NIH Public Access Policy Compliance

1. Determine Applicability

Confirm that your manuscript falls under the NIH Public Access Policy:

• Peer-reviewed.
• Accepted for publication.
• Resulted from direct NIH funding (grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements).

2. Address copyright

Before you sign a publication agreement, make sure that the agreement allows the paper to be posted to PubMed Central in accordance with the NIH Public Access Policy. 

3. Submit the Manuscript to PMC

There are four different methods for depositing your manuscript into PMC. The method you follow depends on your journal or publisher. Refer to the NIH's Determine Submission Method page to confirm which submission method applies to you.

Method A – Journal deposits final published article in PMC.

• Journal does this automatically.

• No action needed by the PI.

• List of Method A journals

Method B – Journal deposits final article but not the final published version.

• Author must approve the manuscript in the NIHMS system.

• Some journals use this route (e.g., Springer Nature, Elsevier journals with NIH funding).

Method C – Author deposits the manuscript in NIHMS.

• Submit accepted manuscript via NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS).

• Complete the submission process including:

  • Uploading manuscript files.

  • Approving the PDF.

  • Approving the final PMC web version.

Method D – Publisher deposits manuscript on behalf of author.

• Publisher starts the submission, author must complete approvals in NIHMS.

4. Ensure Timing Requirements Are Met

• Manuscripts published prior to July 1, 2025 must be publicly available in PMC within 12 months of the publication date.

• Manuscripts published on or after July 1, 2025 must be publicly available in PMC on the publication date.

5. Monitor and Report Compliance

Use the NIH My Bibliography tool in My NCBI to track your publications.

1. Login or create a My NCBI account.
   • (If you have an existing My NCBI account, link your eRA commons account so that award information will appear in My Bibliography.)
2. Open My Bibliography
   • From your dashboard, click “My Bibliography.”
3. Add Publications
   • Click “Add new citation” > search PubMed or enter manually.
4. Link to NIH Awards
   • Click “Manage Awards” > Select the NIH grant(s) for each publication > Click Save
5. Check Compliance
   • Green dot = Compliant (PMCID present)
   • Yellow dot = In progress (e.g., NIHMSID)
   • Red dot = Not compliant (action needed)

Use My Bibliography to auto-fill publications in your Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) and biosketches via eRA Commons or SciENcv.