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NIH Public Access policy

About the Policy

As of April 7, 2008, articles arising from NIH funds must be submitted to PubMed Central (PMC) upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no more than 12 months after appearing in a peer-reviewed journal. This policy becomes effective* *April 7, 2008, but applies to articles arising from grants and cooperative agreements active from October 1, 2007.

Principal Investigators and their Institutions are responsible for ensuring all terms and conditions of awards are met. This includes the submission of articles that arise directly from their awards, even if they are not an author or co-author of the publication.

IOA Information Center Assistance

The IOA information Center can assist IOA-affiliated researchers with the process of complying with this policy from the NIH. Specifically, the IOA librarians can assist with:

1. Education about the process, described below
2. Manuscript submission to Pubmed Central
3. Answers to questions about related copyright issues
4. Searching for PMCID numbers

Three things PIs must do to comply with the policy

1. Reserve your (copy)right to deposit the manuscript with NIH

a. Include the UNC-Chapel Hill cover letter to the Publisher when submitting any articles arising from NIH funds. Download the letter:
http://www.hsl.unc.edu/Collections/NIHToolkit/UNCPublisherLetter.pdf

b. Attach a signed copy of the UNC-Chapel Hill Additional Term document when returning the publisher's authors agreement. Download the Additional Term:
http://www.hsl.unc.edu/Collections/NIHToolkit/NIHAdditionalTerm.doc

2. Submit manuscript to NIH
Submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript to PubMed Central upon acceptance by the publisher. Detailed instructions are here: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/web-help/index.html There are three ways for your manuscript to get submitted:

a. direct submission of peer reviewed manuscript
b. publisher submits peer reviewed manuscript
c. publisher submits final published article

3. Cite the ID# in any future report to NIH
Add the NIH Manuscript # or the PMC ID # when citing these articles in progress reports, renewals, and new applications. Instructions for how to locate the PMCID: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ma08/ma08_pmcid.html

Campus resources

The Office of University Counsel is available to answer any questions that may arise about language in your publisher’s contract. Questions can be sent to Fletcher Fairey, Associate University Counsel, at 843-1637 or Fletcher_Fairey@unc.edu

The NIH Public Access Policy Toolkit from the Health Sciences Library is an up to date resource with links to the policy, NIH guidelines, and related resources, including the links
above.

Other Helpful Resources

NIH Public Access Policy FAQ:
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm

Journals that systematically submit manuscripts to PubMedCentral:
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm

Online tutorial on submitting manuscripts to PubMedCentral:
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/web-help/index.html