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NIH investigators required to comply with revised NIH Public Access Policy

To: All NIH investigators
Date: April 21, 2008
From: Carol Zuiches, Associate Vice President for Research Administration
Subject: NIH Public Access Policy

Effective April 07, 2008, University of Chicago NIH investigators are required to comply with the revised NIH Public Access Policy (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-033.html).

The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

This policy is a term and condition of all NIH awards, grants, cooperative agreements and contracts and applies to all peer reviewed articles that arise in whole and/or in part from direct costs funded by NIH and active in FY’08 or that are accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008.  The policy requires that all investigators funded by the NIH must submit to the digital archive PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer reviewed manuscripts including all graphics and supplemental materials.  These manuscripts, upon acceptance for publication, must be made publicly available through PubMed Central no later than 12 months after the official date of publication.

This policy requires that all grantee institutions and investigators:

  • Ensure that any publishing or copyright agreement concerning submitted articles fully comply with this policy.
  • Beginning, May 25, 2008, all applications, proposals and progress reports to the NIH must include the PubMed Central reference numbers.
  • Are responsible for submitting all manuscripts to PubMed Central in a manner that is consistent with copyright law.

NIH has published Frequently Asked Questions to provide further guidance for compliance with this policy http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm. A list of journals that will submit manuscripts for investigators to PubMed Central is available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/fprender.fcgi?cmd=full_view.
  
Refer to http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/crerar/using/reference/nih.html, the Science Library’s website for detailed information about copyright and submitting manuscripts to publishers. For additional questions about the process of submitting a manuscript, please contact Andrea Twiss-Brooks at nih-publ-access@lists.uchicago.edu.

If you have any questions regarding the policy application, call URA at 773-702-8604.