NIH Public Access Policy

Full text (along with all figures, tables and supplemental material) of manuscripts funded by NIH grants awarded April 2008 or after must be available in PubMed Central (PMC), within 12 months of publication. (Note: In 2025, this will change to immediate full text access upon date of publication.)

However, these papers must display a PubMed Central ID (PMCID) no later than 3 months after publication date.

Many journals will deposit manuscripts to PubMed Central automatically. Others will deposit articles for authors upon request. You may never have to worry about depositing a manuscript to PMC yourself through the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS).

If your journal doesn't deposit for you, it is our recommendation that the submissions to PMC via NIHMS are made by authors (or their delegates) who are responsible for the final revisions of the manuscript(s) and who have access to coauthors' NIH grant numbers. It takes only about 10 minutes to submit a manuscript.

Before you decide to deposit your paper via NIHMS, you might want to check to see if the paper has a PMCID already in process.

Use the PMID to PMCID Converter
The NIH maintains a converter tool that allows you to look up PMCIDs (or other identifiers). Simply input a single PMID or list of PMIDs to retrieve any PMCIDs, if they exist. If a PMCID does not exist for a paper, that is a good indication that you should begin depost to PubMed Central via the NIHMS system.

Method A - "PMC Journal" - Journal automatically submits to PMC
This method is the simplest for the author. Some journals automatically submit all of their content directly to PubMed Central. No action on the part of the author or PI is necessary.

• Only specific journals are designated "PMC Journals". You can find a list of them at the NIH Public Access Policy website via the link below. Use the search box on the page to search for your journal's title. If your journal does not appear on this list, you can try one of the other methods of submission.

See the link below for a list of PMC Journals.

Method B - Author asks journal or publisher to submit directly to PMC - Usually for a fee
In Method B, the author or PI asks a publisher to deposit a manuscript directly to PubMed Central for them. This usually costs a fee.

• Journals will usually ask authors to pay the fee for their open access option. We don't recommend this method. You are never required to pay to have a manuscript deposited to PMC.
• Also there are some journals or publishers that will try to convince you that choosing their open access option itself is sufficient for compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy. It isn't. The manuscript must be deposited in PubMed Central to be compliant with the NIH Public Access policy.
• Make sure the journal or publisher also deposits to PMC if you choose to pay their "early open access" fees.
• Instead of choosing this option, we recommend that authors use Method C (and request assistance from the library) or Method D.

See the link below for a list of Method B publishers.

Method C - Author (or a Delegate) submits via NIHMS
In Method C, the author (or an author-assigned designee) will submit accepted peer-reviewed manuscript (final author copy) to NIH Manuscript Submission system (NIHMS).

• This is the most common method after Method A. The library can help you prepare and deposit your manuscript to NIHMS. Contact the NIH Public Access Compliance Reporter (PACR), Pamela Shaw, for assistance.

Method D - Publisher deposits to NIHMS
Some publishers have volunteered to deposit a final peer-reviewed manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) when they determine that it falls under the NIH Public Access Policy. Note that this is NOT the same as depositing directly to PubMed Central.

• The author or PI responsible for the paper (individual named the "Reviewer" in NIHMS) must follow the required steps to approve the submitted file(s) in NIHMS to complete the process to get the paper into PubMed Central.
• Publishers or journals are not obligated to deposit to NIHMS for you, and they will not deposit to NIHMS if you have indicated your NIH funding in your Acknowledgements or Funding section of the paper's text. You must communicate this information with them via the author agreement or directly.
• Be sure to read your author agreements from publishers and clearly indicate that you or your coauthors are NIH funded in these agreements. Many publishers will assist you if you indicate you are NIH funded at the time of submission for publication.

See the link below for a list of publishers that may deposit manuscripts to NIHMS.