The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy requires that researchers funded by NIH grants 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.
If your article is accepted for publication before April 7, 2008, you do not need to comply with this law. If your article is accepted on or after April 7, 2008, then you must submit an electronic version of your article to PubMed Central. NIH has a thorough FAQ that can answer many questions, as well as tutorials that can show you what to do.
Training slides are available
What are the NIH Public Access Policy Details
What revisions have been made on Public Access to Archived Publications
Where is the NIH Public Access FAQ
Does your work qualify under the NIH Public Policy Access Policy?
What is PubMed Central?
What is the NIH Public Access Policy?
What is the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) and how does it work?
Does the journal publisher submit to PMC on behalf of authors (Method A)?
Journals that you can ask to submit the final published article BUT usually for a fee (Method B)
Journals that submit a manuscript that you have to approve (Method D)
Deposit the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PubMed Central yourself via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (Method C)
My article has multiple authors/multiple sources. What do I do?
How do I cite Public Access papers?
If you are the PI …
How do I submit a manuscript from a journal that does not participate in PMC?
How do I submit a manuscript from a journal that does participate in PMC?
If you are not the PI …
How do I submit a manuscript for a PI from a journal that does not participate in PMC?
How do I submit a manuscript for a PI from a journal that does participate in PMC?