NIH Public Access Policy   Tags: allied_health, dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, researchers_support, subject  

Welcome to the NIH Public Access Policy Guide, where you'll find a variety of resources to assist you in navigating the mandatory policy for NIH-funded investigators.

Looking for information about funding opportunities?  Check out our Grants Resource Guide.

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Official NIH Public Access Page

With the signing of the omnibus appropriations bill in December 2007, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was directed to make mandatory its policy for funded investigators to submit final versions of their manuscripts to PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine's digital archive.  The new provision requires all NIH grantees to deposit their peer-reviewed articles upon acceptance for publication and make them available to the public within 12 months after publication. The legislation comes after many years of lobbying by advocacy groups for such open access language and just as many years of opposition by publishers.  See the news release from the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, Dec. 26, 2007 for more details.

On January 11, 2008 the NIH issued the "Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research" (NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-08-033) implementing Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 ). There is further information on the NIH Public Access homepage.

What this means for NIH-funded researchers.

• After April 7, 2008, all peer-reviewed articles arising from NIH funds must be submitted to PubMed Central (PMC) upon acceptance for publication.
• Beginning May 25, 2008, NIH applications, proposals, and progress reports must include the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) when citing an article that falls under the policy and is authored or co-authored by the investigator, or arose from the investigator’s NIH award.
• Chart: When Do NIH-Funded Authors Need to Comply? (PDF)