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.

• What is the NIH Public Access Policy?
• How do I comply?
• 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 if I need further assistance?
• Other useful links and information

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.

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 If you do not publish in one of the participating journals, please review the NIH Submission Process for more information.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.

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 Services 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.

Principal Investigators and their Institutions are responsible for ensuring all terms and conditions of awards are met. This includes the submission of final peer-reviewed manuscripts that arise directly from their awards, even if they are not an author or co-author of the paper. Principal Investigators and their Institutions should ensure that authors are aware of and comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.

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.

Here are other useful links to information on this topic:

• 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