Time to Take Notice – Changes to the NIH Public Access Policy

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This month I have certainly seen a great many emails, tweets, and blog posts all focused on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy and their efforts to enhance compliance. The NIH recently released a new Notice that affects all NIH-funded researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and applies to awards they receive with anticipated start dates on or after July 1, 2013 (view:  NIH NOT-OD-13-042). Researchers need to know that these changes also impact those publications where they have used a core facility that is supported by NIH-funds.

This delay in processing of non-competing continuation grants will take effect in tandem with NIH requiring the use of the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPRs) for all Streamlined Non-competing Award Process (SNAP) and Fellowship awards. As the notice states, all NIH grant-related publications need to be deposited into PMC (formerly PubMed Central) within three months of the official publication date, otherwise they will be flagged as non-compliant and action will be taken.

WHAT MSK RESEARCHERS CAN DO TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE

While it is critical to obtain PMCID numbers  to demonstrate compliance, MSK researchers can help ensure compliance by also creating and using their My NCBI account (access this resource from PubMed – top right hand corner of screen).  My NCBI includes a tool called “My Bibliography,” where users can create and manage a list of all of their authored works, such as journal articles, manuscripts accepted for publication, books, and book chapters (additional info about My NCBI, click here). Linking an eRA Commons account to a new or existing My NCBI account allows bibliography information saved in My Bibliography to automatically appear in users’ Commons accounts.

To summarize the benefits — My NCBI allows you to:

  • Link your My NCBI account to your eRA Commons ID and password
  • Create and build a bibliography of grant related publications
  • Link publications to grants
  • Notify NIH when an article doesn’t fall under the policy
  • Submit your bibliography for your Research Performance Progress Report
  • Share your publications with others (e.g. your research colleagues,  PI)
  • Appoint a designee to help keep your citations current and in compliance

For details about this policy and additional resources, please visit the Library’s NIH Public Access Policy LibGuide.  In addition, Research & Technology Management (RTM) recently updated their guidelines and policy document. This document provides a summary of the NIH policy as well as what MSK researchers should know.

Should you have any questions or would like to have a customized presentation on the NIH Policy given to your department or group, feel free to contact me.  The Library collaborates with RTM to provide these presentations.

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services