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NIH Public Access Policy

Information and guidance for complying with the NIH Public Access Policy.

Demonstrate Compliance

All reports, renewals, applications, and proposals submit to NIH must include PMCID reference numbers for NIH-funded papers.

  • A PMCID is required to demonstrate compliance within 3 months of the publication date, online or print. 
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) and Principal Investigators (PI) are responsible for compliance. The PI of the grant is also responsible even if he/she is not an author or co-author of a work that falls under the NIH policy. 
  • For non-competing continuation awards you will track compliance using an eRA Commons linked MyNCBI account. Citations in My Bibliography will automatically note the PMCID when available. 

Detailed Instructions: 

Reporting Publications to NIH 

Manage Compliance to the NIH Public Access Policy

Citing a paper that has a PMCID

If your paper is compliant (has a PMCID assigned) you will add the number to the end of the citation as follows: 

Example: Tai X, Van Laethem F, Pobezinsky L, Guinter T, Sharrow SO, Adams A, Granger L, Kruhlak M, Lindsten T, Thompson CB, Feigenbaum L, Singer A. Basis of CTLA-4 function in regulatory and conventional CD4(+) T cells. Blood. 2012 May 31;119(22):5155-63. PMCID: PMC3369608

The PMCID can be located in:

PMC Journal in process

If your paper was published in a Method A (or B) journal and they have not yet made the submission to PMC, interim compliance can be demonstrated by using the phrase PMC Journal - In Process. Citations in My Bibliography will automatically note “PMC Journal –  In Process” when applicable.  

Example: Sala-Torra O, Gundacker HM, Stirewalt DL, Ladne PA, Pogosova-Agadjanyan EL, Slovak ML, Willman CL, Heimfeld S, Boldt DH, Radich JP. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) expression and outcome in adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood. [a publication date within 3 months of when the application, proposal or report was submitted toNIH]. PMCID: PMC Journal - In Process

NIHMS ID in process

If you are submitting via Method C or D, the NIHMS ID is assigned when a manuscript is submitted to NIHMS in preparation for posting to PMC. The NIHMS ID is used temporarily until a PMCID is assigned. This number will be invalid three months after a work is published.

Example: Cerrato A, Parisi M, Santa Anna S, Missirlis F, Guru S, Agarwal S, Sturgill D, Talbot T, Spiegel A, Collins F, Chandrasekharappa S, Marx S, Oliver B. Genetic interactions between Drosophila melanogaster menin and Jun/Fos. Dev Biol. In press. NIHMSID: NIHMS44135

The NIHMS ID can be located in:

  • NIHMS systemhttp://www.nihms.nih.gov/db/sub.cgi
    NIH-funded authors can check for manuscripts in NIHMS by logging in to eRA commons. The NIHMS ID is noted with the title of the manuscript. 
  • PMCID - PMID - Manuscript ID - DOI Converter: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/pmctopmid/    
  • My NCBI/My Bibliography in eRA Commons: https://commons.era.nih.gov/
    Citations in My Bibliography will automatically note the NIHMS ID when available. 
  • Public Access Compliance Monitor - The Office of Cancer Center Administration has been assigned a "PACR" role and can access the compliance reports for MSK and locate and confirm NIHMS IDs. Please reach out to the Core Grant Team (coregrant@mskcc.org) if you need this information.