Understanding Publication Compliance
The Policy implements Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) which states:
SEC. 218. The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.
The Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH-funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/). The Policy requires that these final peer-reviewed manuscripts be accessible to the public on PubMed Central to help advance science and improve human health.
Does the article need to be submitted to PMC?
If the article:
- Was not peer-reviewed
- Was accepted for publication before April 7, 2008
- Is printed in a script other than Latin (Korean, Russian)
- Was not directly supported by NIH funds active in FY08 or after
If the article was funded by a NIH grant and falls under the policy, you will need to have it submitted to PMC.
Does the article already have a NIHMSID (NIH Manuscript Submission System ID) listed in My Bibliography?
If so, then someone has started the process already. You can login to NIHMS (with your eRA commons or My NCBI credentials) and look up the status with the PMID or NIHMSID. There are several approval steps involved in getting an article through this system. By looking it up, you can find out where it is in that process and who has been assigned to manage it (this person is called the reviewer). Depending on the status, you may need to contact the reviewer to remind them to approve the manuscript, contact NIHMS if there are any issues or delays on their end, or reassign reviewer duties to yourself, another author (or the PI).
If the article does not have a NIHMSID in My Bibliography…
What is the submission method required by the publisher?
1. Check to see if it is Method A by searching or browsing for the journal on this list.
If it is Method A, you will want to contact the journal’s publisher with the citation, PMID, and grant number it was funded by and request that they add the article to PMC and send you the PMCID when available. They should be able to submit the article directly to PMC.
2. If not Method A, check to see if it’s Method D by searching for the publisher of the journal on this list.
If it’s Method D, you will want to contact the journal’s publisher with the citation, PMID, grant number it was funded by, and the name and email of an author from the paper who will act as reviewer and approve the article as it moves through NIHMS. The publisher should be able to submit the manuscript of the article directly to NIHMS and assign the reviewer. Whoever is assigned as reviewer will then need to log in to NIHMS as needed to approve the manuscript at several steps before it is added to PMC and assigned a PMCID.
3. If it is not Methods A or D, it is probably Method C.
If it’s Method C, someone will need to submit the manuscript to NIHMS. They will usually need the final, peer-reviewed manuscript, PMID, embargo period required by the publisher, grant number it was funded by, and the name and email of an author from the paper who will act as reviewer and approve the article as it moves through NIHMS. Anyone with this information may begin submission through NIHMS. More about NIHMS, the process, and help on the NIHMS site.
Starting with a compliance monitor report…
1. Is the article even relevant for the grant?
Sometimes grants get associated with publications under mysterious circumstances. If you don’t think the article should be associated with the grant listed in the report you may be able to disassociate it in My Bibliography. Learn how to do so here.
2. Does the article need to be submitted to PMC?
(You may need to look up more details about the article than are available in the report to answer these questions)
If the article:
- Was not peer-reviewed
- Was accepted for publication before April 7, 2008
- Is printed in a script other than Latin (Korean, Russian)
- Was not directly supported by NIH funds active in FY08 or after
Then you don’t need to submit it to PMC. You can change the status in My Bibliography.
If the article was funded by a NIH grant and falls under the policy, you will need to have it submitted to PMC.
Does the article already have a NIHMSID (NIH Manuscript Submission System ID) listed in the NIHMSID column?
If so, then someone has started the process already. The NIHMS Initial Approval, Tagging Complete, and Final Approval columns can give you a sense of where it is in the NIHMS process and the NIHMS Person column can tell you who is currently responsible. Alternatively, you can login to NIHMS (with your eRA commons or My NCBI credentials) and look up the status with the PMID or NIHMSID. There are several approval steps involved in getting an article through this system. By looking it up, you can find out where it is in that process and who has been assigned to manage it (the reviewer or “NIHMS Person”).
Depending on the status, you may need to contact the reviewer to remind them to approve the manuscript, contact NIHMS if there are any issues or delays on their end, or reassign reviewer duties to yourself, another author (or the PI).
If the article does not have a NIHMSID in the report..
What is the submission method required by the publisher?
Check to see if it is Method A by looking at the Method A Journal column in the report. Mostly likely it will say, “no.”
- If it is Method A, you will want to contact the journal’s publisher with the citation, PMID, and grant number it was funded by and request that they add the article to PMC and send you the PMCID when available. They should be able to submit the article directly to PMC.
If not Method A, check to see if it’s Method D by searching for the publisher of the journal on this list.
- If it’s Method D, you will want to contact the journal’s publisher with the citation, PMID, grant number it was funded by, and the name and email of an author from the paper who will act as reviewer and approve the article as it moves through NIHMS. The publisher should be able to submit the manuscript of the article directly to NIHMS and assign the reviewer. Whoever is assigned as reviewer will then need to log in to NIHMS as needed to approve the manuscript at several steps before it is added to PMC and assigned a PMCID.
If it is not Methods A or D, it is probably Method C.
- If it’s Method C, someone will need to submit the manuscript to NIHMS. They will usually need the final, peer-reviewed manuscript, PMID, embargo period required by the publisher, grant number it was funded by, and the name and email of an author from the paper who will act as reviewer and approve the article as it moves through NIHMS. Anyone with this information may begin submission through NIHMS. More about NIHMS, the process, and help on the NIHMS site.
