PMC Deposit and Access Policies

Retractions

PMC will not remove articles from its archive. However, in the event that a publisher discovers a serious problem with an article that exceeds the need for a simple correction or erratum notice, such as in cases of scientific misconduct, plagiarism, pervasive error or unsubstantiated data, then the journal must publish a notice of retraction. This notice should clearly specify the reason that the article is invalid. Please note that this policy is consistent with the standard practice of most scientific and scholarly journals, as well as with NLM's MEDLINE policy on retractions.

In PMC, a retracted article is marked boldly and includes a link to the retraction notice, as in this example. To create this link, the XML source for the retraction should be tagged with structured citation information about the retracted article in order to link it to the retraction notice. For an example of how the XML files should be coded, please see the PMC Tagging Guidelines.

Sponsored Supplements

The PMC policy on sponsored supplements is similar to the MEDLINE policy defined in the NLM Fact Sheet: Conflict of Interest Disclosure and Journal Supplements in MEDLINE.

The policy applies to journal supplements in PMC that involve any commercial sponsorship of the published research or the publication itself. In such cases, every article must include a statement clearly indicating any conflict of interest or potential influence that the commercial institution may have had on the reported findings and conclusions contained therein.

Examples of sponsored supplements to which the PMC policy applies:

• A special issue sponsored in its entirety by an outside for-profit organization
• A special section or group of articles whose authors have financial ties to a sponsoring for-profit organization
• Reports from a conference sponsored by an outside for-profit organization
• An issue or group of articles devoted to a special topic related to a proprietary product.

PMC mandates that the disclosure of conflicts of interest on the part of authors and editors must appear on each article. This statement must include the role of the sponsoring organization and any financial relationships with respect to the sponsoring group or its commercial products. The disclosure statements must appear within the article, as opposed to a blanket disclosure appearing elsewhere in the issue.

Specifically, for supplements submitted to PMC:

• Where ALL articles are authored by employees of a commercial sponsor, the content will not be posted in the archive
• Where the supplement has ANY commercial sponsorship, the role of the sponsor and the relationships of the authors to the sponsor are required on each article. Where no relationship exists, that should be explicitly stated on each article as well.
• For supplements with NO outside support, each article should specifically state that the authors have nothing to disclose.

For information on XML coding of these supplements, see submission of sponsored supplements .

Guidelines for Depositing and Providing Access to Full Text

In June 2003, the PMC National Advisory Committee affirmed the policy that journals joining PMC must make the full text of their deposited content viewable in PMC, and endorsed the following participation guidelines:

• Journals are encouraged to deposit the complete contents of each issue, not just research papers or other selected parts, in the PMC archive.
• Journals are encouraged to provide this content to PMC as close to publication as possible, regardless of when they allow it to be publicly accessible, as this makes it easier for them to correct errors detected in the journal's files during PMC's data review process.
• Journals are encouraged to allow their primary research articles to be viewable in PMC as early as possible but generally less than one year from publication date.
• Journals are encouraged to allow all other journal content (e.g. letters, reviews, etc.) to be viewable in PMC as early as possible but generally less than three years from publication date.

PubMed-Only Submissions

For any non-Medline journal, only PMC can submit the journal's citations to PubMed. PMC may make an exception to this rule if a journal has no embargo.