NIH Public Access Policy: Ensuring You Are Compliant

Do you receive NIH funding? If so, you will have to be compliant with the Public Access Policy. Here are some basics for preparing to be compliant, monitoring your article, and handling compliance problems.

1. Create My NCBI account using eRA Commons log in
  1. Login to NCBI and go directly to the option "Sign in with NIH Login" to create an account using your eRA Commons ID and password.
  2. If you already have a My NCBI account and do not want to lose citations or searches you have saved, see the detailed instructions in our Libguide.
2. Search for citations in PubMed and SEND TO “My Bibliography”

3. Change DISPLAY SETTINGS to “Award” in My Bibliography

4. Review your citations for compliance
  1. Green dot – Citation is compliant
  2. Red dot – Citation is Not compliant
  • Need to edit the status or start the submission process
  • N/A – Citation does not fall under policy
  • Yellow dot – Citation is "In process"
    • Be sure to check to see if you get an approval email
    • Make sure process is completed within 3 months of publication
  • ? – Need to edit the status or work on submitting the manuscript
    • 5. Manually add in citations that you cannot find in PubMed and go through compliance process if needed

    6. Continue to monitor your compliance through My NCBI

    Have a non-compliant article? You or any of the co-authors need to submit it to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). 

    1. Make sure the article is added to My Bibliogrphy
     
    2. Go to My Bibliography and view by the "Award" DISPLAY SETTING - The article will appear with a Red dot indicating it is not compliant
     
    3. Click on the link near the compliance status
     
    4. You can than choose to start the submission process using NIHMS
    1. You will need to have the article title, journal, and grant or PIs associated with the article.  You can search for articles already in PubMed.
    2. Gather all the files that you have from the peer-review process. You will need the edited version after the scientific and technical review (not final published PDF).
    3. Upload your files!
    4. Approve the initial PDF manuscript.
    5. Wait 4 to 6 weeks and respond to the NIHMS Help Desk email that requests your final approval of the Web version of your manuscript.

    Not sure what happened to a manuscript that you or a journal submitted to the NIH system?  Check NIHMS to find the status and approve anything pending!