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NIH Public Access Policy
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NIH Public Access Policy

Overview

Articles based on NIH-funded research that are accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008, must be deposited in PubMed Central, and made available to the public via PubMed Central, within 12 months of publication.

Researchers submitting requests for funding to the NIH must include the PMCID number for all cited articles falling under the Public Access Policy and which they authored or coauthored, or which arose from the researcher's NIH grant.

See the NIH's Public Access site for background on the policy and an FAQ.

As a result of an important new federal policy, peer-reviewed articles that result from National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding will now be readily accessible to other researchers and members of the public. Researchers funded by NIH are now required to submit a copy of their peer-reviewed journal articles to PubMed Central (PMC) upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after publication.

You may be responsible for some steps of implementing this policy. In particular, if you receive NIH funding and prepare an article for publication, you should:

  • Upon submission of the article, notify the publisher that it is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy.
  • Upon acceptance of the article, ensure that the publication agreement reserves to you the right to send the manuscript to PubMed Central.
  • Upon acceptance of the article, submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript to PubMed Central.
  • Upon your next submission to NIH, include in the application the identification number (called a "PMCID") for your previous NIH articles, demonstrating your compliance with the Public Access Policy.

Compliance is not merely a federal requirement. Completing these steps will facilitate making your article widely available for readers and researchers and may enhance the influence of your research. Appropriate offices of Columbia University are available to assist with these procedures.