Managing NIH Public Access Compliance

Steps to Compliance

1. Determine Applicability
   Confirm your manuscript falls under the NIH Public Access Policy:
   • Peer reviewed
   • Accepted for publication
   • Resulted from direct NIH funding (grants, contracts, cooperative agreements)
2. Address Copyright
   Before you sign a publication agreement, make sure the publisher 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.
4. Ensure the Timing Requirements are Met
   • Manuscripts published on or after July 1, 2025 must be made available in PMC on the publication date.
   • Manuscripts published before July 1, 2025 must be made available in PM within 12 months of 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 the dashboard in My NCBI
   3. Add Publications by clicking "Add New Citation". You can either search PubMed or enter the citation manually.
   4. Link to NIH Awards by clicking "Manage Awards" and select the appropriate grant for each publication, and click Save.
   5. Check Compliance
      • Green dot = Compliant (PMID present)
      • Yellow dot = In Progress (e.g. NIHMSID)
      • Red dot = Non Compliant (action needed)
   My Bibliography can be used to auto-fill publications in your Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR)and biosketches via eRA Commons or SciENcv.

Responsibility:

• NIH ultimately holds the Principal Investigator/NIH Awardee responsible for compliance, even when they are not the author or co-author.
• PIs may assign a delegate to submit manuscripts to PMC and manage other aspects of compliance.

Authors:

• Every author should answer the "Determine Applicability" questions listed above to determine if their journal articles are subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. They should coordinate with their co-authors to be submit the article to PubMed Central in accordance with the Policy.
• If you are an author but not the PI, notify the PI that you are working on a manuscript so it can be reported.

NIH Research Fellow:

You are expected to comply with the NIH Mandate. See Registering Research Fellows in eRA Commons to ensure you have an eRA Commons account affiliated with the UA.

Learn how My Bibliography can help you manage your grant's publications and comply with the NIH Mandate. Here's a video that will give you a quick overview.