Acknowledging NIH support is important!

Acknowledging NIH support is important!

NIH strongly encourages NIH grant recipients to help raise public awareness of the important role NIH plays in providing funding for biomedical research. More than 80 % of the NIH budget goes to extramural research support. Citing NIH support when communicating research findings satisfies an award requirement, meets a Congressional directive, and helps the public make the connection between federal research funding and scientific advances, showing the American people that their tax dollars lead to new knowledge and improvement in health. Some of the things that investigators can do to help include the following:

Acknowledge NIH's full or partial support of research in journal articles, oral or poster presentations, news releases, interviews with reporters, radio and TV appearances, and other communications. When possible, the citation in scientific publications should include the grant number and the name of the source of support (for example: R01GM012345 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health). For additional details on journal article citation requirements, see the Rights in Data (Publications and Copyrighting) section of the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Alert the NIH program officer who manages your grant if you have a significant finding accepted for publication, especially if you have reason to expect media coverage of your work. You can find the program officer’s name and contact information on your Notice of Grant Award.

Ask your institution's public information officer to contact the communications director of your NIH Institute or Center to coordinate efforts to publicize important research progress. You can reach the communications director through your NIH program officer or by using the information at the NIH Media Contacts Web page at http://www.nih.gov/news/media_contacts.htm. NIH frequently highlights research advances in news releases or on the Web site (for example, the Research Results for the Public page at http://www.nih.gov/news/media_contacts.htm. NIH honors embargoes on journal articles.

If reporters ask you to suggest an outside expert to comment on your research, you can refer them to the communications director of your NIH Institute or Center, who will arrange an interview with your program officer or another NIH official.

Source: NIH Extramural Nexus, January 2007, http://grants.nih.gov/grants/nexus.htm