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NIH Public Access Policy

Journal InformationTools

The Library provides access to various subscription and free journal tools. Use these tools to identify and evaluate journals across disciplines.

Journal Tools

What is PubMed Central?

About PubMed Central

PubMed Central® (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. Its content can be accessed by anyone online at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/.

It serves as the repository for journal literature deposited by participating publishers, as well as for author manuscripts that have been submitted in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy and similar policies of other research funding agencies.

PubMed Central is NOT PubMed.

  • PubMed Central is one (1) of three (3) subsets of data that PubMed accesses when it is searched by users.
  • PubMed includes subscription-based journal articles and NCBI Bookshelf materials, PubMed Central does not include these sources of data. 
  • There are reciprocal links between PubMed Central and corresponding citations in PubMed. These links are represented by unique reference numbers. PubMed Central assigns each article a reference number known as a PMCID. PubMed assigns each article a reference number known as a PMID. These identifiers are not interchangeable. Each reference number is unique to its indexer. 
  • Only a PMCID can be used as evidence of compliance with the NIH PAP.

How do I submit my manuscript to PubMed Central?

Submit a Manuscript

A manuscript can be submitted to PubMed Central by one of four (4) methods. The NIH refers to these methods as Methods A, B, C, and D. 

Method A

Journal
  • The journal is a "participating journal" of PubMed Central.
  • In this method, the final published article is automatically submitted to PMC by the journal.
  • Participating journals can be searched for here.
  • If your journal is listed in the Participating Journals list, the process requires no action on the author's part. If your journal is NOT listed, you must identify an alternative method based on your circumstances (Methods B-D).

Method B

Journal & Author
  • The journal has an agreement with the NIH to submit articles where the author chooses the journal's fee-based open access option. Journals with this agreement with the NIH can be searched for here. 
  • In this method, the final published article is submitted to PMC by the journal.
  • Authors must ensure the submission process is completed by the journal. For questions about their NIH agreement and submission process, contact the journal.  

  • Ask the Publisher email template.

Method C

Author
  • The journal is NOT a "participating journal" of PubMed Central.
  • The journal does NOT have an agreement with the NIH to submit articles where the author chooses the journal's fee-based open access option.
  • In this method, the final published article is submitted to PMC by the author via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). 

Method D

Journal & Author
  • In an effort to facilitate compliance, the journal's publisher volunteers to begin the submission process to PMC for the author. Volunteer publishers can be searched for here. 
  • In this method, the final published article is submitted to PMC via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) by the journal and a designated author of the article.
  • The publisher will begin the submission process by depositing article files into NIHMS, but a designated author must complete the submission process. The designated author will receive an email notification upon the publisher's deposit with instructions on how to proceed.