NIH Public Access Policy
As of April 7, 2008, all articles arising from U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds must be submitted to PMC (PubMed Central) upon acceptance for publication.
With this Notice, NIH informed grantees that starting in Spring 2013, NIH will delay processing of non-competing continuation grant awards if publications arising from those awards are not in compliance with the policy until they demonstrate compliance.
Does this law apply to me?
The NIH Public Access Policy applies to all peer-reviewed journal articles, including research reports and reviews, if the article is based on work in one or more of the following categories:
- Directly funded by an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008 (October 1, 2007- September 30, 2008) or beyond, including K-awards and training grants
- Directly funded by a contract signed on or after April 7, 2008
- Directly funded by the NIH Intramural Program
- You are an NIH employee
The policy does not apply to non-peer-reviewed materials, and correspondence, book chapters, and editorials.
What is PMC?
PMC serves as a digital counterpart to the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) print journal collection; it is a repository for journal literature deposited by participating publishers, as well as for author manuscripts that have been submitted in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy and similar policies of other research funding agencies. Access to the material in PMC is free, but use of the material is still subject to the copyright and/or related license terms of the respective authors or publishers.