Memo from the Dean of Libraries

To: UM Faculty Researchers

From: Charles Lowry, Dean of Libraries

Re: Implementing the NIH Public Access Policy

Date: March 31, 2005

On February 3, 2005, the National Institutes of Health issued its “Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research” (known as the NIH Public Access Policy). The policy requests that beginning May 2, 2005, all NIH-funded investigators submit to PubMed Central (PMC) an electronic version of the author’s final manuscript, upon acceptance for publication. This policy applies to any journal articles resulting from research supported in whole or in part with direct costs from NIH. The manuscript is defined as the final version accepted for journal publication and includes all modifications from the publishing peer review process.

The NIH sees this policy as a mechanism to help them not only monitor and archive the output of research funded by NIH, but also ensure the availability of research results for the benefit of the public, health care providers, educators, and scientists.

For more information about the new policy, please see http://www.lib.umd.edu/CLMD/INSTREP/NIHfaqs.html
http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm

As this policy is implemented, we encourage you to:

• Publish your papers in open-access journals that already deposit their papers in PMC and make them immediately and freely available (check at http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/front-page/fp.fcgi),
• Deposit these and other works into DRUM, the University of Maryland’s institutional repository (http://www.lib.umd.edu/drum/index.jsp)
• If you publish in non open-access journals, deposit your manuscripts in PMC and exercise your right to stipulate that they be posted online immediately upon publication.

Background

This is an important policy to ensure that the research supported by NIH is widely accessible to the broadest possible audience. It applies only to peer-reviewed journal articles on NIH-funded research – not to letters to the editor, editorials, or other submitted materials – and NIH is strongly encouraging deposit to PMC as a means of preserving research findings. PubMed Central (PMC) is a proven, reliable digital repository (http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/), however NIH does not expect PMC to be the only repository for NIH-funded research.

The policy is not a requirement, but a request. Nevertheless, NIH strongly encourages early deposit, which has several advantages for researchers. By choosing to submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript to PMC, the NIH investigator will:

• Fulfill grant progress reporting requirements by substituting deposit for submission of paper copies of articles;
• Support NIH in its effort to preserve and archive research findings;
• Ensure that the article is available in PMC to be cross-indexed to other federally supported databases, such as GenBank; and
• Heighten the visibility of the research and enhance the likelihood of early and increased citation.

The policy states that authors can determine the time of release of the article to PMC – from immediately to 12 months after publication in a journal, but we encourage deposit at the earliest date possible.

In developing the policy, NIH took the concerns of all stakeholders into account and balanced the interests of the public, the research community, and publishers. The policy does not mandate how and where to publish research articles, nor does it change the ability of researchers or publishers to assert copyright. Authors will need to take the following easy and practical steps:

• Specify (if necessary) in the publisher’s copyright transfer agreement or comparable document that the author retains the right to make the article available in open-access digital repositories (NIH has suggested the following language: “Journal acknowledges that Author retains the right to provide a copy of the final manuscript to NIH upon acceptance for Journal publication or thereafter, for public archiving in PubMed Central as soon as possible after publication by Journal.”)
• Deposit in PMC the manuscript plus any supporting files and indicate the desired public release date.

NIH will provide a secure Web site for depositing the manuscripts and information will be provided at http://nihms.nih.gov.

To ensure you have all the necessary rights, you can make use of the author’s addendum available at http://www.arl.org/sparc/author/docs/AuthorsAddendum2_1.pdf. The author’s addendum ensures your right to deposit your work in PMC, an institutional repository, or another non-commercial repository.

For more information about the NIH policy, please contact drum-help@umd.edu.