NIH Public Access Policy: Resolving Non-Compliant Publications

Look up the publication in PubMed to see if it has a PubMed Central ID (PMCID) below the author affiliations. Note that PubMed and PubMed Central (PMC) are separate databases with different numbering systems. A PubMed citation with a PMCID means the full text of the article is available in PMC. Example record:

To ensure all compliance steps are completed, make sure the publication is included in the PI's My Bibliography, is associated with the relevant funding, and has a "complete" compliance status.

If the PMCID is not present, and no awards are listed under Grants and Funding, it's likely that compliance steps have not been completed. In this case:

• Make a note of the publisher's name via the View full text button. 

• Check whether the article was published open access with the publisher, indicated either with "open" on the View full text button, or on the article itself.

• Determine the correct method (A, B, C or D) for submitting your article to PMC, then follow the steps below.

Only articles in Methods C and D journals are required to go through the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). However, since Method A and B papers sometimes get submitted to NIHMS, it's good practice to search for a paper here regardless of which method the journal uses. This step verifies if an Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) was already submitted to NIHMS and helps you determine what to do next. You don't have to be associated with the article to view its status in NIHMS.

1. Log in to NIHMS with your eRA Commons account (preferred), or use your UCSF MyAccess login if you are not on eRA Commons.
2. Search the paper by PMID or NIHMSID.
3. If found, you'll see a summary record indicating steps completed thus far, the current status, Reviewer name, and other roles. The NIHMS Glossary provides descriptions of statuses.
   • Have the Reviewer complete any outstanding steps for NIHMS submissions. To reassign the Reviewer role to another author or the PI, contact the NIHMS Help Desk.
   • Assure that all relevant awards are associated with the publication and that the paper appears on the PI's My Publications list in My Bibliography for reporting purposes.
4. If no record is found, then the manuscript submission has most likely not been started. For Method A and B papers, ask the publisher to submit the Final Published Article to PMC. For Method C and D papers, either have one of the authors submit the AAM to NIHMS, or contact the publisher as appropriate. See below for sample language and tips.
   • Manually-created records in My Bibliography must be linked to the PMID or DOI in order for the article to be found in an NIHMS search, and for the compliance status to display.

Methods A and B papers occasionally get submitted to NIHMS though they don't need to be. Simply complete the manuscript approval process as you would for Methods C & D. Contact the NIHMS Help Desk to delete a NIHMS duplicate of the publisher's deposit.

• If the article is in a Method A journal, or published as paid open access with a Method B publisher but still not in PMC, contact the publisher to ask them to deposit your specific article into PMC (NIHMS is not necessary for these two methods). Use the sample language below. Associate your award with the publication in My Bibliography to complete compliance.
• Articles published as paid open access (OA) but not with a Method B publisher can be submitted to NIHMS following the steps for Method C. Deposit the PDF for the Final Published Article into NIHMS if it was published with a Creative Commons (CC BY) license.
• Method C articles are those published in journals not included in Method A, B, or D lists. To reach compliance, an author of the paper must submit the Author Accepted Manuscript into NIHMS and complete both approvals. The NIHMS process takes 2-3 weeks and cannot be expedited.
• For Method D articles, you can either submit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to NIHMS or ask the publisher to submit it. Under the revised, no-embargo policy, we expect to see fewer publishers offering to submit AAMs to PMC, in particular for public access upon the Official Date of Publication. For this reason, we recommend that authors deposit the AAM to NIHMS themselves.
  • Finding the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) amongst your author team can be challenging. The Direct2AAM guide helps authors locate this version of their papers in popular journal submission systems. Note, also, that any file submitted via NIHMS will be reformatted to appear as an Author Manuscript.
  • Sample language for contacting Method D authors is provided below. Be aware that the publisher might not respond right away or at all, so you may need to be persistent.

Who to contact from the journal or publisher? Generally a production manager, manuscript manager, or editorial contact can help you deposit the manuscript post-publication. You can find this information on the journal's web page - look under "About" or "Contact". The author(s) might also have a good contact from email correspondence about their manuscript.

Search the Jisc open policy finder to find a journal or publisher's policy on posting open versions and for public release embargo periods.

