What is the NIH Public Access Policy?
The National Institutes of Health has issued a revised Public Access Policy to ensure compliance with Public Law
110-161. Under the revised policy, any peer-reviewed journal articles arising in whole or part from direct costs
paid by the NIH or NIH staff must be submitted in electronic format to the National Library of Medicine's digital
archive PubMed Central and made available within twelve months of publication.
Does it apply to my research publications? Click here for a chart.
The Policy applies to you if your peer-reviewed article is based on work in one or more of the following
categories:
 Directly1 funded by an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008 (October 1, 2007September 30, 2008) or beyond;
 Directly1 funded by a contract signed on or after April 7, 2008;
 Directly funded by the NIH Intramural Program;
 If NIH pays your salary.
It does not apply to non-peer-reviewed materials such as correspondence, book chapters, and editorials.
If I have received a service (such as from the Project Development Teams (PDTs) or an Indiana Clinical and
Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) core) or funding from the CTSI, does this apply?
Yes.
How do I acknowledge the CTSI in my publications?
See https://www.indianactsi.org/funding/funding/citeinfo
If I have a publication that is not indexed in PubMed but receives NIH funding, does it still need a PMCID?
Yes.
Who is responsible for meeting this requirement?
The Principal Investigator is held ultimately responsible by the NIH for meeting this requirement. A third party
may submit the manuscript on the PI's behalf, with the PI approving the final submission.
How do I comply using MyNCBI and MyBibliography?
 Handout showing how to comply using MyBibliography
 Appendix A--examples of letters to send to publishers/journals when determining compliance
Where can I find more information on the NIH Public Access Policy?
 NIH Public Access Homepage http://publicaccess.nih.gov/
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NIH Frequently Asked Questions about the NIH Public Access Policy
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm
NIH Submission Methods http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process.htm with tutorials
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/communications.htm
SHERPA/RoMEO Website (Publisher Policy database) http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/
PMCID to PMCID (to NIHMSID) convertor tool http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/pmctopmid/
1. Costs that can be specifically identified with a particular project or activity. NIH Grants Policy Statement, Rev. 12/2003;
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps_2003/NIHGPS_Part5.htm#_Toc54600115
Where Do I Find PMCIDs?
I get a notice from NIH/ORA that I have articles not compliant and need PMCIDs for them. What do I
do?
1. Check in PubMed to see if they show up with a PMCID
2. Check the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system (logging in with your eRa Commons
account) http://nihms.nih.gov/
a. Type in your PMID for your article. Change the dropdown from NIHMSID to PubMed ID.
Click on Find Manuscript.
3. Check the publisher/journal stance on the Open Access Policy by either going directly to that
journal’s website, or check through the SHERPA/ROMEO website
a. SHERPA/ROMEO website: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/
b. Several main publisher NIH Public Access Policy statements:
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS):
http://www.sciencemag.org/site/help/authors/pmc.xhtml
PubMed Central and Other Archives
Authors of research articles, reports, brevia, reviews, or technical comments created under grants awarded no earlier than
2 May 2005 who are required by their funding agencies to make their research results publicly available may implement
posting to the funding body's archive or designated repository, no sooner than six months after final publication, of the
"accepted version" of the paper, provided the posting is linked back to the original AAAS published version and includes the
published paper's full reference citation. The "accepted version" is the version of the paper accepted for publication by
AAAS after changes resulting from peer review, but before AAAS's editing, image quality control, and production.
Bottom Line: Authors need to deposit their AAAS papers into the NIHMS system themselves with an embargo of
6 months.
http://www.elsevier.com/about/open-access/open-access-policies/fundingbody-agreements?a=105238
Elsevier NIH Policy Statement
As a service to our authors, Elsevier will deposit to PubMed Central (PMC) author manuscripts on behalf of Elsevier authors
reporting NIH funded research. This service is a continuation of Elsevier's 2005 agreement with the NIH when the NIH
introduced their voluntary 'Public Access Policy.'
The service will help authors comply with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) revised ''Public Access Policy,'' effective
April 7, 2008. The NIH's revised policy requires that NIH-funded authors submit to PubMed Central (PMC), or have
submitted on their behalf, their peer-reviewed author manuscripts, to appear on PMC no later than 12 months after final
publication.
Elsevier will send to PMC the final peer-reviewed manuscript, which was accepted for publication and sent to Elsevier's
production department, and that reflects any author-agreed changes made in response to peer-review comments. Elsevier
will authorize the author manuscript's public access posting 12 months after final publication. Following the deposit by
Elsevier, authors will receive further communications from the NIH with respect to the submission.
Bottom Line: Elsevier will take care of the process for you. It will be an embargo of 12 months.
Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC): http://www.jbc.org/site/misc/JBCRepository.xhtml
JBC and the Repository for NIH Sponsored Research
The NIH requires that authors of all publications resulting from any NIH supported research deposit the final accepted
version of their manuscripts in PubMed Central. ASBMB/JBC will automatically deposit all papers resulting from any NIH
support as a service to authors. Authors need do nothing to comply.
Instructions for obtaining the PMC ID for an accepted paper can be found at the NIH site.
Bottom Line: JBC will take care of the process for you. It will be an embargo of 12 months.
