There are four methods for getting articles into PubMed Central (PMC), depending on the journal the article is published in, whether it was published open access, and what method the publisher has chosen. Knowing which method the particular journal or publisher follows will dictate what steps you need to take to make sure your article complies with NIH's Public Access Policy.
When an article has a PMCID, it is compliant with the policy, even if the full text is still under embargo and not yet accessible on PMC.
NIH provides a Submission Method Wizard to help you determine which method to follow for your publication.
Under both Methods A and B, the publisher provides their final published version of the article directly to PMC on behalf of the author, no later than 12 months after publication. Starting on July 1, 2025, papers are required to be made available in PMC without an embargo period, upon the Official Date of Publication (NOT-OD-25-047).
Method A is journal-based. Participating journals post all peer-reviewed, NIH-funded articles in PMC. Authors do not have to deposit the manuscript into NIHMS. However, the steps below must still be followed to ensure compliance. Approximately 3,400 journals are currently in this category, which is a small subset of all journals that are published.
Method B is for paid open access articles published with selected journals and publishers. These publishers have an agreement with NIH to deposit the final PDF in PMC when notified by the author that an article falls under the policy.
Steps to compliance:
The vast majority of articles fall under Methods C & D, which require the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version of the paper to be deposited in the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) in order to make it accessible in PMC. Method D journals and publishers deposit the AAM in NIHMS on behalf of the author. Under Method C, the author or their delegate deposits the AAM into NIHMS.
Key points:
The NIHMS system allows users such as authors, principal investigators, and publishers to supply material (Step 1) for conversion to XML documents in a format that can be ingested by PMC. Depositing a manuscript in NIHMS for inclusion in PMC is a multi-step process, requiring an author to approve the deposited files and associated funding before conversion (Step 2) and the PMC-ready documents after conversion (Step 4).
NIHMS Help: Overview of steps | FAQ | Glossary | Status definitions | Step-by-Step Tutorials | Video tutorial