Managing NIH Public Access Compliance: Quick Checklist

This is a quick review of the steps for compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy. Use the other tabs in this Guide to find more detailed information. Print out the 1-page PDF and check tasks off as you go.

Our thanks to the University of Washington Health Sciences Library for developing the original checklist from which this was adapted. 

• Review the journal's Instructions to Authors for any specific information or instructions related to the NIH Public Access Policy.
• Designate someone (PI, author, staff member) to ensure that the manuscript moves along in the process to deposit in PubMed Central.  Ultimately, the PI is responsible.
• If you are an author but not the PI, notify PI that you are working on a manuscript so s/he can plan to follow its progress.  
• Register for a My NCBI account and link it to your eRA Commons account.

• Communicate your need to comply with NIH's Public Access Policy upon submitting a manuscript.
• Ensure you understand who will be responsible for submitting the manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission system (NIHMS).  Methods A, B, and D, the publisher submits manuscript; for Method C, the author or designate submits.

• Regardless of which submission method is used, take the time to ensure that the submission has occurred.
• Review and approve NIHMS submissions when requested.  NIHMS will request a review at two different stages of processing.  See this NIHMS Overview diagram for the process.
• Use My Bibliography to link publications to Awards and to monitor compliance.

• Use the NIHMSID number or the notation "PMC Journal - In Process" for up to 3 months after the article is published.
• Use PMCID number when it's available. You can use a PubMed ID (PMID) to find the corresponding PMCID/NIHMSID with the PMCID Converter.
• Use MyNCBI/My Bibliography to manage your compliance to the NIH Public Access Policy. You may share your My Bibliography collection with a delegate to assist with managing the bibliography. [video]
• Use My Bibliography to generate a PDF of publications to submit with Research Performance Progress Reports.

Please contact me:

Alam Saleh
Research & Learning Librarian
Arizona Health Sciences Library
saleh1@email.arizona.edu
520-626-5450