NIH PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY
UofL INFORMATION AND RESOURCES
April 4, 2008 - Revised April 16, 2008
Background
In December 2007, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation that mandates a change to the public accessibility of published results from research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Section 218 of Public Law 110-161 states:
The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the
NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic
version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly
available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall
implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm
As a result of this new law, NIH has issued a “Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research”: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-033.html.
Implementation of the policy provides public access to the published results of NIH-supported research via the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central (PMC). PMC http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ is the NIH digital archive containing full-text articles. Under the NIH policy, public access to manuscripts resulting from NIH funding will become available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication and could be earlier depending on the timeframe specified by the author and/or depositing publisher.
Information about this NIH Public Access Policy is available at the NIH Public Access webpage: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/.
What is covered?
1. All peer-reviewed articles that arise, in whole or in part, from direct costs funded by NIH, or from NIH staff, that are accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008 and resulting from
o NIH grant or cooperative agreement active on or after October 1, 2007
o NIH contract signed on or after April 7, 2008
o Subaward (e.g., flowthrough from NIH) to or from another entity that meets the above criteria2. All applications, proposals or progress reports submitted to the NIH beginning May 25, 2008 (including the May 25, 2008 due date and subsequent due dates) must include the PubMed Central (PMC) or NIH Manuscript Submission reference number when citing articles that were required to have been submitted under item 1 above
For additional information about when NIH-funded authors need to comply, see information developed by the Bernard Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine: http://becker.wustl.edu/pdf/NIHChart.pdf
Who is affected by the NIH policy?
Investigators and institutions are responsible for insuring that any publishing or copyright agreements concerning any manuscript accepted for publication fully comply with the policy.
As a faculty member typically submits his or her manuscript to a publisher directly, the requirement to deposit to the PMC will require him or her to take steps with the publisher to insure compliance with copyright law and the policy, as well as to see that the deposit of the final, peer-reviewed manuscript (including all graphics and supplemental material associated with the manuscript) is properly made and certified to PMC.
How do I handle copyright and publisher agreement issues?
The investigator/faculty member must insure that all publishing or copyright transfer agreements allow the deposit of the manuscript to PMC and authorize NIH to provide public access to the manuscript no later than 12 months after publication.
Some journals submit articles directly to PMC and make them available within 12 months of publication. NIH posts a list of these journals at http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm. If you publish in these journals, the journals will handle the submission to PMC for you. You should ask them to notify you of that deposit and to provide to you the NIH identification number corresponding to the deposit.
If you publish in any other journal, you should likely inform the journal of NIH requirements when submitting the manuscript for publication. This notification will help clarify the potential conditions of publication before acceptance in order to help comply with the revised NIH policy. You may include language such as the following when you submit your manuscript to the publisher:
Sample Language
The enclosed manuscript resulted at least in part from research and investigation funded by the National Institutes of Health. The NIH Public Access Policy (http://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm) requires NIH-funded authors to deposit final, peer-reviewed manuscripts in the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication and further to authorize PubMed Central to make them publicly accessible no later than 12 months after publication. Complying with the policy requires authors to grant NIH sufficient rights under copyright to provide public access to the manuscripts. As the publisher and as a condition of publication, you will need at minimum to include or agree to include the NIH-proposed language or its equivalent in the governing publication agreement:
“Journal acknowledges that Author retains the right to provide a copy of the final manuscript to the NIH upon acceptance for Journal publication, for public archiving in PubMed Central as soon as possible but no later than 12 months after publication by Journal."
NIH also requires authors to identify and account for PubMed Central deposits in NIH reporting.
Alternately, you may wish to attach this UofL “Dear Publisher” letter (pdf) when submitting your manuscript. The choice is yours and depends upon your existing relationships with publishers and your current practices in submitting publications.
When the manuscript is accepted for publication, the copyright agreement/publication agreement must include, at minimum, language that will retain sufficient rights to grant to NIH the Public Access License Access Policy. You can preserve your rights and satisfy NIH requirements by including the following language (also included in the sample language above) or similar language in your publication agreement:
“Journal acknowledges that Author retains the right to provide a copy of the final manuscript to the NIH upon acceptance for Journal publication, for public archiving in PubMed Central as soon as possible but no later than 12 months after publication by Journal."
