Knowledge Guides: NIH Public Access Compliance: Overview

Steps to compliance

This guide offers detailed information on each step.

Determine applicability and check Copyright

Deposit paper in PMC

Use My Bibliography for reporting in eRA Commons

Show evidence of compliance

Tools & Checklist includes cheat sheets and publisher information.

Use the tabs above to learn how to become fully compliant with the NIH Mandate.

Types of Grants

The NIH has different types of grants and this website allows one to look up codes and different grants:

NIH uses activity codes (e.g. R01, R43, etc.) to differentiate the wide variety of research-related programs we support. NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) may vary in the way they use activity codes; not all ICs accept applications for all types of grant programs or they apply specialized eligibility criteria. Look closely at Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) to determine which ICs participate and the specifics of eligibility.

PubMed Central

PubMed Central was created in 2000 as a digital, open access repository for biomendical and life sciences journal literature. In 2008 Congress mandated that all peer-reviewed journal articles that arise from NIH-funded research must be submitted.

PubMed links to the full text articles in PubMed Central.

What does the policy require?

Peer-reviewed journal articles arising from NIH-funded research and accepted for publication on or after
April 7, 2008 must be deposited in PubMed Central (PMC).

Submission to PMC must be completed within 3 months of acceptance for publication and the article made publicly available no later than 12 months after the publication date.

All communications with NIH, e.g. applications, proposals or progress reports, must include the PMC or NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) reference number when citing applicable articles that arise from their NIH funded research.
NIH authors must use My NCBI Bibliography to enter the references in their eRA Commons professional bibliography.
NIH researcher, Primary Investigator and the Institution are responsible for compliance.

Effective July 1, 2013 NIH will delay processing of non-competing continuation grant awards if publications arising from them are not in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.