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NIH Public Access & My NCBI

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NIH Notices and Policy Statements

  • January 9, 2013 - See Notice NOT-OD-13-020. Public Access Compliance Monitor: A New Resource for Institutions to Track Public Access Compliance.
  • November 16, 2012 - See Notice NOT-OD-12-160. Upcoming Changes to Public Access Policy Reporting Requirements and Related NIH Efforts to Enhance Compliance.
  • October 30, 2009 - See Notice NOT-OD-10-009 Until further notice, only papers written in Latin script will be collected via the NIH Manuscript Submission System for the NIH Public Access Policy.
  • August 12, 2009 - See Notice NOT-OD-09-136 Clarification on the Use of an NIHMSID to Indicate Compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.
  • March 19, 2009 - See Notice NOT-OD-09-071. The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 Makes the NIH Public Access Policy Permanent.
  • March 19, 2009 - See Notice NOT-OD-09-070. The intent of this Notice is to provide information on the following statutory provisions that limit the use of funds on National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, cooperative agreement, and contract awards for FY2009.
  • September 23, 2008 - See Notice NOT-OD-08-119. Reminder Concerning Grantee Compliance with Public Access Policy and Related NIH Monitoring Activities.
  • March 7, 2008 - See Notice NOT-OD-08-057. Notice of Public Meeting: Seeking Comments on Implementation of the NIH Public Access Policy.
  • January 11, 2008 – See NOT-OD-08-033. Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research

Policy Summary:

In accordance with Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008), the NIH voluntary Public Access Policy (NOT-OD-05-022) is now mandatory. The law states:

The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

Specifics

  1. The NIH Public Access Policy applies to all peer-reviewed articles that arise, in whole or in part, from direct costs 1 funded by NIH, or from NIH staff, that are accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008.
  2. Institutions and investigators are responsible for ensuring that any publishing or copyright agreements concerning submitted articles fully comply with this Policy.
  3. PubMed Central (PMC) is the NIH digital archive of full-text, peer-reviewed journal articles. Its content is publicly accessible and integrated with other databases (see: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/).
  4. The final, peer-reviewed manuscript includes all graphics and supplemental materials that are associated with the article.
  5. Beginning May 25, 2008, anyone submitting an application, proposal or progress report to the NIH must include the PMC or NIH Manuscript Submission reference number when citing applicable articles that arise from their NIH funded research. This policy includes applications submitted to the NIH for the May 25, 2008 due date and subsequent due dates.

 

Compliance

Compliance with this Policy is a statutory requirement and a term and condition of the grant award and cooperative agreement, in accordance with the NIH Grants Policy Statement. For contracts, NIH includes this requirement in all R&D solicitations and awards under Section H, Special Contract Requirements, in accordance with the Uniform Contract Format.

Current Policy & NIH Implementation:

NIH announced on February 14, 2013 (NOT-OD-13-042) for non-competing continuations grant awards with a start date of July 1, 2013 or beyond:

  1. NIH will delay processing of an award if publications arising from it are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy.
  2. Investigators will need to use My NCBI to enter papers onto progress reports. Papers can be associated electronically using the RPPR, or included in the PHS 2590 using the My NCBI generated PDF report.
    1. E-SNAP and Fellowships: NIH will require the use of the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) for all Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process (SNAP) and Fellowship awards. (NOT-OD-12-160)
    2. Paper Progress Reports (PHS 2590 forms): All grantees submitting paper PHS 2590 progress reports will be required to provide a My NCBI generated PDF list of publications as part of their progress report. The new My NCBI PDF report will serve as publications Section 2.2.6, Section E. Publications, of the PHS 2590.
  3. PubMed Central reference Numbers at the end of citations:
    1. For papers published more than 3 months before an application, proposal and report is submitted: List the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) at the end of the full journal citation for the paper in NIH applications, proposals and reports. A PMCID is the only way to demonstrate compliance for these papers.
    2. For papers in press, or published within 3 months of when an application, proposal or report is submitted:
      1. When using Submission Method A or B, indicate “PMC Journal - In Process” or the PMCID at the end of the full citation.
      2. 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.
    3. Anyone submitting an application, proposal or report to the NIH must include the PMC reference number (PMCID) when citing applicable papers that they author or that arise from their NIH-funded research.

The Difference between a PMCID and a PMID

The PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) is different from the PubMed reference number (PMID). PubMed Central is an index of full-text papers, while PubMed is an index of abstracts. The PMCID links to full-text papers in PubMed Central, while the PMID links to abstracts in PubMed. PMIDs have nothing to do with the NIH Public Access Policy.

 

My NCBI - National Center of Biotechnology Information

PD/PIs must to use their My NCBI account to track compliance for their publications and to ensure all publications arising from their awards are posted to PubMed Central in accordance with the policy. For information on how to use My NCBI for public access compliance tracking, see:

Terminology

PubMed A service of the National Library of Medicine that provides access to over 17 million citations from MEDLINE and additional life sciences journals. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.

  1. PMID - PubMed Identifier. This is not sufficient for Public Access compliance
  2. PubMed Central PubMed Central is a digital archive of life sciences journal literature, developed and managed by NCBI. With PubMed Central, NCBI is taking the lead in preserving and maintaining open access to the electronic literature.
  3. PMCID – PubMed Central Identifier. This is the unique identifier for the PubMed record for a PMC article. The PMCID is needed for compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.
  4. NIHMS - NIH Manuscript System. If a journal article is not submitted to PubMed Central by the publisher, then the Reviewing Author to ensure complete submission to the NIHMS.
  5. There are 6 steps involved in submitting a manuscript to the NIHMS System:
    1. Enter Journal and Title – manually, via PubMed or My NCBI
    2. Enter Grant/Project information – each manuscript submitted must be assigned at least one grant, project number, or other source of NIH funding.
    3. Upload Files – upload the manuscript text, figures, tables, and supplementary data
    4. Summary – review all the information entered for the submission
    5. PDF Approval – Only the Reviewing Author can approve the submitted manuscript and complete the submission. NIHMS staff will prepare the manuscript fro PMC, which takes about 2 weeks. Once complete the Reviewing Author will be notified via email.
    6. Reviewing Author approves the Web version (both HTML and PDF) of the manuscript. Once approved, the manuscript will be available in PMC.

 

Reference Materials

National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy (NIH PAP)

UC – Library Guide

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)

UC – Library Guide

Video Training, Excerpted from our January 2013 Webinar – from the NIH