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Implementing the NIH Public Access Policy is as Easy as A, B, C

The NIH Public Access mandate ensures that the general public has internet access to the published results of NIH funded research by endorsing PubMed Central (PMC) as the on-line repository for research products of NIH-funded research. This mandate applies to investigators whose peer-reviewed articles are based on NIH-funded research, AND are accepted for publication on, or after April 7, 2008. This policy has potential copyright transfer issues as it requires investigators to submit their manuscript to PubMed upon acceptance for publication. OSP has implemented new procedures and has assisted in the development of policy language that will reserve the rights necessary to allow faculty authors to comply with the NIH requirement. Authors will be required to include each article’s PubMed Central (PMC) reference number for each article when citing them in NIH applications, proposals or progress reports (as of May 25th 2008 & going forward).

A. Address Copyright Transfer Issues

OSP has modified the memo it sends to PIs regarding their acceptance of new NIH Awards to include the following language:

I GRANT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, IN ACCORDANCE WITH NIH PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY, DIVISION G, TITLE II, SECTION 218 OF PL 110-161 (CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008) A NON-EXCLUSIVE LICENSE IN ANY MANUSCRIPT RESULTING FROM RESEARCH SPONSORED BY NIH THAT ALLOWS THE FINAL MANUSCRIPT TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE NIH UPON ACCEPTANCE FOR PUBLICATION, INCLUDING ALL MODIFICATIONS FROM THE PUBLISHING AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS, TO BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC IN PUBMED CENTRAL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BUT NO LATER THAN 12 MONTHS AFTER PUBLICATION.
The university has developed language for PIs to insert in any copyright agreement with publishers to help facilitate compliance with the policy. It is as follows:

“The research reported in this manuscript was funded in whole or in part by NIH funding and is subject to the NIH public access policy, Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008). The University of Texas at Austin has retained non-exclusive rights in this manuscript that allow the final manuscript to be submitted to the NIH upon acceptance for publication, including all modifications from the publishing and peer review process, to be made available to the public in PubMed Central as soon as possible but no later than 12 months after publication.”
Questions? You may contact Reggie Crim in OSP (rcrim@austin.utexas.edu).

B. Submit the final manuscript to PubMed Central (PMC) upon acceptance for publication.

NIH developed the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system to facilitate the submission of final peer-reviewed manuscripts to PubMed Central (PMC). See http://www.nihms.nih.gov/. Log in under eRA Commons – “for NIH extramural principal investigators, grantees or applicants.”
All or nearly all journal publishers are quite aware of this requirement. A number of journals (currently more than 300) post to PubMed automatically for the authors — a list of these journals, constantly updated, is available at http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm .
If you are submitting to a journal not on the list you must inform the publisher that your work is subject to the public-access policy and must make sure the publication and copyright agreements allow you to submit the article. See help links at http://www.nihms.nih.gov/web-help/index.html.
There are NIH tutorials, FAQs, a User’s Guide, etc…, for you and for the people submitting on your behalf. See http://publicaccess.nih.gov/ .

C. Cite the PMC reference number of any journal articles accepted for publication under the April 7, 2008 NIH Public Access policy, when including them in any applications, proposals and progress reports submitted to NIH (on or after May 25, 2008).

See http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/.

Additional UT Libraries resources/links concerning this NIH policy:

PowerPoint slides--Overview of NIH Public Access Policy (May 13th, 2008)
UT Libraries Tutorial instructions can be found at http://blogs.tdl.org/scholarly/2007/12/27/now-that-posting-nih-funded-research-papers-is-mandatory/.

Questions for UT Libraries staff? You may call 495-4250 or contact Georgia Harper (gharper@austin.utexas.edu) or Alexia Thompson-Young (atyoung@mail.utexas.edu).