Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

NIH Public Access

The NIH Public Access Policy (http://publicaccess.nih.gov/index.htm) ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit journal articles that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/). The Policy requires that these articles be accessible to the public on PubMed Central to help advance science and improve human health. The NIH estimates that approximately 80,000 articles are published each year that arise from NIH funds.

The NIH Public Access Policy implements Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) which states:

SEC. 218. The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

 Important Dates

Decision Making Flow Chart

Specifics

1. The NIH Public Access Policy applies to all peer-reviewed articles that arise, in whole or in part, from direct costs funded by NIH, or from NIH staff, that are accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008.
2. Institutions and investigators are responsible for ensuring that any publishing or copyright agreements concerning submitted articles fully comply with this Policy.
3. PubMed Central (PMC) is the NIH digital archive of full-text, peer-reviewed journal articles.   Its content is publicly accessible and integrated with other.
4. The final, peer-reviewed manuscript includes all graphics and supplemental materials that are associated with the article. The final manuscript is defined as the version accepted for publication that includes all the modifications made in response to the peer review process.

Citation Format

When citing their NIH-funded articles in NIH applications, proposals or progress reports, authors must include the PubMed Central reference number, the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) number, or indicate “PMC Journal – In Process” until the PMCID is available (do this only if the journal publishing the article will submit it directly to PubMed Central on behalf of the author(s)).

List the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) at the end of the already-required full journal citation for the article. If a PubMed Central reference number is not yet available, include the NIH Manuscript Submission system reference number (NIHMS ID) instead. Examples:

Varmus H, Klausner R, Zerhouni E, Acharya T, Daar A, Singer P. 2003. PUBLIC HEALTH: Grand Challenges in Global Health. Science 302(5644): 398-399. PMCID: 243493

Zerhouni, EA. (2003) A New Vision for the National Institutes of Health. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology (3), 159-160. PMCID: 400215

NIH Manuscript Submission System - http://www.nihms.nih.gov/

NIHMS (NIH Manuscript Submission) is currently accepting submissions from:

• eRA Commons (for NIH Extramural principal investigators, grantees or applicants)
• NIH Login (for Intramural NIH scientists and staff)
• HHMI Login (for HHMI-funded investigators)
• MyNCBI (for third party submitters)
• Publishers that have registered for an NIHMS Publisher Login account

NIHMS System Slide Show Help http://www.nihms.nih.gov/web-help/index.html

The NIHMS System Slide Shows demonstrate how to perform various actions in a step-by-step fashion and are illustrated with screen captures. There are three versions available for each help topic: a hyperlinked HTML display, a QuickTime movie, and a PDF file.

Participating Journals submit articles to PubMed Central

A list of the journals that submit articles directly to PubMed Central on behalf of their authors is available online at http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm. If an article is published in one of these journals, no further action is needed to comply with the submission requirement of NIH Public Access Policy.

A separate submission to the NIHMS system is not necessary if a manuscript has been accepted by a PubMed Central journal that permits free access in 12 months or less. For NIH grantees, the NIHMS system will extract the necessary identifying information (e.g., NIH award number) from the journal article and transfer it to the NIH's grants management system to fulfill grantees' responsibility for providing publications as part of progress reports.

Concerned about Copyright?

The NIH Public Access Policy does not affect the ability of the author, the author's institution, or the publisher to assert ownership in the work's copyright. Authors, consistent with their employment arrangements, may assign these rights to journals (as is the current practice), subject to the limited right that must be retained by the funding recipient to post the works in accordance with the Policy, or the provision that the journal submits the works in accordance with the Policy on the author's behalf.

Upon acceptance for publication, the investigator should carefully review the publisher’s copyright transfer or publication agreement to make sure it specifically allows for deposit of the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PMC. If it does not, the investigator should attach an author addendum. MUSC has developed an addendum for this purpose, available for download here:   Link to MUSC Addendum to Publication Agreement

A delay period can be registered in the NIHMS system by the manuscript's PI. The delay period is the interval between a manuscript's final publication date and when the author-supplied version will appear publicly in PubMed Central. NIH strongly encourages authors to post for public accessibility as soon as possible (and within twelve months of the publisher's official date of final publication). NIH expects that only in limited cases will authors deem it necessary to select the longest delay period.

COMPLIANCE WITH THE POLICY AND APPLICATION REVIEW

Compliance with the Public Access Policy is not a factor in the evaluation of grant applications. Non-compliance will be addressed administratively, and may delay or prevent awarding of funds.

Link to NOT-OD-08-033

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