Selected publisher policies and contacts. All are Method D unless noted:

AAAS (Method C or D): policy statement

• Authors may submit the accepted version of manuscript in NIHMS for release six months after publication

AACR: policy statement | pubs@aacr.org

APPI (American Psychiatric Association): policy

BMJ (Method C): policy statement

Elsevier: policy statement | Support@elsevier.com

IEEE: Support Center

JAMA (Method D): JAMA Internal Medicine policy

Karger: policy | look for contact on specific journal webpage

LWW/Kluwer: policy example | look for contact on specific journal webpage

Oxford (Method A): Policy | contact journal editorial office if no PMCID after 12 months

RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry): Policy (under Repositories) | RSC1@rsc.org

Springer Nature (Method C): Policy | Springer Nature no longer deposits the final accepted manuscript into NIHMS for Method D (non-open access) articles.

Taylor & Francis (incl Routledge): policy statement | authorqueries@tandf.co.uk

Thieme (Method C): frequently asked questions

Wiley: policy statement | look for contact on specific journal webpage

Replace the yellow highlighted text below with the specifics for your article(s) and publisher. Provide additional information with your message as you see fit.

Single article, Method A or Method B journal:

Dear Journal Author Support,

I am contacting you to request that you deposit an article published in one of your journals into PubMed Central (PMC). The paper falls under the NIH Public Access Policy and is currently out of compliance with this policy. This is resulting in funding being held up for the award that funded the underlying research. In order to meet compliance, the final published article needs to be deposited into PMC for immediate availability. According to NIH's guidelines for Method A journals / Method B publishers, Sage Publishing submits the article version of record published in Reproductive Sciences to PMC on behalf of authors.

Please deposit the following article to PMC at your earliest convenience:

Herndon CN, Aghajanova L, Balayan S, Erikson D, Barragan F, Goldfien G, Vo KC, Hawkins S, Giudice LC. Global Transcriptome Abnormalities of the Eutopic Endometrium From Women With Adenomyosis. Reprod Sci. 2016 Oct;23(10):1289-303. doi: 10.1177/1933719116650758. Epub 2016 May 27. PubMed PMID: 27233751.

Thank you for your assistance. I look forward to your response.

 

Single article, Method D journal:

Dear AACR Author Support,

I am contacting you to request that you deposit the author accepted manuscript (AAM) for a paper published in one of your journals into PubMed Central (PMC). The paper falls under the NIH Public Access Policy and is currently out of compliance with the policy. This is resulting in funding being held up for the award that funded the underlying research. In order to meet compliance, the AAM needs to be submitted to NIH’s Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). According to AACR’s NIH Policy Statement at https://aacrjournals.org/pages/open-access, AACR will submit the AAM to NIHMS on the author’s behalf.

Please deposit the manuscript to NIHMS for the following paper at your earliest convenience:

Netanya I. Pollock, Jennifer R. Grandis, HER2 as a Therapeutic Target in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Clin Cancer Res, Feb 2015 (21) (3) 526-533; DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-14-1432

Thank you for your assistance. I look forward to your response.

 

Multiple articles, Method D journal:

Dear Elsevier Author Support,

I am contacting you to request that you deposit the author accepted manuscripts (AAMs) for the following papers published in one or more of your journals into PubMed Central (PMC). The papers fall under the NIH Public Access Policy and are currently out of compliance with this policy. This is resulting in funding being held up for the award that funded the underlying research.

 In order to meet compliance, the AAMs need to be deposited into NIH’s Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). According to Elsevier’s NIH Policy Statement at https://www.elsevier.com/open-access/funding-arrangements/nih/pmc-terms-and-conditions, Elsevier will submit AAMs to NIHMS on the author’s behalf.

Please deposit the manuscripts to NIHMS for the following papers at your earliest convenience:

Takashi Tsukamoto, José M. Matés, Francisco J. Alonso, Chunmei Wang, Youngho Seo, Xin Chen, J. Michael Bishop, The Metabolic Profile of Tumors Depends on Both the Responsible Genetic Lesion and Tissue Type, Cell Metabolism, Volume 15, Issue 2, 8 February 2012, Pages 157-170, ISSN 1550-4131, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2011.12.015.

Marta Margeta-Mitrovic, Yuh Nung Jan, Lily Yeh Jan, A Trafficking Checkpoint Controls GABAB Receptor Heterodimerization, Neuron, Volume 27, Issue 1, July 2000, Pages 97-106, ISSN 0896-6273, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0896-6273(00)00012-X.

Thank you for your assistance. I look forward to your response.