The methods for submitting to PubMed Central (PMC) are summarized on NIH's page, Submitting to PubMed Central. Guidance on submitting to PMC can be found on NIH's Submitting to PubMed Central webpage.
Submission to PubMed Central is either performed by the author's journal or publisher or performed by the author. In either case, the ultimate responsibility for PMC submission is the author's.
If possible, you should iron out the details for PMC submission when you sign your publisher agreement (see "Retaining Rights in Publisher Agreements" on this guide)
Your PMC submission will fall into one of the following three scenarios, depending upon your journal or publisher.
The following boxes describe each scenario in more detail. Examine the scenarios carefully. You may need to explore multiple scenarios before determining the one that will work for your circumstances.
Note that in addition to the three scenarios outlined by NIH, we also describe below a Johns Hopkins-supported method which uses Hopkins' Public Access Submission System (PASS).
In this scenario, you are benefiting from arrangements that PMC already has with journals or publishers. Because of these existing arrangements, this scenario requires the least amount of effort on your part.
Certain journals already automatically deposit their NIH-funded articles to PMC with no embargo period. These can be identified by searching the PMC Journal List. The records for these types of journals will note the following:
The following screenshots highlight the search interface and the relevant notes.
In this scenario, you make special arrangements to have your journal or publisher submit to PMC for you. This scenario requires some effort on your part.
Journals and publishers that may be amenable to these special arrangements have certain characteristics, as described in the following three sub-scenarios.
As mentioned in scenario 1 above, the PMC Journal List may be searched to identify journals that have existing relationships with PMC for the deposit of articles.
In order to meet the requirements of the NIH Public Access Policy, special arrangements will need to be made with journals in the PMC Journal List that have an embargo period (i.e., a "release delay" longer than "0 months"). Contact such journals to determine if and how journal-mediated submission to PMC can be arranged.
The records for these types of journals will note the following:
The following screenshot highlights the relevant notes for scenario 2A journals.
Selective Deposit publishers only deposit certain NIH-funded articles to PMC. This is generally because (1) they are hybrid publishers with subscription-based and open-access options or (2) they are supportive of funder requirements around public access.
You will need to take steps to arrange for the PMC deposit of any NIH-funded article you publish in journals from these publishers. This usually involves choosing the journal's fee-based open access publishing option.
See the library's Open Access Publishing guide for a primer on open access publishing.
It's possible that the journal you are publishing in is neither represented in the PMC Journal List nor part of a selective deposit collection. In this case, you should contact the journal to see how they can work with you to meet NIH's public access requirements.
If your journal or publisher will not submit your final published article to PMC either through existing or special arrangements, you will need to submit your author accepted manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system. This scenario requires the most effort on your part.
Submission to NIHMS is a multi-step process requiring active communication and approval on your part. The NIHMS process culminates in the deposit of your author accepted manuscript into PMC. The following are the key steps in this process
NIHMS makes the manuscript available in PMC.
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.
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.