NIH Public Access Policy: Public Access Policy

This guide contains the following sections:

Public Access Policy

Journals and NIH Policy

How to Submit

My Bibliography

PMCIDs in Bibliographies

SciENcv

This research guide is based on a guide by Denise Hersey at Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act would require that U.S. government departments and agencies with annual extramural research expenditures of over $100 million make manuscripts of journal articles stemming from research funded by that agency publicly available over the Internet. The manuscripts will be preserved in a digital archive maintained by that agency or in another suitable repository that permits free public access, interoperability, and long-term preservation. The House version requires each manuscript be available to users without charge within six months after it has been published in a peer-reviewed journal, while the Senate version allows up to a twelve-month embargo.

• Notes on the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act -- part of the Harvard Open Access Project .
• SPARC's FASTR resources .

This presentation clarifies the NIH Public Access Policy, offering guidance on ensuring that your manuscripts are available to the public within the guidelines of the policy, and that your grant funding continues without interruption.

 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 final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that result from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication. To help advance science and improve human health, the policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication.

NIH will delay processing of non-competing continuation grant awards if publications arising from it are not in compliance with the policy.

How to Comply

All of your papers that fall under the NIH Public Access Policy, whether in press or in print, must include evidence of compliance in all of your NIH applications and reports.

1. Determine Applicability
   Does the NIH Public Access Policy apply to your paper?
    
2. Address Copyright
   Ensure that your publishing agreement allows the paper to be posted to PubMed Central in accordance with the NIH Public Access Policy.
    
3. Submit Paper
   Submit papers to PubMed Central and approve public release.
    
4. Include PMCID in Citations 
   Include the PMCID at the end of the full citation in your application or report. You do not need to find PMCIDs for all articles in an NIH grant application, proposal or progress report. You only need to include the PMCID when citing applicable papers that you author or that arise from your NIH-funded research.

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