NIH Public Access Policy

As of April 7, 2008 NIH supported research publications must be submitted to PubMed Central.

• The NIH Public Access Policy requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise in whole or in part from NIH funds to the digital archive, PubMed Central, upon acceptance for publication.  The Policy requires that these papers be accessible to the public no later than 12 months after publication. 
  
• Before signing a publication agreement or similar copyright transfer agreement, make sure that the agreement allows the paper to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the Public Access Policy.
• NIH applications, proposals and progress reports must include the PubMed Central reference number when citing a paper that falls under the policy and is authored or co-authored by the investigator or arose from the investigator's NIH award.

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