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On May 2, 2005, the "Public Access Policy" became effective requesting that all NIH-funded investigators submit to the NIH National Library of Medicine's (NLM) PubMed Central (PMC) an electronic version of the author's final manuscript upon acceptance for publication.
This Policy Applies To:
This policy applies to all research grant and career development award mechanisms, cooperative agreements, contracts, Institutional and Individual Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards, as well as NIH intramural research studies.
Purpose of this Policy
The policy is intended to:
- Create a stable archive of peer-reviewed research publications resulting from NIH-funded research to ensure the permanent preservation of these vital published research findings;
- Secure a searchable compendium of these peer-reviewed research publications that NIH and its awardees can use to manage more efficiently and to understand better their research portfolios, monitor scientific productivity, and ultimately, help set research priorities; and
- Make published results of NIH-funded research more readily accessible to the public, health care providers, educators, and scientists.
Scope of the Policy
The NIH Public Access Policy applies to final manuscripts that are peer-reviewed research publications and have been supported, in whole or in part, with direct costs from NIH. The Policy does not apply to contributed book chapters, editorials, reviews, or conference proceedings.
- The author's final manuscript is defined as the final version accepted for journal publication, and includes all modifications from the publishing peer review process.
- The Policy now requests and strongly encourages that authors specify posting of their final manuscripts for public accessibility as soon as possible (and within 12 months of the publisher's official date of final publication). The Policy also clarifies that the publication date is the publisher's official date of final publication.
Potential Impact on Scientists
NIH anticipates that this process may reduce, rather than increase, burden for investigators:
- The development of a searchable archive of published findings from NIH-supported research will be a rich resource for all scientists. Access to such information not only will make it easier to investigate a specific area of research, but also may lead to identification of new research questions.
- NIH considers publication costs, which include fees charged by a publisher, such as color and page charges, or fees for digital distribution, to be allowable charges to NIH research awards.
- Public access submissions will provide NIH-supported investigators with an alternate means by which they can meet and fulfill the current requirement to provide a copy of each publication in their progress reports and other application and close-out procedures.
- Investigators applying for new and competing renewal support from the NIH can utilize this resource by providing links in their applications to their PMC - archived information.
For more information visit http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-022.html
To submit a paper, visit the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system http://nihms.nih.gov/.
The Policy's Authors' Manual, can be found at:
http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/publicaccess_Manual.htm. This resource offers a streamlined summary of the Policy and the submission process. It even describes how a 3rd party (e.g., assistant, library, etc.) can upload manuscripts on behalf of the author.
Additional documents and tools, including the full text of the Policy, are available on the Policy's Web site (http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/).
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