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Research Compliance NIH Public Access Policy |
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The NIH Public Access Policy mandates that journal articles that arise from NIH funding be submitted to PubMed Central for open access. Beginning April 7, 2008, all publications must be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance. Beginning May 25, 2008, all 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.It is important to comply with this requirement to ensure that your research can continue to be funded by NIH. |
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| Please note that copyright transfer forms sometimes restrict your ability to submit your work to PubMed Central. Please be very mindful that you do not sign away your rights to comply with the NIH requirement. Please follow the steps below to ensure that you meet your obligations under the Public Access Policy: | |
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Determine whether the journal automatically deposits articles into PMC. Many journals do, and if you are publishing in such a journal, you need to do nothing more to comply with the submission requirement. For a complete list of journals that follow this practice, please visit: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm. |
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If the journal to which an article is submitted does not automatically deposit its articles into PMC, inform the journal at the time of submission that the article is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy, and verify that the copyright transfer or publication agreement allows the article to be submitted to the NIH in accordance with the Policy. For a sample cover letter that can assist you in completing this step, please visit the Norris Medical Library web site at http://www.usc.edu/hsc/nml/lib-information/nih.html and click on the link entitled "cover letter." |
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Regardless of whether the journal to which you are submitting automatically deposits its articles into PMC or not, make sure you follow all journal-specific instructions related to your submission. In that regard, the Mulford Library at the University of Toledo Health Science Campus has compiled a comprehensive database of author instructions for over 3,500 journals in the health and life sciences. To view the database, please visit http://mulford.meduohio.edu/instr/. |
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After an article has been accepted for publication and you receive a copyright transfer or publication agreement, carefully review any such agreement to make sure it specifically allows for deposit of the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PMC. If it does not, the Norris Medical Library website also provides a link to a Copyright Addendum Engine that allows you to create a specifically tailored Addendum preserving your right to submit your manuscript into PMC. Please visit the Norris Medical Library web site at the link provided above and click on the link entitled "Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine." |
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Upon acceptance for publication, upload the final peer-reviewed manuscript version of the article including all modifications from the peer review process via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (http://www.nihms.nih.gov/).The NIHMS will convert the deposited files into a standard PubMed Central format, and will email the PI to review the PMC-formatted manuscript to make any necessary corrections and approve its release after the embargo period specified. |
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In some cases, publishers will upload a copy of the manuscript version of the article to the NIH Manuscript Submission System, but the PI must still approve the PMC-formatted manuscript. Some publishers may charge for this service, but you can alternately load your original manuscript yourself without charge. |
| If you have any questions about how to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy, please contact the Office of Compliance at (213) 740-8258 or complian@usc.edu. | |
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