NIH Public Access Policy

NIH Funded? Paper Accepted Recently?

Here's What You Need To Know...

A new policy requires all investigators funded by NIH to submit their paper to PubMed Central (PMC) AND the Ebling Library will HELP!

Contact Julie Schneider: jschneider at library.wisc.edu or by phone 263-5755

In order to comply with this federal mandate, I am prepared to assist you:

• Amend a copyright transfer agreement or utilize the campus copyright agreement addendum to allow for submission to PMC
• Submit a peer-reviewed manuscript to PubMed Central on behalf of the author/co-author
• Help locate PMCIDs for your citations in NIH applications, proposals, and progress reports
• Answer questions about the policy on a one-to-one basis or meet with groups or departments

Background

If you currently have an active NIH award or will receive one in the future it is important to comply with this policy as it 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. The NIH public access policy requires that all investigators funded by NIH submit a copy of their final peer-reviewed manuscript to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication. NIH has indicated that a failure to comply with this statutory requirement may delay a future grant or jeopardize future research funding.

The policy applies to you if your peer-reviewed article is based on research work directly funded (in whole or in part) by an NIH award or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 08 (October 1, 2007 - September 30, 2008) or beyond, or directly funded (in whole or in part) by a contract signed on or after April 7, 2008.

Key Dates

April 7, 2008: Articles accepted for publication on or after this date must be submitted in PubMed Central.

May 25, 2008: Beginning with 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 May 25, 2008 and subsequent due dates.

What do I have to do to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy?

1. Address Copyright. Before you sign a publication agreement or similar copyright transfer agreement, make sure that the agreement allows the article to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the Public Access Policy. As an example, the kind of language that an author might add to a copyright agreement includes the following:

"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."

2. Submit the article to NIH. This can be done in a number of ways:

a. You or someone in your organization (e.g., an assistant or the library) must submit a copy of the peer reviewed manuscript in the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system.

b. Your publisher may send the peer-reviewed manuscript files to the NIH Manuscript Submission system for you.

In both cases above, you still will have to verify and approve the manuscript personally via the NIH Manuscript Submission system, which will send you an email message requesting this action.

c. Some publishers have agreed to make the final published article of every NIH-funded article publicly available in PubMed Central within 12 months of publication. If you publish in one of those journals, you will need to do nothing. See a list of these journals.

3. Cite. As of May 25, 2008, when citing an article in NIH applications, proposals, and progress reports that falls under the Policy, and was authored or co-authored by you or arose from your NIH award, you must include the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID). This policy includes applications submitted to the NIH for the May 25, 2008 due date and subsequent due dates.