NIH Public Access Policy: Submission Methods

There are four methods for assignment of a PMCID. The method depends on the submission method used by journals.

• Submission Methods A and B: the work is submitted directly to PMC. 
• Submission Methods C and D: the work is submitted to NIHMS to prepare the work for posting to PMC.

The chart below notes the compliance steps required for each Submission Method.

There are four options for compliance based on submission methods:

1. Submission Method A:
   Author publishes in a journal that submits all NIH-funded final published articles to PubMed Central (PMC); no fee. See Method A Journal list.
2. Submission Method B:
   Author pays a publisher a fee to submit an individual final published article to PMC.  See Method B Select Deposit Publishers.
3. Submission Method C:
   Author self-submits the final peer-reviewed manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission system (NIHMS) in preparation for posting to PMC. See Methods C and D Best Practices.
4. Submission Method D:
   Publisher submits the final peer-reviewed manuscript to NIHMS on behalf of NIH-funded authors in preparation for posting to PMC; no fee. See Method D Publishers list.