NIH policy mandates that peer reviewed journal articles accepted for publication after April 7, 2008 and arising in whole or part from NIH funded research be deposited within 12 months of publication in the freely accessible Pub Med Central (PMC) repository (see http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/).

Which publications are subject to the policy?
1. Those directly funded by an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in the federal fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007- September 30, 2008) or beyond.
2. Those directly funded by a contract signed on or after April 7, 2008.
3. Those directly funded by the NIH Intramural Program.
4. Those authored by investigators whose salary is paid by NIH.
*Note that non-peer reviewed publications such as editorials, letters/correspondence, and book chapters are not subject to the policy.

What are my obligations as author?

• To ensure that publishing or copyright agreements for any peer-reviewed NIH-related publications fully comply with the policy--to facilitate this process, VU has developed standardized copyright language all investigators whose work is subject to the policy should use when submitting an article for publication (see http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/nih/vucopyright.html).
• To include the PMC or NIH Manuscript Submission reference number when citing applicable articles arising from NIH funded research in any reports or applications submitted to the NIH.
• To familiarize yourself with the policy by reviewing the policy FAQ at http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm.

How can I get help with complying with the policy?
1. The Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL) has developed a Journal Publisher Compliance (JPC)
database that includes information about major journals’/publishers’ compliance with the policy. Search the database at http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/nih/nih.html to determine regulations for journals to which you intend to submit articles subject to the policy. Through the JPC database, EBL can also help with investigating compliance for journals not included in the database.
2. EBL offers training about the policy; contact NIH.Compliance.Training@vanderbilt.edu for more information.
3. While the process of submitting papers to PMC is user-friendly (see the NIH tutorial at http://www.nihms.nih.gov/web-help/index.html), EBL also provides a service to assist investigators with depositing articles or to train assistants to deposit articles; see http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/nih/usrsbmt/index.html for further details.

Contact: NIH.Compliance.Training@vanderbilt.edu; 6-3931