All NIH-funded investigators must deposit an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts into PubMed Central (PMC) to be made publicly accessible no later than 12 months after publication. NIH applications and progress reports must include manuscript PMCIDs when citing applicable papers. Non-compliance may delay or prevent the awarding of funds.

For more details, see the NIH Public Access Policy. 

1. Some journals will directly deposit your manuscript in PubMed Central (Method A), and other journals/publishers will make special arrangements to deposit your manuscript in PMC (i.e., by paying an open access fee, Method B).

2. You (or your delegate) can submit your manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system; you must then approve the PMC-ready web version of your article (Method C).  

3. Some publishers will submit your manuscript to the NIHMS system; you must then approve the initial NIHMS submission and the PMC-ready web version of your article (Method D).