All NIH authors must adhere to NIH clearance, public access, and copyright policies and procedures before submitting their scientific manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. These policies and procedures are detailed below, along with answers to frequently asked questions.
1. Obtain Scientific Clearance
Clearance from your Branch/Lab Chief (or your assigned CCR Deputy Director) is required prior to submission of any scientific manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The clearance steps are listed below.
2. Comply with the NIH Copyright Policy
You must do the following for every manuscript that you submit to a journal:
3. Comply with the NIH Public Access Policy
All NIH employees must comply with the NIH Public Access Policy:
As of April 7, 2008, all NIH investigators (intramural and extramural) are required by law to submit, upon acceptance for publication, all final, peer-reviewed manuscripts to PubMed Central (PMC).
The NIH Public Access Policy applies to all peer-reviewed articles that you author or co-author as part of your official NIH duties.
4. Deposit Your Paper in the PubMed Central (PMC) Archives
All NIH manuscripts submitted to peer-reviewed journals must be deposited in PubMed Central (PMC), a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine.
Depending on the journal publisher, the NIH author:
There 4 methods for depositing a paper. The method depends on the agreement (or lack thereof) that the NIH (or the NIH author) has with the journal publisher. The links shown below are from the NIH Public Access Web site and will give you specific information on each method.
Method A – These journals make the final published version of all NIH-funded articles available in PubMed Central (PMC) no later than 12 months after publication without author involvement.
Method B – The NIH Author asks the publisher to deposit a specific final published article in PMC, usually for a fee.
Method C – The NIH Author deposits the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PMC himself via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS).
Method D – Publisher deposits the final peer-reviewed manuscript into NIHMS. The NIH Author must complete all remaining steps in the NIHMS in order for the submission to be accepted
5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
To what types of papers does the NIH Public Access Policy apply?
What type of publication is EXEMPT from the NIH Public Access Policy?
How important is the PMCID number?
How do I ensure that all of my peer-reviewed papers get deposited in PubMed Central?
Can someone assist me in submitting my peer-reviewed manuscripts to NIHMS/PMC?
Can I submit the final, published version (i.e., PDF of print article) of my paper to NIHMS?
Who can I contact if I have additional questions?
To what types of papers does the NIH Public Access Policy apply?
The Policy applies to any manuscript that:
Until further notice, papers written in scripts other than Latin (e.g., Russian, Japanese) cannot be processed by the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). These papers are not required to be posted on PubMed Central and do not require evidence of compliance on applications, proposals or reports. The NIHMS continues to process papers written in Latin (Roman) script that contain characters and fonts used in standard mathematical notation.
Authors may submit final peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted before April 7, 2008 that arise from NIH funds, if they have appropriate copyright permission.
1"Directly" funded means costs that can be specifically identified with a particular project or activity. See NIH Grants Policy Statement, Rev. 12/2003.
Applications, Proposals and Reports must include evidence of compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy for all applicable papers that are authored by the Principal Investigator (PI) or arose from the PI’s NIH funds.
What type of publication is EXEMPT from the NIH Public Access Policy?
Any publication that is not peer-reviewed. Examples may include:
If the review article was peer-reviewed, then it should be submitted to PubMed Central (PMC). If the review article was not peer-reviewed, then it is EXEMPT.
PubMed is an index of Abstracts; PubMed Central (PMCI is an archive of Full-Text Papers.
The PubMed ID (PMID) links to a PubMed abstract; the PMID has nothing to do with the NIH Public Access Policy.
The PubMed Central ID (PMCID) links to a full-text paper in the PMC archives. When you see a PMCID number at the bottom of an abstract (see example below, PMCID is underlined in red), it means that the full-text paper is available in PMC and the NIH author(s) of that paper are in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.
How important is the PMCID number?
If you cite one of your articles in a request for competitive funding (i.e., an extramural grant) from the NIH, you must include its PMCID number. An exception will be made only if the article was accepted for publication prior to April 7, 2008.
How do I ensure that all of my peer-reviewed papers get deposited in PubMed Central?
There are 4 methods for depositing a paper (see below). The submission method will depend on the policy of the individual journal publisher. You may not have to do anything at all, you may just need to review/approve the reformatted paper, or you may need to submit the manuscript and any corresponding files yourself.
Method A – These journals make the final published version of all NIH-funded articles available in PubMed Central (PMC) no later than 12 months after publication without author involvement.
Method B – The NIH Author asks the publisher to deposit a specific final published article in PMC, usually for a fee.
Method C – The NIH Author deposits the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PMC him/herself via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS).
Method D – Publisher deposits the final peer-reviewed manuscript into NIHMS. The NIH Author must complete all remaining steps in the NIHMS in order for the submission to be accepted.
Yes, unless that journal has an agreement with NIH to deposit its papers in PMC. Not all open-access journals have agreements with PMC. Check this list to see which journals do.
Can someone assist me in submitting my peer-reviewed manuscripts to NIHMS/PMC?
Yes, you can designate anyone in your lab (secretary, postdoc, technician) to submit the manuscript (Word/WordPerfect/PDF) and any corresponding files to NIHMS on your behalf. After all of files have been uploaded successfully, the designee will receive a PDF receipt. At some point, you will receive an e-mail notification from NIHMS requesting that YOU login to NIHMS to review/approve the reformatted (i.e., Web) version of your paper and set a date for its release to PubMed Central.
Can I submit the final, published version (i.e., PDF of print article) of my paper to NIHMS?
Yes, you can if you have the publisher’s permission to do so; otherwise you may be violating the journal publisher’s copyright, which applies to the final print (i.e., PDF) version of the article.
Who can I contact if I have additional questions?
The PMC Coordinator for CCR is Sue Fox (foxs@mail.nih.gov), Tel: 301-846-1923.
Questions about specific copyright agreement s should be directed to your NCI Technology Transfer Specialist.
Helpful Links
Forms:
NIH Publication and Abstract Clearance Form
NIH Publishing Agreement & Manuscript Cover Sheet
NIH Public Access Policy:
PubMed Central (PMC) Deposit:
Method A – List of journals that submit directly to PMC
Method B – List of publishers that will deposit a specific article
Method C – Deposit the manuscript in PMC yourself
Method D – List of publishers that make the initial submission with author follow-up
NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS):
NIHMS Login page (NIH intramural investigators should select the “NIH & eRA Commons” route)
NIHMS Tutorial (slide show)
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