The NIH Public Access Policy now requires that publications resulting from NIH funding be made freely available through PubMed Central as of the date of publication. If publishers do not submit the work for immediate release on PubMed Central (e.g., journals with paywalls and/or embargo periods), NIH suggests that authors self-submit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to PubMed Central to ensure compliance with NIH policy. (Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy: Government Use License and Rights)
Unfortunately, some publishers have argued that self-submitting the AAM (for PubMed Central release before the journal embargo period ends) would violate the journal copyright agreement unless authors pay for Open Access. NIH disputes that such Open Access payments are required, but this conflict has created ambiguity and concern among researchers.
To help PAA better advocate for a systemic resolution, it would be helpful if you could:
- Please share examples from your population center of publisher communications requiring or implying that NIH-funded researchers must pay open-access fees in order to comply with both the NIH public access policy and the publisher's copyright terms.
- Please also share any examples of publishers actually penalizing or threatening to penalize authors for publishing the final Author Accepted Manuscript on PubMed Central (to comply with the NIH public access policy instead of paying open access fees).