The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy became effective April 7, 2008. Under federal law, NIH now requires that the author’s final version of any peer-reviewed journal article resulting from NIH-funded activities must be submitted to the PubMed Central (PMC) repository, where it will be made available to the public within 12 months after the journal article is published. This new policy has several compliance issues that Duke authors need to address.

Update (March 12, 2009): President Obama has signed into law the 2009 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes a provision making the NIH Public Access Policy permanent. Read more ...

NIH Publication Policy

This is a copy of the letter sent to NIH-funded Duke researchers and authors outlining the new policy.

Copyright

Duke authors must ensure that agreements with publishers permit the submission of the author’s manuscript to NIH.

• Submit this letter with your manuscript alerting the publisher to the fact that the manuscript is subject to the NIH policy and Duke University expects them to comply with the policy.
• There is also suggested wording that you can add to a publisher’s agreement to ensure that you can fulfill the NIH policy.
• You can review your contract language with Duke’s Scholarly Communications Officer, Kevin L. Smith (919-668-4451).
• Check the SHERPA RoMEO database for a summary of permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement.
• The Medical Center Library & Archives will provide links to publishers’ policies in the future.

Submission of Your Manuscript

For peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008, Duke authors must submit the final version of the peer-reviewed manuscript, and accompanying files, to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS).

• The NIMHS system is very easy to use.
• Submission can be done by the Principal Investigator or author or a third party in their lab or department.
• Some publishers will submit the final publisher version for authors. See list
• The Medical Center Library is working on a list of other publishers’ policies.

Some publishers are charging fees to do this for you. In those instances you can avoid paying the fee by submitting the manuscript to PubMed Central yourself. The NIH submission process is simple and easy. Paying the publisher is NOT necessary.

Citing PubMed Central (PMC) ID Numbers

When your manuscript is submitted to NIH, you will receive a NIHMS ID number, and once it is available in PubMed Central, it will be assigned a PMC ID number.

Effective May 25, 2008, you will need to cite the PMC ID or NIHMS ID numbers for your articles that you cite in your progress reports, new applications, and renewals. These are only needed for articles accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008, but you may include PMC ID numbers for articles already in PubMed Central as well.

PMC ID numbers can be found in PubMed and in PubMed Central. The PMC ID number begins with PMC and appears in the lower left of the PubMed citation in the Abstract display option.

NIHMS ID numbers can also be found in PubMed Central and in PubMed in the MID (Manuscript ID) field when viewing the citation in the MEDLINE display format.

The Medical Center Library can help you find these numbers, if you need assistance.

If you publish through a journal in the list of Journals That Submit Articles To PubMed Central, you may indicate "PMC Journal - In Process" until the PMCID is available. There might be a slight delay in assignment of a PMCID even for those publishers working with NIH. By using this phrase, you are letting the NIH program officer know that your article will be in compliance with the new policy.

Finding PubMed Central (PMC) ID Numbers

• National Library of Medicine: Technical Bulletin

• PubMed and PMC ID Citations

• NIHMS ID Number in PubMed

Policy Applications

Applies to "All Investigators Funded by NIH"

Directly or indirectly resulting from NIH funded research or contract
Supported whole or in part with direct costs

Research grant and cooperative agreements
Contracts
Career development awards
All Kirschstein National Research Service awards
Intramural grants
If NIH pays your salary

Original primary research

Applies to "All Final Peer-Reviewed Articles"

Electronic version of manuscript
With all the edit made during peer review
But NOT the final published version with copy editing, stylistic changes and editing
Use of the final PUBLISHED version requires permission from the publisher

Do not download the PDF from the journal site unless you have permission

Submit whether or not it is indexed in MEDLINE/PUBMED

Does NOT apply to:

Books
Book chapters
Editorials or correspondence
Non peer-reviewed articles
Articles in trade magazines
Abstracts or proceedings
Multimedia or other type of publications

Results of Non-Compliance

What will happen if you do not comply?

“Compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy is not a factor in the scientific and technical merit evaluation of grant applications. Non-compliance will be addressed administratively, and may delay or prevent awarding of funds.”

From the NIH Public Access Policy FAQ: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#b9