The Submission Process

How do you comply?

1. Address Copyright issues. Make certain that the publishing agreement allows for deposition of  manuscripts into PubMed Central on or after April 7, 2008. Investigators may check Sherpa Romeo for journal policies.   The author must maintain the right to comply with the NIH requirement.  This can be achieved by submitting this Addendum.  The Addendum uses language provided by the NIH. Part of the language includes:
   
   "Journal acknowledges that Author retains the right to provide a copy of the final manuscript to the NIH upon acceptance for Journal publication, for public archiving in PubMed Central as soon as possible but no later than 12 months after publication by Journal."
    
2. Submit the article to PubMed Central by one of the following methods:
    

1. Publish in a journal that automatically submits the final published article to PubMed Central without author involvement. List of participating journals.
    
2. Make arrangements to have a publisher deposit a specific final published article in PubMed Central. This may be a fee-based open access option.
    
3. The Principal Investigator or Author (or their designate) submits a copy of the final peer-reviewed manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). The author personally verifies by email both the content and the format.
    
4. Author completes submission of final peer-reviewed manuscript deposited by publisher in the NIHMS. In a variation of Method C, some publishers deposit the manuscript files in the NIHMS, provide contact information for a corresponding author, and designate the number of months after publication when the paper may be made publicly available in PMC.

NIH tutorials are available for navigating the NIHMS submission process.

University of Rochester's  list of publisher policies on submission of manuscripts to PubMed Central