NIH Employee Procedures for Complying with NIH Public Access and Copyright Policy
As of April 7, 2008, all NIH employees must comply with the NIH Public Access Policy. Upon acceptance of any peer-reviewed paper by a journal, you must submit to PubMed Central (PMC). The Policy applies to all peer-reviewed articles that you author or co-author as part of your official NIH duties. You must do the following for every article:
- In your cover letter to the publisher when you submit the paper, attach a signed copy of the NIH Publishing Agreement & Manuscript Cover Sheet .
- Inform your co-authors that the manuscript must be submitted to a journal with your signed NIH Publishing Agreement & Manuscript Cover Sheet, and that you will submit the manuscript to PubMed Central (PMC) upon acceptance. Provide the signed NIH Publishing Agreement Cover Sheet to any co-authors who are submitting the manuscript.
- Submit the manuscript to a journal with the NIH Publishing Agreement & Manuscript Cover Sheet (or make sure that the corresponding author does this).
- If the journal rejects the NIH Publishing Agreement Cover Sheet or wants to change it, recall the manuscript and submit it to another journal or consult with your Technology Development Coordinator (TDC) about whether further negotiations are likely to be fruitful.
- You must not sign any Publisher’s Agreement received from the publisher, but instead attach the signed NIH Publishing Agreement & Manuscript Cover Sheet.
Submission to PubMed Central (PMC)
Publish in a journal that automatically deposits all NIH-funded published articles in PMC. See http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm.
OR
If you publish in any other journal, deposit the manuscript in PMC as soon as it is accepted for publication via the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system, as described at Public Access FAQs. You can then specify a delay in appearance in PMC up to 12 months from the date of publication.
Internal NIH Reporting
If you cite one of your articles in your Institute/Center’s (IC’s) Annual Report or for any IC review, such as a Board of Scientific Counselors review, or a request for competitive funding from the NIH, you must include its PMC ID. See
Public Access FAQs. (An exception will be made only if the article was
accepted for publication prior to April 7, 2008.)
Helpful Links:
NIH Public Access Home
NIH Employee Procedures
Public Access FAQs
NIH Publication Clearance Form
NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS)
Step-by-Step Directions for Submitting to PMC via the NIHMS
List of Journals That Submit Directly to PMC
Technology Development Coordinators