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NIH Public Access Mandate

Important Dates

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy is a Term and Condition of Award for all grants and cooperative agreements active in Fiscal Year 2008 (October 1, 2007- September 30, 2008) or beyond, and for all contracts awarded after April 7, 2008.

• April 7, 2008 – As of April 7, 2008, all articles arising from NIH funds must be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.
• May 25, 2008 – As of May 25, 2008, NIH applications, proposals, and progress reports must include the PubMed Central reference number when citing an article that falls under the policy and is authored or co-authored by the investigator, or arose from the investigator’s NIH award. This policy includes applications submitted to the NIH for the May 25, 2008 due date and subsequent due dates.

How to Comply

• FLOW CHART Compliance Process [Washington University in St. Louis]
  
  
• Address copyright - Authors are responsible for ensuring that any copyright transfer or other publication agreement allows the article to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the Policy. Authors must retain sufficient rights to grant NIH a license to make their work publicly available in PubMed Central.
• Submit article - Authors may submit an article to the journal of their choice for publication. Upon acceptance for publication, authors or someone acting on their behalf must submit the article using the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system. See the Submission Process for more information.
  
  
  • If authors choose to publish in journals that have partnered with PubMed Central, these journals will submit articles on the authors’ behalf in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy (i.e., within 12 months of publication). For the list of partner journals that will submit final published articles for free, see publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm.
    
    
  • Some journals and publisher programs will submit final published articles or peer-reviewed manuscripts to PubMed Central on behalf of authors and grant more liberal redistribution and reuse rights than normally accompany a copyrighted work. In some cases there is a fee for this service. Details are available at www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/about/openftlist.html. Scroll down the page to see the list of publisher programs. Currently Blackwell Online Open, Elsevier Sponsored Documents and Springer Open Choice offer and charge a fee for this service.
    
    
  • In both of the above cases, after the publisher submits an article, the author or the Principal Investigator (PI) on the project will receive 2 email messages from NIHMS:
    1. A request to approve the PDF version that was submitted (to ensure that the correct file was submitted). After the PDF is approved, it will be converted to an XML format for use in PubMed Central.
    2. A request to approve the web (XML) version that will be made available in PubMed Central. 

  NOTE Some journals will submit final published articles for authors, but not make them publicly available within 12 months of publication; such submissions do not comply with the NIH Public Access Policy. The author or a designated third party must therefore submit a copy of the final peer-reviewed manuscript. (See below.) Authors are strongly encouraged to communicate clearly with the publisher to understand exactly what the publisher will or will not do on their behalf.
  

  • For all other journals, the author must:
    1. Inform the journal publisher that the article is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy when submitting it for publication. This can be accomplished with a cover letter submitted along with the copyright transfer or publication agreement. Sample cover letter
    2. Make sure that any copyright transfer or other publication agreement allows the article to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the Policy. This can be accomplished with an author’s addendum attached to the publisher’s agreement. Generate appropriate addendum Addendum Engine
    3. Upon acceptance for publication, see that the final peer-reviewed manuscript of the article is submitted using the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system. Authors may self-submit their manuscripts or authorize a third-party to submit manuscripts on their behalf. See the Submission Process for more information.
    4. Approve the submission.
       
       
  • If the author submits the manuscript, the author or the Principal Investigator on the project will receive 1 email message from NIHMS requesting approval of the web (XML) version.
    
    
  • If a third party submits the manuscript, the author or Principal Investigator will receive 2 email messages from NIHMS:
    1. A request to approve the PDF version that was submitted (to ensure that the correct file was submitted) and to indicate the release date when the article should be made publicly available in PubMed Central. After the PDF is approved, it will be converted to an XML format for use in PubMed Central.
    2. A request to approve the web (XML) version that will be made available in PubMed Central.

  NOTE Some journals will deposit final peer-reviewed manuscripts of articles in PubMed Central at the request of the author. Whether the author still needs to verify the web (XML) version of the article being placed in PubMed Central is unclear. Authors are strongly encouraged to communicate clearly with the publisher to understand exactly what the publisher will or will not do on their behalf.

• Obtain PubMed Central reference numbers - When citing their NIH-funded articles in NIH applications, proposals or progress reports, authors must include the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) for each article. For details about how to acquire the PMCID, see http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#c9. For examples of how to cite the PMCID or what to do if the PMCID has not yet been assigned, see publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#c6 and http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#c7.
  
  
• FLOW CHART Compliance Process [Washington University in St. Louis]

More information

• For details about the submission process, see publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process.htm. 
• For answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the submission process, see www.nihms.nih.gov/faq.html. 
• For answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the policy, see publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm.

Assistance

• If you have questions about the NIH Manuscript Submission system, send email to the NIH Help Desk using the online form available at www.nihms.nih.gov/db/sub.cgi?page=email&from=home.
• If you have questions about the NIH policy or procedure, send email to Carnegie Mellon University Libraries at post+org.library.openaccess@andrew.cmu.edu or send email to the NIH at PublicAccess@nih.gov.

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The Policy

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

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.

The goals of the Policy are to make the published results of taxpayer-funded research freely available to scientists, health care providers, educators and the general public, to ensure the availability of a long-term archive of NIH-funded research (www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov), and to increase the accountability of NIH for how it spends taxpayer money.

Scope of the Policy

The Policy applies to all peer-reviewed journal articles, including research reports and reviews. The Policy does not apply to non-peer-reviewed materials such as correspondence, book chapters, and editorials.

Principal Investigators and their Institutions are responsible for ensuring all terms and conditions of awards are met. This includes the submission of articles that arise directly from their awards, even if they are not an author or co-author of the publication. Principal Investigators and their Institutions should ensure that the authors are aware of and comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.

TABLE When NIH-funded authors need to comply...based on funding mechanism, fiscal year & date of acceptance of publication [Becker Medical Library, Washington University]

Compliance and Non-compliance

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.

To comment on the Policy

See Request for Information: NIH Public Access Policy (NOT-OD-08-060) National Institutes of Health grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-060.html.