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 arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central (PMC) upon acceptance for publication.  To help advance science and improve human health, the Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PMC no later than 12 months after publication.

Overview of NIH Public Access Policy (video) from UCD Publishing Symposium, October 2017 

The NIH Public Access Policy Does NOT Apply to the Following:

• Books or Book Chapters
• Editorials
• Articles accepted for publication BEFORE April 7, 2008
• Articles resulting from work funded by sources other than NIH
• Other materials that are NOT peer-reviewed

• PubMed Central (PMC)
• PMCID-PMID Converter
• NIH Public Access: Determine Applicability

Submission Methods Overview

Authors (or someone they delegate) can submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript (not the final published version) to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS).  Submitting to NIHMS is the only way an author can submit manuscripts to be added into PMC, if the journal publisher doesn’t deposit it for them.

NIHMS provides a number of great tutorials and and FAQ page to help you get started using the system.

Have you addressed copyright?

Related Resources 

PMCID

• PubMed
• PubMed Central (PMC)
• PMIC : PMCID Converter

Screenshot of a record in the PubMed database (note the PubMed logo in the top left corner).

Screenshot of an article in the PubMed Central database (note the PubMed Central (PMC) logo in the top left corner).

Complying with NIH Public Access Policy

• How to create a My NCBI account 
• How to link a My NCBI account to an eRA Commons account
• How to add citations to your My Bibliography
• How to make someone a Delegate for your My Bibliography
• How to update the compliance status of a citation 
• How to submit articles using the NIHMS System
• How to approve NIHMS submissions
• How to claim an NIHMS record
• Answers to common questions
• Who to contact for help

The diagram below depicts the overall process involved in the NIH Public Access Policy.  It illustrates what systems are involved and the interactions between those systems.  The steps a PI/author needs to take are illustrated, with those that are typically problematic highlighted in red.

Checklist for Authors
Offers recommended steps related to the NIH Public Access Policy for authors to take from prior to article submission to after publication. Created by the UC Davis CTSC.

Steps for Retroactive Compliance of Works Under the NIH Public Access Policy (with hyperlinks)
Provides guidance for anyone who is working to bring published articles into compliance. Includes hyperlinks to relevant tools and information. Adapted by UC Davis library, based on a document by Cathy Sarli at Becker Library, with permission.

Submission Methods and Documenting Compliance (with hyperlinks)
Provides a chart of the four different paths for article submission into PMC. Includes hyperlinks to further guidance and tools. Adapted by the UC Davis CTSC from Cathy Sarli at Becker Library, with permission.

Cite-Submit-Share Sample
This handout was created by the UC Davis CTSC to guide authors who use their services about how to cite their grant.

University of California Publisher Letter
For research based on NIH funding, this letter may accompany manuscripts at time of submission to publishers.

Overview of NIH Public Access Policy (video)
A videorecording of a presentation on the NIH Public Access Policy from the UCD Publishing Symposium that took place on the UC Davis Health campus in October 2017.

My NCBI is a tool that offers many useful features, including:

• Saving PubMed searches. (and automatically have search results sent to you).
• Saving Collections of citations found in PubMed.
• Customization of the filters and results display in PubMed.

Most importantly for anyone awarded NIH funding, My NCBI has a tool named My Bibliography. My Bibliography, allows you to save your citations either directly from PubMed or by manually entering them.  Once citations are in My Bibliography you can easily:

• See whether your publications comply with the NIH Public Access Policy
• Start the compliance process for journal articles
• Associate your publications to awards

Principal Investigators and PD’s must use My NCBI’s “My Bibliography” tool to manage their professional bibliographies (as of July 23, 2010, see the full notice here).

If you already

If you do not have a My NCBI Account, you will need to create one.

If you already have a My NCBI Account, you need to link your account to your eRA Commons account.

• Log into My NCBI
• Click on your login name in the top right.
• Then click on the ‘Change’ button for ‘Linked Accounts’.

If you receive an error message when trying to link accounts you may have linked too many accounts already.  You will need to contact NCBI directly to have them manually link your eRA Commons account with your current My NCBI account.

NCBI Email Help

Include in your email the following:

• MyNCBI username
• eRA Commons username
• Email address

Note you do not need to send any passwords.

How To Add Citations to My Bibliography

Sign into My NCBI.

Search PubMed to find articles you want to add.

1. • Try using PubMed’s Single Citation Matcher. Type in the author name and then click search.

Use the ‘Delegate’ feature to share the work with others in your lab, assistants, or with librarians.

