NIH Public Access Policy
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, peerreviewed 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.
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Public Law 110-161, Division G, Title II, Section 218
Key dates

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April 7, 2008: Articles accepted for publication on
or after this date must be deposited in PubMed
Central
May 25, 2008: Beginning on this date, anyone
submitting an application, proposal or progress
report to the NIH must include the PubMed
Central reference number when citing articles
arising from their NIH funded research. (This
includes applications submitted to the NIH for
the 5/25/08 and subsequent due dates.)
What does it mean for
Researchers/Authors?
Must retain copyright sufficient to grant
PMC a license for public access
 Submission of accepted article using the
PMC website (including confirmation of the
final version)
 Verification of compliance in later
applications by use of the PMC reference
numbers

Retaining Copyright
Carefully read copyright statement to see
what rights are being assigned to whom
 Publish in journals that comply with NIH
Mandate – some journals will submit for
author
 Negotiate with publisher – see author
addendum at sciencecommons.org

NIH Suggested Addenda

The Journal acknowledges that Author
retains the right to provide a copy of the
final manuscript to the NIH upon
acceptance for Journal publication, for
public archiving in PubMed Central as
soon as possible but no later than 12
months after publication by Journal.
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Columbia University welcomes the opportunity to
implement the NIH Public Access Policy. We believe that
the policy is consistent with the general educational and
research objectives of the university and the broader
research community and of the right of the public to
access government-supported research. (funded
university)
We write in very strong support of the new NIH public
access requirement and its implementation in April. This
requirement will hasten the availability of biomedical
research results from NIH grantees at UNC Chapel Hill
and from leading scientists elsewhere. (funded
university)
Please give us FREE ACCESS to published results of
government funded cancer studies....It will eliminate the
current time-consuming need to drive to the nearest
medical library and search the journals, and enable us to
make better decisions as to diagnosis and treatment
options. (patient)
Verification of compliance in later
applications by use of the PMC
reference numbers