Determine Applicability
Does the NIH Public Access Policy apply to your paper?

Address Copyright
Ensure your publishing agreement allows the paper to be posted to PubMed Central in accordance with the NIH Public Access Policy.

Submit Paper
Submit papers to PubMed Central and approve public release.

Include PMCID in Citations
Include the PMCID at the end of the full citation in your application or report.

A PMID is the identifying number assigned to articles in PubMed, which is an index of abstracts. A PMCID is the identifying number assigned to articles in PubMedCentral, which is an index of full text articles. All peer-reviewed articles supported by NIH funding need to be available in PubMedCentral within 12 months of publication, per the Public Access Policy. Having a PMCID shows that your article is in compliance, and you may need it for grant reporting.

NIH requires that the peer-reviewed articles it funds be made publicly available on PubMed Central (PMC). The NIH Public Access Policy requires submission of the final peer-reviewed manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to PMC upon acceptance.

Your article may be non-compliant for several reasons. Typically, the article itself is not in PMC. Other times, there may need to be a correction or clarification about the award associated with the article. Follow the steps below to work through your compliance issues.

1) Check the path your article should take to compliance.

There are four Methods to get your NIH funded article into PubMed Central (PMC).  

Method A - Many journals will submit to PMC for you. Check your acceptance letter or refer to this list from NIH to determine your journal's method.

If your article is not Method A, choose the correct Method below:

• Method B: Method B journals (see List of Method B journals) make arrangements to have a publisher deposit a specific final published article in PMC, this usually involves choosing the journal’s fee-based open access option for publishing that article. If you have chosen Method B and your article does not appear in PMC, contact your publisher.
• Method C: Method C journals do not submit your article to PMC for you. You must deposit the final peer-reviewed manuscript (NOT the publisher PDF) in PMC yourself via the NIHMS. There is no list of Method C journals or publishers; make this decision by ruling out the other three options. See below for instructions.
• Method D: Method D journals include those whose publishers have volunteered to deposit a final peer-reviewed manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission System when they determine that it falls under the NIH Public Access Policy. See a list of Method D publishers.

2) Instructions for Method C Journals 

These journals require steps on behalf of the author to deposit the manuscript into the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS).

• Gather the files you need, including the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) - you'll deposit this and NOT the publisher's PDF. Can't find your AAM? Refer to this guide for authors on how to obtain an Author Accepted Manuscript from a publisher's journal submission system, where the AAM is stored during the publishing process.
  • Note that the AAM must include a complete title page containing the title, author name(s) and affiliation(s), and corresponding author contact information.
  • Remember to also gather any figures, tables, and other files (e.g. supplemental files).
• Follow the steps in this Tutorial to upload your files to NIHMS.

Below are selected biomedical publishers with links to their public access pages. This may help when reaching out to these publishers for Method D deposit.

BMJ

Elsevier

Lippincott

Springer Nature

Wiley

Other General Tips for Managing Compliance

Add Citations to My Bibliography

• Add and Manage Citations to My Bibliography
• Authorize a Delegate to work with My Bibliography

Manage Compliance

• Manage Compliance
• Public Access FAQs
• NIH Manuscript Submission System
• NIHMS System Tutorials

Associate Awards with Citations

• Associate Awards with Citations

If you need assistance determining the Public Access compliance status for your articles or understanding the deposit method for your journal, please contact us