NIH Public Access Policy 

What is the NIH Public Access Policy?

The Policy implements Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) which states:    SEC. 218. 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.

The Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit journal articles that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/). The Policy requires that these articles be accessible to the public on PubMed Central to help advance science and improve human health.

On January 11, 2008, NIH revised its Public Access Policy. NIH now requires researchers to deposit copies of final manuscripts upon acceptance into a peer-reviewed journal, so they may be made public within 12 months of publication. The submission system to use is PubMed Central, via the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system.

The policy applies to any journal article resulting from research supported in whole or in part by NIH. A manuscript is defined as the final version accepted for publication and includes all modifications from the publishing and peer-review process.

First U.S. Public Access Policy made permanent. See the press release for this important announcement. 

http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/media/Release09-0312.html