The NIH Public Access Policy is mandatory, and implements Division G, Title II, Section 218 of US Public Law 110-161, which 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 after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

The Public Access Policy ensures that published results of NIH-funded research are preserved and made publicly available on the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central database – a publicly accessible digital archive of full-text, peer-reviewed journal articles.

The Policy applies to any final manuscript that:

• is peer-reviewed;
• is accepted for publication in a journal on or after April 7, 2008;
• and, arises from any direct funding from:
  
  • an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008, or;
  • an NIH contract signed on or after April 7, 2008

The Policy does not apply to non-peer-reviewed materials such as correspondence, book chapters, and editorials.

Who is Responsible for Compliance with the Public Access Policy?

Institutions and Principal Investigators (PI’s) are responsible for compliance with the Policy. It is a key term and condition of NIH research funding. NOTE: If you are the PI of an NIH research grant, cooperative agreement, or contract, you are responsible for compliance with the Policy even if you are not an author or co-author of a publication that ensues from your funded research project.

How to Comply

Click on the links to view detailed guidance for each step in the process.

1.  Address Copyright :

Publication agreements must allow for full compliance with the policy.

• Before you sign a publication or copyright transfer agreement, make sure the agreement includes language that will permit your final, peer-reviewed manuscript to be posted to PubMed Central (PMC) via the NIHMS system upon acceptance for publication.
   
• Download and include the Feinstein  Dear Publisher letter  with your manuscript if the publisher’s policy does not specifically address or allow deposit. The Dear Publisher letter describes the policy and gives notice to publisher that, if accepted for publication; the paper will be required by law to be posted on PMC.

2.  Submit Manuscript: 

There are four methods for manuscript submission. Visit the  NIH Public Access Policy website  to determine the appropriate submission method for your manuscript.

1. Method A:  Journal deposits  final published articles in PubMed Central without author involvement
    
2. Method B:  Author asks publisher to deposit  specific final published article in PMC
    
3. Method C:  Author deposits  final peer-reviewed manuscript in PMC via the NIHMS
    
4. Method D:  Journal deposits  final peer-reviewed manuscript in NIHMS,  Author gives final approval  on the manuscript.

3. Cite Publications to Demonstrate and Confirm Compliance:

Confirmation of compliance is achieved when PubMed Central ID numbers (e.g., PMC123456) are included in the reference sections of progress reports, grant and cooperative agreement applications, and research contracts.

For more information:

 NIH Announcement (NOT-OD-08-119: 
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-119.html

 NIH Public Access Policy website: 
http://publicaccess.nih.gov

 NIH Public Access Policy FAQs :
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm

 NIH Public Access Tutorials: 
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/communications.htm

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

 PubMed Central: 
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov

 PubMed: 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed

 PMID : PMCID Converter 
Use this converter to obtain the corresponding
PMCIDs and/or NIHMS IDs, if they exist.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/pmctopmid