The NIH Public Access Policy requires that the full text of articles derived from work funded by NIH grants be made freely available to the public via PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication. 

All applications, proposals and progress reports to the NIH must include PubMed Central or NIH Manuscript Submission reference numbers when citing applicable articles accepted for publication after April 7, 2008.

We can help you comply with the policy and its reporting requirements by...

  • Verifying the applicability of the policy to the particular paper in question
  • Verifying whether publishers permit the author to upload to NIHMS and which version is allowed (final peer-reviewed manuscript or published version)
  • Suggesting the best method for contacting a particular publisher to request publisher deposit in the cases where author upload is not permitted
  • Initiating submission of manuscript to the NIHMS system on behalf of author(s) or identify the NIHMS person.To intiate submission of a manuscript please have the following information:
    • Manuscript files, including separate files for tables and figures
    • Grant number info
    • Contact info of author who will be approving the upload
  • Troubleshooting any publication related issues that arise using the NIH tools (MyNCBI, NIHMS, etc.)