NIH Public Access Policy Questions and Answers

Is there an advantage to paying publisher fees in order to post an article immediately at the publisher web site?

2009-06-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

Q: My publisher will upload my manuscript to PubMed Central as required but also offered to post it immediately at the publisher web page for a fee of $1,500. Is there any advantage to paying the extra money?

A: It depends. How important is it for the scientific community to see your article without waiting for the print version or without other embargoes? If your article reports benchmark or ground breaking findings, it would be advantageous to pay the fee. If it's in your best interest to establish primacy of discovery, it would also be worthwhile to pay the fee. Anecdotal reports suggest few authors are choosing the immediate access option at present. For instance, In 2008, only 1% of the authors publishing in American Physiological Society journals chose immediate access.

[courtesy of Irving Zucker, Ph.D., APS Past President and Am. J. Physiol. Editorial Board Member]

The reference list for my NIH APPLICATION is 150 citations long. Do I have to include PMCIDs for all 150 publications?

2009-06-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

NO. You must only include PMCID's for your own publications. If you have others, you can include them but you don't have to look for them. http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#c8

The reference list for my NIH PROGRESS REPORT is 30 citations long. Do I have to include PMCID's for all 30 citations?

2009-06-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

YES. Non-competing NIH progress reports are different than NIH applications because the investigators cite their own work that resulted from the grant, not the work of others. Therefore, they must include PMCID's for their own publications that fall under the mandate. This includes:

Directly funded by an NIH grant of cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008 (October 1, 2007 - September 30, 2008) or beyond;
Directly funded by a contract signed on or after April 7, 2008;
Directly funded by the NIH Intramural Program, or
If NIH pays your salary (articles accepted for publication after April 7, 2008; were peer reviewed; and were funded by NIH money).

Per NIH:
Report publications resulting directly from this grant that you have not previously reported, including manuscripts submitted or accepted for publication. Provide the complete citation (author(s), title, journal or book, volume, page number, year). If available electronically, provide a url or PMCID number. If not available electronically, you may provide one copy with the progress report. State if there have been no publications.

My publisher will charge a fee to deposit my manuscript or final published article in PubMed Central. Can I use grant funds to pay the fee?

2008-11-18T06:29:00.000-08:00

YES, both NIH and UNMC Sponsored Programs Administration consider this an allowable cost. If your goal is to reduce fee charges for uploading your manuscript or article, check to make sure the publisher's agreement allows authors to self-submit, and do it yourself using the NIH Manuscript Submission site. Robin Taylor (rtaylor@unmc.edu) can help if you haven't done an upload before.
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#e3

The journal made my manuscript open access - am I compliant?

2008-11-18T06:27:00.000-08:00

NO. You are only compliant if your manuscript is in PubMed Central. Open access via a publisher website, institutional repository, or personal web page only does not comply.
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#c8

How does the NIH know if they supported research presented in cited articles?

2008-11-18T06:25:00.000-08:00

Don't worry - it is NIH's responsibility to check. This verification is now part of the regular funding application review process.