NIH Public Access Policy Help Guide
Explains the NIH Public Access Policy, the process for submitting peer reviewed articles to PubMed Central and using myNCBI to verify compliance.
NIH Public Access Policy
Contact Your Librarian
Librarians can assist with questions about:
- locating PMCIDs and/or NIHMS IDs for submitted manuscripts;
- determining whether an article has already appeared in PubMed Central; or
- locating a journal’s general policy on NIH public access policy compliance.
Submitting your article to a publisher
Authors should work with the publisher before rights are transferred to ensure that all conditions of the NIH Public Access Policy can be met. Authors should avoid signing agreements with publishers that do not allow the author to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.
- When you submit your manuscript, tell the publisher that your article is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. Many publishers have mechanisms in place to facilitate author compliance with NIH Public Access Policy.
Additional Resources
- Publisher Policies on NIH-funded Authors from Simmons University
- UW Libraries: Copyright Introduction
- SHERPA/RoMEO database - search to find permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement; can search specifically for mention of NIH Public Access Policy.
- NIH Points to Consider Before Signing a Publication or Copyright Transfer Agreement