NIH Public Access Policy

NIH, Wellcome Trust, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Public Access Policy

Overview Since April 7, 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has required “all investigators funded by the NIH [to] submit, or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication…”*

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Submission Service To assist our authors in meeting the requirements of the NIH and certain other funding bodies (Wellcome Trust and Howard Hughes Medical Institute), Lippincott Williams & Wilkins will transmit the accepted manuscript, shortly after acceptance, to PubMed Central (PMC) on their behalf.

What Funding Bodies Are Covered? Manuscripts that authors have indicated during the submission process were funded wholly or in part by:

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Wellcome Trust
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

What Gets Posted to PubMed Central? The final accepted manuscripts, NOT the published or copyedited version of the articles. Only final accepted manuscripts will be provided to PubMed Central.

Can I Submit my Manuscript Directly to the NIH/PubMed Central? Authors whose manuscripts have been funded wholly or in part by the NIH, Wellcome Trust, or HHMI should NOT submit their manuscripts directly to the NIH/PMC. Doing so will result in duplicate submissions and errors in processing the manuscripts.

What if I want to make changes to my manuscript before it is submitted to the NIH/PubMed Central? In compliance with the federal mandate, only the final, peer-reviewed version of your manuscript will be posted to the NIH. When it appears online, it will appear with a link to a disclaimer, notifying readers that what they are seeing is not the final article of record and that there may be significant changes to the manuscript at the time it appears in print.

What Happens After My Manuscript Is Submitted to the NIH/PubMed Central? PubMed Central works directly with the author to facilitate the rest of the submission process supporting the Public Access Policy. Upon receipt of your manuscript, you should receive a confirmation email directly from the NIH/PubMed Central.

• For articles funded by the NIH, they will be made publically available 12 months after publication.
• For articles funded by Wellcome Trust, they will be made publically available six months after publication.
• For articles funded by Howard Hughes Medical Institute, they will be made publically available six months after publication.

Authors who have been directed by the NIH or by PMC to resubmit certain elements of their final accepted manuscript should do so through [email protected]. Please note that Lippincott Williams & Wilkins will not accept corrected or altered versions of authors’ manuscripts unless authors have been contacted by the NIH or PMC and specifically asked to provide these changes or resubmissions.

What if My Manuscript Was Funded by a Body Other Than NIH, Wellcome Trust or HHMI? For all other funding bodies, it is the author’s responsibility to submit his or her paper directly as per the policy of each individual body. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins will not submit manuscripts on behalf of authors for funding bodies other than the National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Additional information is available in the Instructions for Authors and Copyright Transfer Agreements for each LWW publication.

If you require further assistance or have any questions, please visit customer support.

*NIH Public Access Policy