For questions and answers about the NIH Public Access Policy, please refer to the Public Access Frequently Asked Questions webpage.
Please refer to the Publisher FAQ for additional questions and answers regarding submissions to NIHMS that specifically address publisher concerns.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy requires researchers funded by NIH to submit their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts, which have been accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008, to PubMed Central (PMC). To facilitate the submission process, the NIH has developed the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). NIHMS allows users to deposit and manage manuscripts. Manuscripts in a wide range of electronic word-processing formats can be submitted. Any additional files that contain figures, tables, or supplementary information should also be included with the manuscript. No further formatting of the manuscript is necessary beyond that required by the journal that has accepted the article.
Users can log in to NIHMS using their eRA Commons login (for extramural scientists) or their NIH login (for NIH intramural scientists). Third party submissions may be made by My NCBI account holders. Publisher login accounts are available for publishers interested in submitting manuscripts on behalf of authors to NIHMS. Additional publisher options are discussed in the Publisher FAQ.
After providing basic information about the manuscript and contact information, users can upload their manuscript file(s). The system will generate a receipt of the uploaded files in PDF format. The PDF Receipt summarizes the information entered into the system, and merges the manuscript's files into one viewable document. Submitters confirm that the manuscript and any additional supporting documents have been successfully received by NIHMS.
If the submitter is not the Principal Investigator (PI), an email will be sent to the PI to approve the PDF and indicate the release date when the manuscript will be made publicly available on PMC. Upon approval by the submitter and the PI, the manuscript will be converted into XML - the standardized digital format used by PubMed Central.
After the conversion process, a preview of the article as it will appear in PubMed Central will be made available, allowing the PI to correct any errors if necessary. After final approval, the article will be publicly accessible through PubMed Central after the time-delay specified by the PI.
For further questions or comments regarding the NIHMS System, please contact the NIHMS Help Desk.
Additional information regarding the NIH Public Access policy can be found at the NIH website, or contact PublicAccess@nih.gov.
An electronic version of the final manuscript should be submitted to NIHMS. The final manuscript is defined as the version accepted for publication that includes all the modifications made in response to the peer review process.
The NIH Public Access Policy applies to peer-reviewed, original (primary) research publications that have been supported, in whole or in part, with direct costs from NIH. The policy applies to all research grant and career development award mechanisms, cooperative agreements, contracts, Institutional and Individual Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Awards, as well as NIH intramural research studies. Contracts are not currently listed in the NIHMS funding databases. Please contact the NIHMS Help Desk if your research was funded by an NIH contract or by general NIH Intramural support (i.e., the research was not associated with an NIH Intramural project number).
The policy does not apply to book chapters, editorials, letters, or conference proceedings.
A separate submission to the NIHMS system is not necessary if a manuscript has been accepted by a PubMed Central journal that permits free access in 12 months or less. The list of journals participating in PubMed Central can be found at: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm.
For NIH grantees, the NIHMS system will extract the necessary identifying information (e.g., NIH award number) from the journal article and transfer it to the NIH's grants management system to fulfill grantees' responsibility for providing publications as part of progress reports.
Users should submit the complete text of their manuscript(s) along with any corresponding image files, table files, and/or supplementary materials. NIHMS supports a wide variety of file types (MS Word, Word Perfect, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.). Just as required by journals, high-resolution images should be submitted to ensure the best reproduction quality in PubMed Central. With the exception of supplementary materials, PubMed Central will convert the submitted images into standard file types.
Supplemental material that has been submitted to the accepting journal in support of the manuscript will be accepted. The NIHMS system has been developed to allow users to indicate supplemental files and upload them in conjunction with other manuscript files.
Authors must submit manuscripts to the journal separately and independently of PubMed Central and the NIHMS system.
No. Authors are free to publish their findings in any journal they choose.
The delay period is the interval between a manuscript's final publication date and when the author-supplied version will appear publicly in PubMed Central. The delay period is determined and registered in the NIHMS system by the manuscript's Principal Investigator. NIH strongly encourages authors to post for public accessibility as soon as possible (and within twelve months of the publisher's official date of final publication). NIH expects that only in limited cases will authors deem it necessary to select the longest delay period.
Following is the Submission Statement for NIHMS which must be approved by the Principal Investigator after a manuscript has been submitted:
I acknowledge and confirm:
Grant Compliance -- I am submitting an electronic version of my final manuscript that is the result of research supported, in whole or in part, with direct costs by the National Institutes of Health. This submission is voluntary and fulfills the existing requirement to provide publications as part of NIH grant progress reports.
Public Release -- I permit public release of this manuscript via PubMed Central [DELAY PERIOD] after the official date of final publication in the journal [JOURNAL NAME].
Copyright Compliance -- This public release permission is consistent with any copyright agreement about this manuscript that I have made with the journal publisher.
Content -- This manuscript has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication and includes all modifications resulting from the peer review process. It may contain confidential information that must not be publicly disclosed prior to publication of the paper in the journal named above.
During the submission process, a PDF Receipt that consolidates all of your manuscript files will be generated to retain and consolidate all of your manuscript's files for review. The NIHMS system allows users to track the status and progress of manuscripts.
After the submission process, manuscripts will ultimately appear in PubMed Central. PubMed Central will archive and display the manuscripts in three forms: Abstract, online full-text, and PDF.
Manuscript files may be submitted to NIHMS by the author, the publisher, or anyone given access to the author's files (administrative personnel, graduate students, librarians, etc.). Approval of the PDF Receipt and web version of the manuscript requires PI review and authorization.
NIHMS accounts will be kept separate between login routes. For this reason, submitters must continue to use the same login method for subsequent visits to NIHMS. For example, manuscripts that are submitted via your NIH login will not be viewable if you were to subsequently log in to NIHMS through an eRA Commons account.
Publishers may submit articles to NIHMS on behalf of authors. Check with your publisher to determine if they submit to NIHMS as a service to authors.
Manuscripts submitted to NIHMS by publishers require two approvals by the PI:
Submissions and approvals are not required for articles published in PubMed Central participating journals.
The NIHMS supports three types of publisher submissions: via My NCBI accounts, via Publisher login accounts, and via the NIHMS bulk upload pathway. Additional information on how publishers may submit to NIHMS on behalf of their authors can be found in the Publisher FAQ.
Intramural NIH staff will be given the option to log in to the system via their NIH account. Once logged in, NIH staff will be able to select the NIH intramural project that supported the manuscript (just as extramural grantees will be able to select supporting grant numbers for manuscripts). Please contact the NIHMS Help Desk if your publication was the result of your official NIH duties and is not associated with an NIH Intramural project number.
Questions, problems or comments with regard to NIHMS can be directed to the Help Desk.