NIH’s Public Access Policy - Frequently Asked Questions

This page is provided to inform and guide Memorial Sloan-Kettering authors about the National Institute of Health's Public Access Policy. For additional information or to submit a question, please contact Ask a Librarian.

• What is the NIH Public Access Policy?
• How do I comply?
• To what date ranges does the NIH Public Access Policy apply?
• Do I have to pay an Open Access fee in order to meet NIH compliance?
• What if I'm not an author on a paper from my NIH project?
• To what papers does this policy apply?
• What is the PMCID number?
• What if I need further assistance?
• What other information is available that would help me become better acquainted with the NIH Public Access Policy?

The NIH Public Access Policy implements Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) which states:

SEC. 218. The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

In order to advance science and improve human health, the NIH is committed to providing free online access to full-text, peer-reviewed journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires every scientist who receives an NIH research grant and publishes the results in a peer-reviewed journal to deposit a digital copy of the article in its digital archive, PubMed Central (PMC). In turn, the NIH will make these articles freely available within one year of publication.

For detailed information, see the NIH Public Access page.

Harold Varmus recommends that Memorial Sloan-Kettering authors embrace this policy by depositing your articles in PubMed Central and making them available immediately upon publication.

Here are several important MSK-specific documents about the NIH Public Access policy:

• MSK NIH Public Access Policy
• MSK Letter to Publishers
• MSK Additional Term
• MSKCC Non-Exclusive copyright Agreement (N-ECA)

The NIH recommends that authors ensure any publication agreements allow submission to PubMed Central. Many publishers handle the submission process as part of the editorial process; a full list of participating journal titles is available from the NIH. If you do not publish in one of the participating journals, please review the NIH Submission Process for more information.

NIH Intramural Investigators and NIH Extramural Investigators may log into NIHMS and deposit their papers. Extramural authors will use their eRA Commons password to submit their articles at this same page.

When citing NIH-funded articles in NIH applications, proposals or progress reports, authors must include the PubMed Central reference number for each article.

Even though MSKCC is an NIH/NCI funded institution, only those articles written as a direct result of an NIH grant are required to be submitted to PubMed Central.

Columbia University Libraries provides a handy flowchart of the steps necessary to ensure compliance with the NIH Mandate.

As of April 7, 2008, all articles arising from NIH funds must be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.

As of May 25, 2008, NIH applications, proposals, and progress reports must include the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) when citing an article that falls under the policy and is authored or co-authored by the investigator, or arose from the investigator's NIH award. This policy includes applications submitted to the NIH for May 25, 2008 due date and subsequent due dates.

As of August 21, 2009, the NIHMSID may be used to demonstrate compliance on NIH applications, proposals or reports, for up to three months after a paper is published.  Three or more months after publication, a PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) must be provided.  Only the PMCID signifies that all steps of the NIH Public Access submission process are complete and that the paper is ready for posting at PubMed Central.

Some commercial publishers (e.g., Springer) will offer to publish an article using an Open Choice or Open Access publishing option. An option like this from a commercial publisher involves a fee and will many times result in the publisher's PDF being submitted to PubMed Central. This is NOT the only way to be in compliance with the NIH mandate. Though there are many benefits to open access publishing, an offer like this may mislead authors to believe that they must pay a fee to be in compliance. In this situation, the authors can simply submit their final peer-reviewed manuscript themselves through the NIH Manuscript Submission System if they do not wish to pay the Open Access fee.

For articles that are accepted for publication, if the copyright transfer agreement does not specify that the author has the rights to submit the manuscript to PubMed Central, MSK authors should amend the agreement per MSK policy – see suggested wording below:

"The Journal acknowledges that the Author retains the right to provide a copy of the final manuscript to the NIH upon acceptance for publication, for public archiving in PubMed Central as soon as possible but no later than 12 months after publication by the Journal."

Library Staff or Research Resources Management are available to assist with amending the agreement.

Open Access Publishers (i.e., BioMed Central) operate on a business model which depends on an author's payment to publish an article. Many of these publishers routinely submit an article to PubMed Central on the author's behalf. More information is available on the Library’s Open Access Information page.

The NIH defines PMCID as "The PMCID is a unique reference number that is automatically assigned to every article that passes successfully through PMC’s production system. The PMCID is also used for citation purposes as part of the NIH Public Access policy."

The PMCID is important because as of May 25, 2008, you must cite the PMCID numbers for your articles accepted for publication after April 7, 2009 in your grant progress reports, new applications, and renewals.

NLM Bulletin on how to find the PMCID of an article.

If you know the PMID of an article, you can find the PMCID with the PMID to PMCID converter.

You can see the PMCID of embargoed articles in Abstract view in PubMed as well.

The NIH provides assistance for submission here. Library staff are available to answer questions and to assist with depositing articles. Please contact Donna Gibson or any member of the Library staff for assistance.

MSK Library staff recommend the following useful links and information:

• Lane Medical Library's NIH Public Access Policy guide
• Public Access and PubMed Central (info about PMCID)
• NIH Public Access Policy
• NIH Public Access FAQs
• ARL Guide to the NIH Public Access Policy
• Complying with the NIH Public Access Policy - Copyright Considerations and Options
• Open Access Information from MSKCC Library