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NIH Public Access Policy : Submit the Manuscript and Include PMCID in Citations

Presents an overview of the NIH Public Access Policy and the steps involved in demonstrating compliance.

What Method Do I Need to Use for the Publisher?

The NIHMS has a new look as of December 12, 2014.

There are four methods of submitting the applicable paper to PMC. Authors may use whichever method is most appropriate for them and consistent with their publishing agreement.

  • Method A: Journal will deposit final published articles in PMC for you. (Which ones do that?)

  • Method B:  These publishers have an arrangement with NIH to deposit individual final published articles in PubMed Central (PMC) on a case-by-case basis.  Which ones do that? 

  • Method C: Author deposits final peer-reviewed manuscript in PMC via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). Three-step process, video demonstration: Submitting an Article to PubMed Central (wmv 12:01)

  • Method D: Author completes submission of the final peer-reviewed manuscript deposited by publisher in the NIHMS.

 For FULL details on each of the submission methods, please see Overview of Submission Methods on the National Institutes of Health Public Access website.

Include PMCID in Citations

Include the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) at the end of citations

For papers in press, or published within 3 months of when an application, proposal or report is submitted:

  • When using Submission Method A or B, indicate “PMC Journal - In Process” or the PMCID at the end of the full citation.
  • When using Submission Method C or D, provide a valid NIH Manuscript Submission System reference number (NIHMSID) or PMCID at the end of the full citation. Note, NIH awardees are responsible for ensuring that all steps of the NIHMS submission process are complete within three months of publication.

PMID: PMCID Converter. Given a set of PubMed IDs (PMIDs) you can use this converter to obtain the corresponding PMCIDs and/or NIHMS IDs if they exist...