Nature Publishing Group: http://www.nature.com/authors/author_resources/deposition.html
Manuscript Deposition Service
The NPG Manuscript Deposition Service is currently available to Nature Publishing Group (NPG) authors publishing original
research articles in Nature and the Nature research titles and many of the society and academic journals. This free and
simple service enables researchers to meet the open access or public access policies of participating funders. Several
funding bodies and institutions have introduced mandates that require authors to self-archive articles in publicly accessible
archives. While these mandates apply to authors, not publishers, NPG is committed to providing an excellent service to our
authors at every stage of their publishing experience. It seemed a natural extension of NPG’s self-archiving policy to offer a
service to authors to do this on their behalf.
Key facts
• Authors can opt-in to the service during the submission process, and provide their or their co-authors relevant funding
information as part of their submission to an NPG journal.
• NPG uploads the authors’ final version of the accepted manuscript upon acceptance.
• These manuscripts are made publicly accessible 6 months after publication and link back to the journal's website (note some journals have a 12 month embargo period).
• The service applies only to original research articles, not to reviews or other article types.
• Authors who do not take up the service during submission must self-archive directly via the submission systems at the
appropriate repository. Links to the repository submission systems are–PubMed Central
Bottom Line: NPG will take care of the process, assuming you let them know you are an NIH-funded author at
time of submission. If you do not take advantage of this at time of submission, authors can deposit their paper
into NIHMS themselves with an embargo of 6 or 12 months (depending on the specific NPG journal).
http://www.springer.com/gp/open-access/authors-rights/funder-compliance/6332
Funder Compliance--National Institutes of Health
If you are funded by the NIH, you will be required to deposit the final manuscript of your journal articles in PubMed Central
(PMC) , and ensure their free availability (open access) within 12 months of publication.
If you choose to publish your article with the traditional subscription-based model (without open access), you can notify
Springer to deposit the author’s accepted version of your article into the NIH Manuscript Submission System, from where it
will be sent to PubMed Central and made publicly available 12 months after publication.
Within Springer’s MyPublication process you can notify us easily (I am NIH funded – ‘Yes’). We require your full NIH grant
number and can only process requests with a full and properly formed grant number. An example would be: ‘R01
GM012345-03’. You only need to enter one NIH grant number. The additional one(s) can be included in a later stage.
We will upload the accepted manuscript version of your article to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). Note
that the uploaded article version corresponds to the final manuscript after peer-review and thus, does not include any
corrections you will carry out at a later stage (e.g. during proofing).
Once your article is uploaded, you will receive email notification from NIHMS, asking you for approval of the upload to
PubMed Central. When you have approved the upload, a web version of the article will be created by PubMed Central.
Upon your approval of the web version, the PMCID will be created and can be found in the NIHMS. As soon as the article is
displayed at PubMed Central, you will be able to find the PMCID by searching for your article.
If authors are not sure if they notified Springer of their NIH funding, they can fill out a form here:
www.springer.com/nihauthors
Bottom Line: Springer will take care of the initial depositing of the article in the NIHMS, assuming you let them
know you are an NIH-funded author at time of submission. However, the author will then receive email
notification from the NIHMS system, letting them know they need to log in and approve the article Springer
submitted.
http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-406074.html
NIH mandate
Wiley supports its authors by posting the accepted version of articles by NIH grant-holders to PubMed Central upon
acceptance by the journal. The accepted version is the version that incorporates all amendments made during peer review,
but prior to the publisher's copyediting and stylistic edits, online and print formatting, citation and other linking, deposit in
abstracting and indexing services to enable high-level discovery, and the addition of bibliographic and other metadata. This
accepted version will be made publicly available 12 months after publication. The NIH mandate applies to all articles based
on research that has been wholly or partially funded by the NIH and that are accepted for publication on or after April 7,
2008.
NIH authors should be aware that they will receive an e-mail request once Wiley has posted the files of their accepted
manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission system to approve the upload for display on the PubMed Central system.
This is a requirement of their grant/affiliation.
The societies for which Wiley publishes may decide on a different policy. Wiley will continue to brief societies on any
discussions held with the NIH regarding the processing of the articles, appropriate acknowledgements with citation and
linking to the final published version on the publisher's site, and clear licensing terms and conditions for the use of material
protected by copyright.
Bottom Line: Wiley will take care of the initial depositing of the article in the NIHMS, assuming you let them
know you are an NIH-funded author at time of submission. However, the author will then receive email
notification from the NIHMS system, letting them know they need to log in and approve the article Springer
submitted.
4. If your article if not compliant, contact your Journal/Publisher
a. IF your journal/publisher should have taken care of it, email them to confirm where your article
is in the process. Examples of emails to send here:
http://library.medicine.iu.edu/files/2213/8237/3344/Appendix_A.docx
b. IF it’s unclear, email your journal/publisher and ask them what their stance is on the NIH Public
Access Policy.
c. Contact me (Beth Whipple, ewhipple@iu.edu 317.278.6179) if you have any questions/issues on
how to proceed.
Updated 25 NOV 2014
Beth Whipple, MLS, AHIP
Research Informationist/Associate Librarian
Ruth Lilly Medical Library
Indiana University School of Medicine