1. From My Bibliography, click on ‘Edit settings’ for My Bibliography.

2. At the bottom of the page click on the link to ‘Add a Delegate’

If you have been assigned to be a delegate for someone’s My Bibliography and that person has already added you as a delegate in their account you can follow the steps below to confirm.

1. Sign into your My NCBI account.
   • If you don’t have an account follow the instructions to create a new My NCBI account.
2. Respond to the confirmation email you received from My NCBI by clicking on the included URL.
3. When prompted, click on the ‘Confirm Connection button.

Detailed instructions for Managing Compliance to the NIH Public Access Policy are provided by NIH.

Sections include:

• Checking your Publications Compliance Status
• Initiating the Compliance Process
• Associating NIH Awards to your Publications
• Filtering your Citations by Publication Year, Awards and Publication Type

My Bibliography Delegates

•  At the bottom of the page click on the link to ‘Add Delegate’

•  Enter the email of the person you want to add as a delegate and click the ‘Add Delegate’ button.

Manage Compliance Through My Bibliography

After adding your citations to your My Bibliography and linking your eRA Commons account, set the Display Settings to the Award View as shown below.

An article can have one of the following statuses.

You should assign the correct awards to each citation in your My Bibliography.

• The “My awards” provides the list of awards associated with the PI’s eRA Commons profile.
• —The “Other awards” section displays those awards that are not associated with the PI’s eRA Commons profile, but have been linked to citations in the My Bibliography collection.

Need Publisher Permission?

• Publisher Permission Email Template

NIHMS login page (and Sign-In Help)

Logging in to NIHMS (may use My NCBI account for third-party login)

Example following using eRA Commons account (may use My NCBI account for third-party login).

NOTE: List ALL NIH Funding that supported the manuscript.

NIHMS Approvals

• NCBI Help Email
• NCBI/PubMed Help Desk form
• 1-888-346-3656

eRA Commons

Toll-free: 866-504-9552
Phone: 301-402-7469
Password help: 301-402-7469

NIHMS

• NIHMS Help Email
• Help Desk Report Form

For NIHMS login problems, contact eRA Commons.

UC Davis Library

Q. The journal I published in is listed as a Method D publisher, but it has been 3 months since it was accepted and My Bibliography is telling me it is not compliant (there is no NIHMS or PMC ID number).

A. No matter what method the journal is listed as it is ultimately the author/PI’s responsibility to ensure the article is submitted to PMC.  If the journal/publisher has not submitted the article after 3 months following acceptance for publication, contact them and ask why they haven’t.  In the meantime, go ahead and submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript to the NIHMS System (instructions).  If the publisher does so later, it will over-ride your submission, but this will ensure you are in compliance.

Q. I need to submit to the NIHMS system, but I can’t find the final peer-reviewed manuscript?  Can’t I just download the pdf copy from the journals website and submit that?

A.  Unfortunately, that would be against copyright law.  If you are unable to find the final version of the manuscript (with peer-reviewed edits but not the final copy-editing formats), and none of your co-authors have a copy either, we recommend that you contact the publisher and explain your problem.  They may be able to supply a copy that you could use.

Q. I am the PI for a large teaching grant and am not an author on many of the publications that result from that funding.  Do I need to include all of those citations and ensure they are compliant?

A. Yes.  As the PI you are responsible for ensuring all articles that are directly funded from that grant are compliant, whether or not you are an author.

Q.  One of my articles has a NIHMS ID number but has never been added into PMC and is past the 3 month deadline for needing a PMCID number.  What is wrong and how can I fix it?

A. This is probably happening because whoever was entered into the NIHMS System as the reviewer has not responded to a request to review and approve the submission.  When publishers or delegates submit manuscripts to the NIHMS system they will select an author of PI to receive emails asking for approval of what was submitted.  If that person does not receive the email and follow the steps to approve the submission it will never make it into PMC.  Check with the PI or your co-authors to see if anyone received any message from NIHMS.  Finally, you can request that the responsibility be transferred to you.

Q. I have an article that was published in 2008 that is listed as being non-compliant.  Would it not fall under the Policy because it is from 2008?  Do I need to do anything?

A.  For any article published since 2008 that has been linked to NIH funding, you will need to take some action.  For articles published in 2008 it is possible that they were accepted for publication prior to the April 7th date and therefore do not fall under the policy.  However, you need to check to confirm the acceptance date; if it does not fall under the policy, you will need to use My Bibliography to edit the status of the citation to notify NIH of the reason why the article does not need to be compliant.  See these detailed instructions on how to find acceptance dates and to update the status of a citation.