NIH requires that the peer-reviewed articles it funds be made publicly available on PubMed Central (PMC). The NIH Public Access Policy requires authors to submit the final peer-reviewed manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to PMC upon acceptance. Papers must be accessible on PMC no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. It is important to plan the method that your articles will be entered into PMC. This method will change depending on the journal publishing the article.

There are 4 ways that articles can be added to PMC:

• Method A: Publish in a journal that deposits all NIH-funded final published articles in PMC without author involvement. Search for Method A journals.
• Method B: Make arrangements to have a publisher deposit a specific final published article in PMC. List of Method B journals (note that deposit does not happen automatically for every NIH-funded paper: this option must be chosen by the author)
• Method C: Deposit the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PMC yourself via the NIHMS.
• Method D: Complete the submission process for a final peer-reviewed manuscript that the publisher has deposited via the NIHMS.

Method C and D Journals

These journals require steps on behalf of the publisher (Method D) or author (Method C) to deposit the manuscript into the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). Read more about the steps required (guide from UCSF Library).

Non-Compliance

If your article is non-compliant, i.e. does not have a PMCID, the authors or PI will need to address the compliance issue:

• Determine the article’s submission status by checking the citation on the PI's NCBI My Bibliography to if it has been submitted to the NIHMS. Articles without an NIHMSID number in the Public Access Compliance field of the citation may not have been submitted. Check NIHMS to see if and where the paper is in the submission process
  • If an article has not been submitted, the PI may want to reach out to the publisher to submit on the author's behalf. If not, the PI or author must submit a copy of the accepted version of the paper along with all figures, tables, and supplementary information through the NIHMS.
• To submit a manuscript to NIHMS, follow the steps on this guide provided by MD Anderson's Research Medical Library

Additional assistance is available to UVA Health System faculty, staff, and students. Just Ask Us - we are happy to provide help via email, Zoom, phone, or in-person.