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NIH Public Access Policy Compliance

Have a question about the NIH Public Access Policy?

Below you can find tips and tutorials to help with common problems/issues that occur as authors work to comply with the NIH's Policy.

1) Who is responsible for complying with the Policy? What if I am funded by NIH, but I am not an author on a resulting Author Accepted Manuscript?

Each principal investigator or project director and institution is responsible for ensuring that the terms and conditions of their awards, contracts, and Other Transaction Agreements are met. For the Policy, these responsibilities exist regardless of the principal investigator’s or project director’s authorship or co-authorship on an Author Accepted Manuscript resulting from NIH funding.

2) One of my articles has a NIHMS ID number but has never been added into PMC. How do I fix this to make the article compliant?

If your article does have an NIHMS ID number, but has not been added to PubMed Central (PMC) and does not have a PMC ID number, this may be because the author responsible for reviewing and approving the submission has not completed the task. You can check with the other authors/PI’s associated with your article to see who was tasked as being responsible for approving submission of the article to the NIH. As an author/PI you can also choose to claim the record so that you can finalize the approval process. 

3) My grant has been incorrectly associated with an article that is listed as non-compliant. What can I do?

Mistakes can happen, and sometimes a grant becomes associated with an article that it did not support. Learn how to delete unwanted citations from your NCBI My Bibliography account if an article has been incorrectly associated with an award. Some edits you can make yourself. In other cases, you may have to contact grant and technical support departments at the NIH to fix the issue.

4) Is the availability of the Final Published Article on the journal’s or publisher’s website sufficient for compliance with the Policy?

No. To be compliant, the Author Accepted Manuscript or the Final Published Article must be submitted to PubMed Central for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication. The public availability of Final Published Articles on journal or publisher websites alone is not sufficient for compliance with the Policy. Compliance be achieved through either:
 

  • Submission of the electronic version of the Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central upon its acceptance for publication, for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication, or
  • Submission of the Final Published Article to PubMed Central from journals or publishers with formal agreements with NLM, upon the Official Date of Publication, for public availability without embargo.

5) How do I add a PMCID number to my citation styles in EndNote?

Anyone submitting an application, proposal or report to the NIH must include the PMC reference number (PMCID) when citing papers that arise from their NIH-funded research.

To modify EndNote to include the PMCID in its citations as you create bibliographies for your reports:

  • Open your EndNote Library.
  • Go to the top-level "Edit" menu.
  • Select "Output Styles" and then "Open Style Manager."
  • Select the style you wish to modify from the list in the pop-up box, then click "Edit."
  • On the left side menu, click "Templates" under Bibliography (see image).
  • Go to the "Journal Article Citation." Insert your cursor at the end of the citation. Add a space.
  • Click on "Insert Field" and add the PMCID Field.
  • Go to the top-level "File" menu, click "Save As," and give your modified style a new name.

6) How do I check to make sure all of my publications are compliant with the NIH Policy

If you are applying for a new grant, it is a good idea to double check your publications on your My NCBI My Bibliograph to make sure that you do not have any that are out of compliance, as that could slow down or impact the acceptance of your proposal.