NIH Public Access Policy

The methods for submitting to PubMed Central (PMC) are summarized on NIH's page, Submitting to PubMed Central. 

We highlight below two of these NIH-sanctioned methods, Method C and Method D, both of which are author-mediated approaches involving the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system . These two methods require you to complete approval steps in NIHMS to ensure timely PMCID assignment and deposit in PMC.

In addition to these NIH-sanctioned methods, we also describe below a Johns Hopkins-supported method which uses Hopkins' Public Access Submission System (PASS).

In Method C, the author or a delegate submits the author accepted manuscript (i.e., the final peer-reviewed manuscript) to the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system. NIHMS, with key participation from you, processes your manuscript and deposits it in PubMed Central (PMC). After submission, it is important to monitor your NIHMS account for communication which will require action to receive your PMCID.

Key Steps

1. Inform your journal publisher that you are planning to submit using Method C. This prevents the submission of duplicate manuscripts to NIHMS, which can slow down the process of depositing in PMC. Duplicate manuscripts may result if you and your journal publisher both submit to NIHMS. This can occur if your journal publisher is a Method D publisher. See below for an explanation of the Method D process.
2. You (or a delegate) submits to NIHMS the files associated with the author accepted manuscript (i.e., the final peer-reviewed manuscript)
3. You associate your NIHMS submission with specific NIH funding information and approve the files for processing
4. A NIHMS ID will be assigned to your submission. When reporting this publication to NIH, include this ID until you have a PMCID (see below)
5. NIHMS prepares your files for PMC deposit and requests your approval in the NIHMS system
6. A PMCID is assigned by NIHMS, which demonstrates your compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy
7. NIHMS makes the manuscript available in PMC

Guidance

1. Methods C and D Best Practices
2. NIHMS Overview
3. NIHMS FAQs
4. NIHMS Tutorials
5. Contacts and Help

In Method D, certain publishers submit the author accepted manuscript (i.e., the final peer-reviewed manuscript) to the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system for the author. The author is responsible for the remaining steps in the NIHMS process. NIHMS, with key participation from you, processes your manuscript and deposits it in PubMed Central (PMC). After submission, it is important to monitor your NIHMS account for communication which will require action to receive your PMCID.

Key Steps

1. You determine if your journal publisher is a Method D publisher
2. If so, communicate with your journal to ensure timely submission of your manuscript to NIHMS
3. The Method D publisher submits to NIHMS the files associated with the author accepted manuscript (i.e., the final peer-reviewed manuscript)
4. You associate your NIHMS submission with specific NIH funding information and approve the files for processing
5. A NIHMS ID will be assigned to your submission. When reporting this publication to NIH, include this ID until you have a PMCID (see below)
6. NIHMS prepares your files for PMC deposit and requests your approval in the NIHMS system
7. A PMCID is assigned by NIHMS, which demonstrates your compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy
8. NIHMS makes the manuscript available in PMC

Guidance

1. Methods C and D Best Practices
2. NIHMS Overview
3. NIHMS FAQs
4. NIHMS Tutorials
5. Contacts and Help

In the Johns Hopkins PASS method, Hopkins' Public Access Submission System (PASS) submits the author accepted manuscript (i.e., the final peer-reviewed manuscript) to the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system for the author. The author is responsible for the remaining steps in the NIHMS process. NIHMS, with key participation from you, processes your manuscript and deposits it in PubMed Central (PMC). After submission, it is important to monitor your NIHMS account for communication which will require action to receive your PMCID.

While submitting to NIHMS, you can simultaneously use PASS to submit your manuscript to Hopkins' institutional repository, JScholarship.

Key Steps

1. You (or a delegate) submits to PASS the files associated with the author accepted manuscript (i.e., the final peer-reviewed manuscript)
2. PASS submits these files to NIHMS
3. In the NIHMS system, you associate your NIHMS submission with specific NIH funding information and approve the files for processing
4. A NIHMS ID will be assigned to your submission. When reporting this publication to NIH, include this ID until you have a PMCID (see below)
5. NIHMS prepares your files for PMC deposit and requests your approval in the NIHMS system
6. A PMCID is assigned by NIHMS, which demonstrates your compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy
7. NIHMS makes the manuscript available in PMC

Guidance

1. PASS FAQs
2. PASS User Guide
3. PASS Contacts and Help
4. Methods C and D Best Practices
5. NIHMS Overview
6. NIHMS FAQs
7. NIHMS Tutorials
8. NIHMS Contacts and Help

When submitting your author accepted manuscript to NIHMS, you must agree to a standard license that mirrors that of the Government Use License or its successor.

The Government Use License explicitly grants NIH the right to make your manuscript publicly available through PubMed Central without embargo upon the official date of publication.