NIH Public Access Policy

Q. The journal I published in is listed as a Method D publisher, but it has been 3 months since it was accepted and My Bibliography is telling me it is not compliant (there is no NIHMS or PMC ID number).

A. No matter what method the journal is listed as it is ultimately the author/PI’s responsibility to ensure the article is submitted to PMC.  If the journal/publisher has not submitted the article after 3 months following acceptance for publication, contact them and ask why they haven’t.  In the meantime, go ahead and submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript to the NIHMS System (instructions).  If the publisher does so later, it will over-ride your submission, but this will ensure you are in compliance.

Q. I need to submit to the NIHMS system, but I can’t find the final peer-reviewed manuscript?  Can’t I just download the pdf copy from the journals website and submit that?

A.  Unfortunately, that would be against copyright law.  If you are unable to find the final version of the manuscript (with peer-reviewed edits but not the final copy-editing formats), and none of your co-authors have a copy either, we recommend that you contact the publisher and explain your problem.  They may be able to supply a copy that you could use.

Q. I am the PI for a large teaching grant and am not an author on many of the publications that result from that funding.  Do I need to include all of those citations and ensure they are compliant?

A. Yes.  As the PI you are responsible for ensuring all articles that are directly funded from that grant are compliant, whether or not you are an author.

Q.  One of my articles has a NIHMS ID number but has never been added into PMC and is past the 3 month deadline for needing a PMCID number.  What is wrong and how can I fix it?

A. This is probably happening because whoever was entered into the NIHMS System as the reviewer has not responded to a request to review and approve the submission.  When publishers or delegates submit manuscripts to the NIHMS system they will select an author of PI to receive emails asking for approval of what was submitted.  If that person does not receive the email and follow the steps to approve the submission it will never make it into PMC.  Check with the PI or your co-authors to see if anyone received any message from NIHMS.  Finally, you can request that the responsibility be transferred to you.

Q. I have an article that was published in 2008 that is listed as being non-compliant.  Would it not fall under the Policy because it is from 2008?  Do I need to do anything?

A.  For any article published since 2008 that has been linked to NIH funding, you will need to take some action.  For articles published in 2008 it is possible that they were accepted for publication prior to the April 7th date and therefore do not fall under the policy.  However, you need to check to confirm the acceptance date; if it does not fall under the policy, you will need to use My Bibliography to edit the status of the citation to notify NIH of the reason why the article does not need to be compliant.  See these detailed instructions on how to find acceptance dates and to update the status of a citation.