Office of General Counsel News!

Overview

The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit journal articles that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/. The Policy requires that these articles be accessible to the public on PubMed Central to help advance science and improve human health.

Important Dates

• April 7, 2008

As of April 7, 2008, all articles arising from NIH funds must be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.

• May 25, 2008

As of May 25, 2008, NIH applications, proposals, and progress reports must include the PubMed Central reference number when citing an article that falls under the policy and is authored or co-authored by the investigator, or arose from the investigator’s NIH award. This policy includes applications submitted to the NIH for the May 25, 2008 due date and subsequent due dates.

How to Comply

Make sure that any copyright transfer or other publication agreements allow the article to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the Policy.

Authors may submit an article to the journal of their choice for publication.

1. if you choose to publish your article in certain journals, you need do nothing further to comply with the submission requirement of the Policy. See http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm for a list of these journals.
2. For any journal other than one of those in this list, the author must:
1. Inform the journal that the article is subject to the Public Access Policy when submitting it for publication.
2. Make sure that any copyright transfer or other publication agreement allows the article to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the Policy. For more information, see the FAQ Whose approval do I need to submit my article to PubMed Central? and consult with your Institution.
3. Submit the article to NIH, upon acceptance for publication. See the Submission Process for more information.

Cite Article

When citing their NIH-funded articles in NIH applications, proposals or progress reports, authors must include the PubMed Central reference number for each article.

The NIH Public Access Policy implements Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) which states:

SEC. 218. 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 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy

In order to assist NIH funded faculty in complying with the NIH Public Access Policy, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has developed both a cover letter for manuscript submission and an Author’s Addendum to publishers’ copyright transfer agreements. The cover letter helps authors explain the new NIH requirements to publishers. The Addendum provides a format for effectively changing the terms of publishers’ agreements to allow an author to retain sufficient rights under copyright law to provide the required public access rights to PubMed Central. Additional explanatory material on the SPARC forms can be found at http://www.arl.org/sparc/advocacy/nih/implementing-the-new-nih-.shtml.

Additional materials on compliance with the NIH requirements can be found at the UMBC Office of Sponsored Programs website www.umbc.edu/ospa. A brief NIH training presentation has been reproduced under the OGC Presentation link.

Flowcharts depicting the policy applicability and compliance processes are posted under the OGC presentation section.

PMCID Reference Number