NIH Public Access: Article Submission and Compliance Management

Copyright

Most publishers acknowledge an author's right to deposit article to PubMed Central to comply with the policy. Additionally, many publishers will deposit the articles for you. When the publisher does not submit the papers to PMC, UR authors must reserve this right in order to comply with the NIH Public Access policy. Before signing a publication or copyright transfer agreement, UR authors should ensure that the agreement allows them to submit their final peer-reviewed manuscript to PMC. 

• UR authors can notify publishers that their article is based on research funded by NIH and is subject to the NIH Public Access policy by using the standard cover letter approved by the UR Office of Counsel for this purpose.
• If the publisher’s publication or copyright transfer agreement does not contain language allowing the author to submit a copy of the final manuscript to PMC to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after publication, an addendum approved by the UR Office of Counsel reserving this right must be added to the publication or copyright transfer agreement.

There are four ways to ensure that a paper is submitted to PMC:

• Method A: Publish in a journal that deposits all NIH-funded final published articles in PMC without author involvement. A complete list of these journals is available at PMC.

• Method B: Make arrangements to have a publisher deposit a specific final published article in PMC. This method usually involves choosing the journal’s fee-based open access option for publishing that article. NIH provides a list of publishers that deposit specific final published articles in PMC.

• Method C: Deposit the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PMC yourself via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). Choosing a publisher's fee-based service (Method B) is NOT necessary. You may view the policies of journal publishers that do not submit final published articles to PubMed Central here. UR authors can submit manuscripts to PMC themselves or designate a third party such as an administrator or librarian to do the submission. The NIMHS system is simple and easy to use. NIH provides tutorials on using the NIMHS system. Staff from Miner Library can assist in submitting manuscripts and/or provide training. Contact Linda Hasman (Linda_Hasman@urmc.rochester.edu, 275-3399)  for more information.

• Method D: Complete the submission process for a final peer-reviewed manuscript that the publisher has deposited in the NIHMS system. Many publishers will submit the author's final manuscript if requested, however the author must give final approval to the submitted files.

All papers that fall under the NIH Public Access Policy must be cited using the PMCID or NIHMSID in all applications, proposals and reports submitted to the NIH, must demonstrate compliance.

• If the article was published more than three months ago, you must cite the PMCID.
• If the article was published less than three months ago and hasn't been assigned a PMCID yet, you must cite the NIHMSID (if using submission Methods C or D) or indicate "PMC Journal - In Process" (for Methods A or B).

More detail about the different ID types and when to use them is included below. Click here for information on locating a PMCID.

PMIDs and PMCIDs are not the same:​

• PubMed ID (PMID) | This is the reference number assigned to all articles in PubMed. The PMID is linked with a paper's abstract in PubMed and is not associated with the NIH Public Access Policy
• PubMed Central ID (PMCID) | This is the reference number assigned to articles available in PubMed Central. A PMCID is linked to a full-text article availalbe in PMC. It is the ID you want to use when citing papers in NIH documents.
• NIHMSID (also called Manuscript ID) | After submitting a manuscript through the NIH Manuscript Submission system (NIHMS) through methods C or D, your manuscript will be assigned a NIHMSID. The NIHMSID can be used to signify compliance less than three months after publication for papers that have not yet been assigned a PMCID.

Note: For a given PMID (or list of them), you can use the PMCID/PMID/NIHMSID/DOI Converter to obtain the PMCID or NIHMSID if they exist.