I often receive on a weekly basis, emails from the MSK Community asking for NIH compliance support. With the steady flow of requests, I wanted to take a moment to remind our MSK authors what they need to do for NIH-funded research papers and where the Library can help.

Once the paper’s applicability has been confirmed (does the published work fall under the NIH Public Access Policy?), the copyright agreement has been addressed (paper/manuscript can be posted to PMC (PubMed Central), and the submission method determined (A, B, C, or D), then there are only three remaining steps left to ensure NIH compliance is achieved, just remember — Acknowledge, Acquire and Associate!

ACKNOWLEDGE and CITE
When an author or his/her delegate is about to submit a research manuscript for acceptance to a journal publication, it is important to acknowledge and cite all relevant grants. This includes the MSK Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) which is awarded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Acknowledging and citing NIH-funding on the manuscript is critical as it highlights for those publishers who are Method A or D, that action is required by them on behalf of their NIH-authors.

ACQUIRE
To demonstrate NIH compliance, the paper needs to be assigned a PMCID number. Many MSK publications can be found in Submission Method A and Method D, which means that the publisher will handle the manuscript’s deposit. If the author or his/her delegate sees no action taken within three months of the print publication date, contact me so that I can investigate the reason for the delay or work with the publisher to deposit the accepted manuscript.

However, if the journal is a Submission Method C, usually the corresponding author handles the paper’s deposit, but it can be assigned to the corresponding author’s delegate, or one of the other co-authors. Remember, it is the accepted manuscript and not the PDF found on the publisher’s Website that should be submitted to the NIHMS system. Authors or their delegates should not ignore the approval emails sent by the NIHMS system for each submission as they are time sensitive and the links will expire.  Addressing these emails moves the paper forward in the compliance process.

ASSOCIATE
All MSK peer-reviewed research papers need to be associated with the core grant (P30 CA008748). The corresponding author, his/her delegate, or one of the co-authors can complete this task by following these instructions.

If you have any specific questions regarding the NIH Public Access Policy, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I have also included the following links to key materials for guidance and additional information.

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center NIH Public Access Policy
  
• Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) Publication Compliance Policy
• Policy Process (including info and key links to Submission Methods A, B, C, D)
• Instructions for Method C Submission
• Associating Publication with Core Grant In MyNCBI
• How to Check My Manuscript Status?

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services