Earlier this month, I attended a talk by Neil Thakur of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) about the Public Access mandate. A member of the audience asked what authors should do when a journal says it will deposit the manuscript, but only upon publication. The NIH policy states that manuscripts must be submitted upon acceptance, but may be held in embargo until 12 months after publication.

Thakur reiterated that manuscripts must be submitted upon acceptance, and acknowledged that both publishers and authors may still be confused about NIH requirements. He encouraged researchers to attach addenda to copyright transfer agreements to ensure that the agreement allows for compliance with the policy.

I would also recommend contacting the journal’s editor to clarify anything that is unclear in the agreement. I recently discovered that one journal had been sending out an agreement that was missing an entire section – and no author ever asked them about the missing section before signing it!

If you have questions about the NIH policy, see our guide for PRI researchers.