Additional commonly used approaches for preserving your rights in publication agreements are available from these websites:
• SPARC (Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition) Author Addendum: http://www.arl.org/sparc/author/completeonline.html
• Science Commons, Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine: http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/scae/
• MIT Libraries, Amendment Tool: http://info-libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-copyright-amendment-form/mit-amendment-tool/
Revision strategies and tools are numerous but essentially focus on retaining those rights under copyright of crucial importance to you as the author and scholar and in support of your ongoing scholarship and teaching. Some of the strategies will meet the minimum requirements set forth by NIH and other approaches will ask that you fundamentally re-examine how to best manage copyright in your scholarly work now and in the future. You can learn more about copyright, publication agreements, and those related possibilities by contacting Dwayne K. Buttler, Evelyn J. Schneider Endowed Chair for Scholarly Communication, in University Libraries.
How do I submit to PMC?
University of Louisville Libraries are prepared to assist you with the submission process.
Librarian Michel C. Atlas will act as your third-party designated submitter. For details, see http://library.louisville.edu/kornhauser/info/nihpolicy.html.
When a peer-reviewed manuscript is accepted for publication, it must be submitted to NIH. This submission can be accomplished by using any of several options:
A. As noted above, some journals deposit final published articles directly to PMC http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm and make them available to the public within 12 months. If you publish in these journals, nothing more is needed to comply with the public access policy
B. If the journal deposits the final article directly to PMC but does not make it available within 12 months, the author must follow the process outlined below in option D
C. Some journals submit peer-reviewed manuscript files through NIHMS but not the final article. If the journal deposits only the manuscript, the author must still perform steps D.2 and D.3 below
D. If you publish in any other journal:
1. The author or designee submits a copy of the manuscript and associated files through the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/
2. The author provides grant information and affirms that the copyright agreement allows deposit to PMC
3. NIH reformats the manuscript for PMC and emails the PI to review and approve the PMC-formatted article through NIHMS
Most UofL submitters will use their eRA Commons account when logging into NIHMS for self-submission (step D.1) and when completing steps D.2 and D.3. Please note that some publishers charge a fee to submit to PMC and that self-submission of your article will avoid having to pay a submission fee to a publisher for the service.
For additional guidance in submitting manuscripts, visit the screen-by-screen NIH Slide Show Help: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/web-help/index.html.
For a flowchart of this process developed by the Bernard Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine, see: http://becker.wustl.edu/pdf/NIHComplianceFlowchart.pdf
Citing PubMed Central ID Numbers
When your manuscript is submitted to NIH, you will receive an NIHMS ID number, and once it is available in PubMed Central, it will be assigned a PMC ID number.
Effective May 25, 2008, you must include the NIHMS ID number or the PMC number if available when you reference your published manuscript in any progress report and new proposal submission.
For information about how to cite using these ID numbers and how the numbers are obtained, see http://library.louisville.edu/kornhauser/info/nihpolicy.html and consult Michel C. Atlas, University Libraries, as needed.
Other Resources
• NIH Public Access Policy FAQ: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm
• Online tutorial on submitting manuscripts to PMC: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/web-help/index.html
• FAQ on PubMed Central: http://pubmedcentral.nih.gov/about/faq.html
• Washington University School of Medicine Bernard Becker Medical Library, Revised NIH Public Access Policy webpage: http://becker.wustl.edu/services/scholarly/nihpolicy.html
• Duke University Medical Center Library Online, NIH Public Access Policy webpage: http://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/nihpolicy
• Columbia University Scholarly Communications Program, NIH Public Access Policy webpage: http://scholcomm.columbia.edu/nih-public-access-policy/
University of Louisville Contacts
Questions concerning the NIH policy: Judy L. Bristow, Office of Grants Management; David D. King, Office of Industry Contracts
Questions concerning language in publication/copyright transfer agreements: Dwayne K. Buttler, Evelyn J. Schneider Endowed Chair for Scholarly Communication, University Libraries; David D. King, Assistant University Counsel
Questions concerning how to submit to PMC and the citation of PMC ID numbers in progress reports and proposals: Michel C. Atlas, Kornhauser Library