CRN Authorship & the NIH Public Access Policy

Most NIH-funded investigators are aware that the NIH Public Access Policy is now in effect. This legislation requires that journal articles reporting on NIH-funded research be deposited into the National Library of Medicine's online archive, PubMed Central, within 12 months of publication.

The NIH Public Access Policy applies to any manuscript that:

• is peer-reviewed;
• and, is accepted for publication in a journal on or after April 7, 2008;
• and, arises from any direct funding from an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008 (October 1, 2007 - September 30, 2008) or beyond.

The Public Access Policy As It Applies to CRN Papers

The Cancer Research Network is an NIH cooperative agreement active in FY 2008. The Public Access Policy applies to any papers that are funded through the NCI's CRN and that meet the other criteria listed above. Authors who have questions about whether a written work is a CRN manuscript should consult the Publications Committee by e-mailing the CRN PI Office or by reviewing the decision tree in the February 2009 CRN Connection (PDF).

NIH Manuscript Submission system

To facilitate submission of articles to PubMed Central (PMC), NIH developed the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system. The NIH provides detailed online instructions. These instructions include essential procedures such as copyright and a list of journals which automatically submit to PMC. Some journals will submit manuscripts to PMC on behalf of their authors. When this happens, authors still have to provide the associated award information, and review and approve the article. The NIHMS will contact them by email to do so.

Steps for CRN Authors

When your CRN papers are accepted for publication, here is what you need to know about submitting them to the NIHMS:

1. Lead authors (or an assistant or a librarian in their organization) log on to the NIHMS to submit a copy of the accepted peer-reviewed manuscript and associated files (e.g., Microsoft Word document and figures).
2. If NCI's CRN funding supported the manuscript, the author enters grant # U19CA079689 into the NIHMS system.
3. NIHMS will inform the author that Ed Wagner is the PI of the NCI's CRN and as such, he must approve the submission and affirm that copyright allows deposit to PMC.
4. Inform the CRN PI Office that you submitted a manuscript to NIHMS and send copies of the files you submitted, so the PI Office can track the approval process.
5. The NIHMS will convert the deposited files into a standard PMC format, and will email the formatted manuscript to Dr. Wagner to make any necessary corrections and approve its release.
6. The NIHMS automatically sends the article to PubMed Central for public posting after the delay period specified during submission.