NIH Public Access Policy Mandate and Author Rights
On December 27, 2007, President Bush signed the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 into law. Section 218 makes the NIH Public Access Policy mandatory and compliance with the policy a statutory requirement.
In response, NIH released a revised Public Access Policy that requires investigators to deposit an electronic version of articles resulting from NIH funding to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication. PubMed Central is the NIH digital archive of full-text biomedical and life sciences journal articles that allows free and unrestricted access. Manuscripts will need to be made publicly available no later than twelve months after the date of publication.
Previously, submission of manuscripts resulting from NIH-funded research was voluntary. The new requirement goes into effect on April 7, 2008. >> Click for more