NIH Public Access Policy and You: Home

What is it?

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy requires that all peer-reviewed publications arising from NIH-funded research must be submitted to the digital archive PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.  The Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public in PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication. The full policy can be found here:http://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm

Two changes to compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy went into effect as of July 1, 2013:

• The NIH will delay processing of an award if publications arising from it are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy.
• Investigators must use My NCBI to enter publications into progress reports.

See NIH Notice NOT-OD-13-042 for more details: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-13-042.html

See NIH Notice NOT-OD-15-091 for more information on using My NCBI for progress reports: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-15-091.html

How will it affect me?

Starting in July of 2013, the NIH will delay processing of non-competing continuation grant awards if publications arising from the award are not in compliance with the public access policy. The award will not be processed until recipients have demonstrated compliance. Compliance with the Public Access Policy is not a factor in the evaluation of grant applications; non-compliance will be addressed administratively, and may delay or prevent awarding of funds. To determine if the policy applies to you, you may visit: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/determine_applicability.htm

How do I comply?

NIH requires that investigators submit manuscripts upon acceptance for publication. Instructions for doing so can be found on the "Submit When Publishing" page.

If you are trying to demonstrate compliance retrospectively, instructions for doing so can be found on the "Retrospective Submission" page.

If the journal in which you wish to publish will not comply with one of the four submission methods described in this guide, it is the responsibility of the author/awardee to choose a different journal that does comply with the public access policy.

How do I monitor it?

You can monitor compliance for your grant using MyNCBI. A tutorial for how do this can be found on the “Manage Compliance with My NCBI” page.

NIH Notice NOT-OD-15-091: Clarifying Reporting Publication Instructions for Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPR) and Renewal Applications (released 5/25/2015)

NIH Notice NOT-OD-15-090: Reporting Publications in the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) (released 4/10/2015)

NIH Notice NOT-OD-13-042: Changes to Public Access Policy Compliance Efforts Apply to All Awards with Anticipated Start Dates on or after July 1, 2013 (released 2/14/2013)

NIH Notice NOT-OD-13-035: NIH Requires Use of RPPR for All SNAP and Fellowship Progress Reports, and Expands RPPR Functionality (released 2/6/2013)

NIH Notice NOT-OD-12-160: Upcoming Changes to Public Access Policy Reporting Requirements and Related NIH Efforts to Enhance Compliance (released 11/16/2012)

UNC Chapel Hill researchers'

NIH Public Access Manuscripts

from PubMed Central