Compliance

Address copyright

Authors are responsible for ensuring that any copyright transfer or other publication agreement allows the article to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the Policy. Authors must retain sufficient rights to grant NIH a license to make their work publicly available in PubMed Central.

Submit article

Authors may submit an article to the journal of their choice for publication. Upon acceptance for publication, authors or someone acting on their behalf must submit the article using the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system. See the Submission Process for more information.

• If authors choose to publish in journals that have partnered with PubMed Central, these journals will submit articles on the authors’ behalf in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy (i.e., within 12 months of publication). Partner journals that will submit final published articles for free.

• Some journals and publisher programs will submit final published articles or peer-reviewed manuscripts to PubMed Central on behalf of authors and grant more liberal redistribution and reuse rights than normally accompany a copyrighted work. In some cases there is a fee for this service. Details are available at PMC Open Access Subset. Scroll down the page to see the list of publisher programs. Currently Blackwell Online Open, Elsevier Sponsored Documents and Springer Open Choice offer and charge a fee for this service.
• In both of the above cases, after the publisher submits an article, the author or the Principal Investigator (PI) on the project will receive 2 email messages from NIHMS:
  • A request to approve the PDF version that was submitted (to ensure that the correct file was submitted). After the PDF is approved, it will be converted to an XML format for use in PubMed Central.
  • A request to approve the web (XML) version that will be made available in PubMed Central.  
  • NOTE Some journals will submit final published articles for authors, but not make them publicly available within 12 months of publication; such submissions do not comply with the NIH Public Access Policy. The author or a designated third party must therefore submit a copy of the final peer-reviewed manuscript. (See below.) Authors are strongly encouraged to communicate clearly with the publisher to understand exactly what the publisher will or will not do on their behalf.

For all other journals, the author must:

1. Inform the journal publisher that the article is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy when submitting it for publication. This can be accomplished with a cover letter submitted along with the copyright transfer or publication agreement. Sample cover letter
2. Make sure that any copyright transfer or other publication agreement allows the article to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the Policy. This can be accomplished with an author’s addendum attached to the publisher’s agreement. Generate appropriate addendum here
3. Upon acceptance for publication, see that the final peer-reviewed manuscript of the article is submitted using the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system. Authors may self-submit their manuscripts or authorize a third-party to submit manuscripts on their behalf. See the Submission Process for more information.
4. Approve the submission.

If the author submits the manuscript, the author or the Principal Investigator on the project will receive 1 email message from NIHMS requesting approval of the web (XML) version.

If a third party submits the manuscript, the author or Principal Investigator will receive 2 email messages from NIHMS:

1. A request to approve the PDF version that was submitted (to ensure that the correct file was submitted) and to indicate the release date when the article should be made publicly available in PubMed Central. After the PDF is approved, it will be converted to an XML format for use in PubMed Central.
2. A request to approve the web (XML) version that will be made available in PubMed Central.