Overview of the NIH Public Access Policy*

All investigators who receive NIH funds must submit [or have submitted for them] an electronic version of all final peer-reviewed manuscripts, upon acceptance for publication in a journal, to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central (PMC). The paper must be publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. 1

*This requirement applies to any peer-reviewed manuscript that arises from any direct funding from an NIH grant or cooperative agreement, NIH contract, direct funding from the NIH Intramural Program, or an NIH employee. 2

Legal Requirements for Awards

Compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy is a legal requirement (Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, Public Law 110-161, Division G, Title II, Section 218) and a term and condition of your award.

Awards to applicants who fail to comply with Public Access Policy requirements will be delayed until the requirements have been met.

In addition, in the event of failure to comply, NIH may suspend the grant, pending corrective action, or may terminate the grant for cause (per 45 CFR 74.61, 74.62, and 92.43). 3

Procedure and Submission Requirements 3, 4

The NIH Public Access Policy has two requirements:

• Scientists must submit their final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts to the PubMed Central (PMC) database (which is the NIH digital archive of full-text, peer-reviewed journal articles) upon acceptance for publication.  See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/.
• Progress Reports, final reports, grant applications, and contract proposals must include the citation of PMC IDs or a current NIH Manuscript Submission reference # (NIHMSID) when citing applicable articles that arise from their NIH funded research.

PubMed Central will make submitted manuscripts available to the public 12 months after the official date of publication.

The Public Access policy applies to peer-reviewed papers published in journals. It does not apply to book chapters, editorials, reviews, or conference proceedings.

How to Comply

1. Address Copyright 5: First, inform the journal that the final peer-reviewed manuscript is subject to the NIH public access policy requirements and discuss copyright with the publisher. Make sure copyright transfer or other publication agreements allow you to submit your paper to NIH. Copyright can stay with the publisher, authors, or awardees.
   
   Before signing a publication agreement or similar copyright transfer agreement, make sure that the agreement allows the paper to be posted to PubMed Central (PMC) in accordance with the NIH Public Access Policy. Authors should work with the publisher before any rights are transferred and should avoid signing any agreements with publishers that do not allow the author to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy. Government works are not subject to copyright protection in the United States.
   
   Final, peer-reviewed manuscripts must be posted to the NIH Manuscript Submission Service upon acceptance for publication, and be made publicly available on PMC no later than 12 months after the official date of publication.
    
2. Submit papers 4, 5: There are four methods that may be used to ensure that you fulfill the public access requirement. Institutions and investigators are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are submitted upon acceptance for publication.
   • Method A: Publish in a journal that deposits all final published articles in PubMed Central (PMC) without author involvement. Some journals automatically deposit all NIH-funded final published articles in PubMed Central, to be made publicly available within 12 months of publication, without author involvement. See the list of these journals at: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm.
   • Method B: Make arrangements to have the publisher deposit your final published article in PubMed Central. Some publishers will deposit an individual final published article in PubMed Central upon author request, and generally for a fee. See the list of publishers at: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/select_deposit_publishers.htm.
   • Method C: Submit the manuscript yourself in the NIHMS. For more information, see NIH's Submission Methods. Send manuscripts to PMC through NIHMS using your eRA Commons login. See also: NIHMS System Slide Show Help.
   • Method D: Complete the submission process for a final peer-reviewed manuscript that the publisher has deposited in the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS).

   In a variation of Method C, some publishers deposit the manuscript files in the NIHMS for an author and designate the number of months after publication when the paper may be made publicly available in PMC.

   Though a publisher may make the initial deposit of files for an author in this case, institutions and investigators still are responsible for the timing of the deposit (i.e., upon acceptance for publication) and for completing the submission process after the publisher deposits the files.

   The NIHMS will notify the author when the manuscript files are received from the publisher. At that point, the author must complete all of the tasks outlined for Method C, except for the file deposit part of Task 1 above.

   NIH may reimburse grantees for publication costs, including author fees. Contact your grants management specialist for details.

3. Cite Publications 4, 6: In Progress Reports, grant applications or contract proposals, take one of the following steps when citing a paper that results from NIH funding:
   • Include the PMC ID number at the end of the citation.
     • Note: PubMed (PM ID) and PMC (PMC ID) numbers are different. If you have the PubMed ID, use the National Library of Medicine's PM ID: PMC ID Converter to find out the PMC ID or vice versa.
     • Use this format: PMCID: PMC544119.
   • If your PMC ID is not yet ready, do one of the following:
   • Include the NIH Manuscript Submission reference number (NIHMS ID) instead, e.g., NIHMSID: NIHMS55134.
   • State "PMC journal – in process" only for articles in Journals That Submit Articles to PubMed Central.

If you fail to cite the PMC ID in your Progress Report, you and your Business Official will be contacted by your Program Official who will request confirmation of compliance.

References:

1. US DHHS NIH Public Access website (http://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm)

2. NIH Guide Notice for Public Access (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-033.html)

3. Dr. Hector Lopez Letter to Principal Investigators

4. US DHHS NIH Public Access website (http://publicaccess.nih.gov/index.htm#address)

5. US DHHS NIH Public Access website (http://publicaccess.nih.gov/citation_methods.htm)