded research, once the article is accepted for publication.

3.  Cite. Beginning April 7, 2008, authors must include PubMed Central ID numbers in NIH applications and reports when citing their articles covered by the policy.

For more information, see http://publicaccess.nih.gov/index.htm.