The National Institute of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research.  Starting April 7, 2008, articles arising from National Institute of Health (NIH) funds must be submitted to the online database PubMed Central (PMC) upon acceptance for publication, to be made publically available no more than 12 months after appearing in a peer reviewed journal.

To comply with these new regulations, researchers wishing to publish  NIH funded work must:

1. Ensure that their publishing agreement allows the paper to be posted to PubMed Central
2. Submit papers to PubMed Central
3. Include the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) at the end of the full citation

Further information about this regulation can be found at the NIH Public Access Policy website.

The Health Sciences Library at UNC Chapel Hill has compiled information about complying with these new regulations on their website. Some of their resources are specific to UNC Chapel Hill researchers, but may prove as useful references to NIH funded researchers from across the UNC system.