NIH Public Access Policy

As mentioned earlier in this guide, My Bibliography is a powerful tool for visualizing and managing your publications. You can access My Bibliography when you log in to your My NCBI account via the main NCBI website or via PubMed or other NCBI databases.

Linking your eRA Commons account with My Bibliography via your My NCBI account enables you to do the following:

• See a list of your NIH-funded publications
• Monitor their compliance status with the NIH Public Access Policy
• Make changes that correct non-compliant publications

Linking eRA Commons and My NCBI Accounts If You Don't Already Have a My NCBI Account

One Step to Link Accounts

If you don't have a My NCBI account, choose the "eRA Commons" option from the My NCBI log-in page and follow the steps to create a new account.

Linking eRA Commons and My NCBI Accounts If You Do Already Have a My NCBI Account

Three Steps to Link Accounts

If you already have a My NCBI Account, you need to manually link this account to your eRA Commons account. Follow the three steps below to link the accounts.

Step One

Log into your My NCBI, click on your username and then click on "Account settings."
 

Step Two

On the "NCBI Account Settings" page, scroll down to the "Linked Accounts" section and click on "Add account."
 

Step Three

Using the "Link a new 3rd-party account" tool to search for "eRA Commons," click on the "eRA Commons" link, and log in to your eRA Commons account to add the account.

My NCBI Support

• My NCBI Help
• NLM Support Center - Knowledge Base
• NLM Support Center - Write to the Help Desk

When your eRA Commons and My NCBI accounts are linked, your My Bibliography will not only display your publications, it will also indicate whether or not they are in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.

Relevant Colors and Symbols in My Bibliography

The following colors and symbols are used to indicate compliance:

The My Bibliography Landing Page

The following screenshot of a My Bibliography landing page illustrates the use of these colors and symbols. The screenshot also highlights additional elements related to compliance, including:

• The "eRA linked account" icon showing the linkage of accounts
• The citation compliance status bar at the top of the page which gives a quick count of compliant and non-compliant publications
• The "Edit Status" link that should be clicked when publications are out of compliance. This starts the submission process to NIHMS.
• The "Add Award" button that should be clicked to associate NIH grant funding with publications
   

My Bibliography Support

• Managing Compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy

When reporting NIH-funded publications to NIH as part of progress reports and funding applications, you must indicate the compliance status of these publications when you cite them. The following scenarios provide specific guidance.

In-Process Publication with a NIHMSID

For a publication submitted to NIHMS using Method C, a NIHMSID is issued prior to NIHMS uploading the manuscript to PMC (see this guide's page on submission to PMC). Use this ID at the end of the publication's citation to indicate compliance.

Example 

Cerrato A, Parisi M, Santa Anna S, Missirlis F, Guru S, Agarwal S, Sturgill D, Talbot T, Spiegel A, Collins F, Chandrasekharappa S, Marx S, Oliver B. Genetic interactions between Drosophila melanogaster menin and Jun/Fos. Dev Biol. In press. NIHMSID: NIHMS44135

Publication with a PMCID

For a publication with a PMCID, use this ID at the end of the publication's citation to indicate compliance.

Example

Sala-Torra O, Gundacker HM, Stirewalt DL, Ladne PA, Pogosova-Agadjanyan EL, Slovak ML, Willman CL, Heimfeld S, Boldt DH, Radich JP. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) expression and outcome in adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood. 2007 April 1; 109(7): 3080–3083. PMCID: PMC1852221