Guide to the NIH Public Access Mandate  Tags: nih open_access pubmed_central  

Where to start:

NIH Manuscript Submission System: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/

What you will need:

• An electronic copy of the final version of all the files that were submitted to the publisher -- e.g., the main Word document, the files with the tables, charts, etc. Please note that this should be the final, peer-reviewed version of the paper.
  
• The name of the journal and the title of the article
• The name of the Principal Investigator (PI) for the grant and the grant number
• The ability to log in to the eRA Commons site, either as the PI or as a surrogate.

Later:

The PI will receive an email requesting that they verify the content of the single file that has been rendered by the PubMed Central system. The PI will want to make note of the file number of their article for future reference.

After determining that you have the right to submit your paper (see Step 1, Copyright Considerations), you may submit your paper via the NIH Manuscript Submission System.

Here's a snapshot of the process for Principal Investigators:

1. Go to the NIH Manuscript Submission System: http://www.nihms.nih.gov
2. Log in via your eRA Commons login and password (PIs should already be familiar with this sytem)
   
3. Provide the journal name and the title of the article
4. Select the appropriate NIH grant number from a list of your NIH grants that will be presented
   
5. Now you're ready to start uploading files to the system. You willl load a copy of the last post-review version of your paper, as well as any tables, figures, etc. Anything that was sent to the publisher! You will need to identify whether the file is for Figure 1, Table 3, etc.
6. The system will generate a multipage pdf with all the files that were submitted, collated together.
   
7. Verfify everything was done right, and set the embargo period (no embargo, 6 months, 12 months....)
8. Later the Principal Investigator will get an email, asking them to verify that the web version (XML standardized format) that was created by the NIH Manuscript Submission System is correct. The PI willl need to review this document, and submit any corrections that may be needed.
   

Non-Principle Investigator Submissions

Someone other than the Principal investigator can take care of steps 1-7, above. This may be a lab assistant, a secretary, or other designated person. The Library is willing to do this for you, too (see "Let Us Do it For You").

• The surrogate will login via a MyNCBI account, rather than through the eRA Commons account. (Register for a MyNCBI account.)
  
• The surrogate will need to have all the necessary information -- journal title, article title, grant number, PI's name. And will also need the necessary files and the identity of the files (Step 5, above).
• The Principal Investigator will still be responsible for signing off on the final version of the article (Step #8, above).
  

Online tutorials for the process

The NIH has created a series of tutorials to help the Prinicple Investigator or the non-PI (3rd party assistants) submit materials to PubMed Central.These tutorials offer step by step snapshots of the entire submission process. 

The tutorials do not address any copyright considerations, but rather assume that the author has made the determination that he has the right to submit the paper.