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NIH Public Access / PMCID

For questions or help with the PMCID process, please email publications@prc.utexas.edu.

NIH Public Access Policy

All NIH-funded peer-reviewed research articles accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008 must comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.

When and How to Comply

Manuscript Preparation

Ensure that the manuscript includes the required elements for compliance. These typically include:

  • Acknowledgment of NIH grant support: Include appropriate funding information and grant numbers in the acknowledgments section. See: Acknowledging the PRC.
  • Researcher identification: Utilize ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) to uniquely identify authors and affiliations.
  • Copyright considerations: Understand any copyright agreements and ensure compliance with publishers’ policies.

Submission to NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) System

Submit the final accepted manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system, which facilitates the deposition of manuscripts into PubMed Central (PMC). Follow these steps:

  • Log into the NIHMS System using your eRA Commons or Login.gov credentials.
  • Enter manuscript details, including author information, funding sources, and embargo period if applicable.
  • Upload the final accepted manuscript in an acceptable file format (e.g., PDF, Word) as well as any supplementary or appendix materials to accompany the manuscript.
  • Review and confirm the manuscript details before submission.
  • Once the manuscript has been processed you will receive an email to review the final PMC-ready documents.  This is the last step before the PMCID is assigned.

PubMed Central ID Assignment

Once the manuscript is approved, it will undergo a quality check by the NIHMS system staff. If all requirements are met, the manuscript will be assigned a PubMed Central ID (PMCID) and become publicly accessible on PMC.

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