HHMI rules#
- New manuscript submissions to a journal must include a “standard notice” from HHMI (see attached doc).
- Ask Rachel to use this tool to determine how HHMI policies apply: https://workspace.hhmi.org/app/task/compliance-wizard and to use this tool to determine if our HHMI budget can be used to pay journal fees: https://workspace.hhmi.org/app/task/journal-search
- if we upload our final draft, HHMI will submit it to PubMed Central on our behalf: https://workspace.hhmi.org/app/dashboard
NIH rules#
The NIH Public Access Policy was revised last year to implement a zero-embargo requirement, requiring that federally-sponsored manuscripts accepted for publication on or after 7/1/25 must be deposited in PubMed Central and made publicly available immediately upon the official publication date with no embargo period. However, some journals are fighting this: e.g., Springer Nature titles now require authors to buy “gold” full OA (the Published Version of Record) directly from the publisher at substantial costs (e.g., 9.500 EURO for Nature) if they need to deposit an unformatted author-manuscript version of a paper in PubMed Central to meet NIH requirements. The following resources can help you identify publishers with green OA policies that comply with NIH requirements:
Key points:
- Do not sign contracts that prevent NIH compliance. Ensure any publishing agreement permits zero-embargo deposit in PubMed Central.
- Check journal policies on embargo period and green OA deposit permissions before submitting. If a journal allow you to deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript in PubMed Central, this is free and meets NIH’s zero-embargo requirement.
- If a publisher demands unexpected fees, try to request an exception for federally-sponsored research.
- Please note – NIH explicitly states that they prohibit using grant funds to pay publisher fees solely for depositing manuscripts to PMC. This cost is, unfortunately, not allowable on your NIH grants.