NIH Public Access Policy and You: Submit When Publishing (Upon Journal Acceptance)

Address The Copyright Agreement

When you are negotiating the terms of your publication or copyright agreement, make sure that the agreement includes a stipulation allowing the full text of the paper to be posted to PubMed Central (PMC). 

As an example, the kind of language that an author or institution might add to a copyright agreement includes the following:

    “Journal acknowledges that Author retains the right to provide a copy of the final peer-reviewed manuscript to the NIH upon acceptance for Journal publication, for public archiving in PubMed Central (PMC) without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication by the Journal."

To avoid miscommunication, awardees and authors will want to let publishers know a manuscript is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy before the publisher decides to review it. 

• With the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy requirements (zero embargo), it will be even more important to clarify the publisher/journal policies, open access publishing options, and any fees associated with ensuring the AAM or Final Published Article is immediately available in PubMed Central (PMC) on the Official Date of Publication.
• See Prepare Before You Submit Your Manuscript section of this guide. 

Consult PMC information on submitting papers for steps and tips for authors.  In brief the steps are:

1. Step 1: Check the Journal List (formerly called Method A)
   • Determine if journal/publisher deposits the final published article directly to PMC. Check that the journal's embargo period is set to zero (0 months) such that the journal allows the article to be made publicly available in PMC upon the Official Date of Publication, without embargo.
   • Note: if the journal list indicates your journal has a default embargo, you need to either make special arrangements with the journal or publisher to have the final published article deposited without embargo or proceed to Step 3.
2. Step 2: Review the Selective Deposit Programs (formerly Method B)
   • The author can choose to arrange with the journal for the deposit of a specific article; this usually involves choosing the journal's fee-based open access option for publishing that article. Please contact the respective journal or publisher directly for details.
3. Step 3: Deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) (formerly Method C)
   • If neither of the 2 deposit options above apply or if the selected journal allows you to submit your AAM with no embargo for no/lower fee, you may deposit your author accepted manuscript (AAM) to NIHMS.
   • Note:  Start your deposit at the time of acceptance for publication. This ensures you have the files readily accessible and allows for manuscript processing times, which may take up to 4 weeks during periods of high volume submissions.

Most of the information on this page was taken from the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy webpage: https://sharing.nih.gov/public-access-policy/submitting-to-pubmed-central