A PMCID is the only acceptable proof of compliance. PMCIDs and PMIDs are different identifiers. A PMID cannot be used as proof of compliance with the Policy. Please see Reporting Publications to the NIH for an explanation of the differences between these identifiers.
Authors can check the compliance status of publications anytime by accessing their My Bibliography. Each citation with associated funding will display a compliance status tag. Compliance status tags include:
Green | Compliant and complete; has a PMCID |
Red | Non-compliant or not defined; does not have a PMCID |
Blue | Newly submitted to NIHMS and in process; does not have a PMCID, but has a NIHMS article ID number (which can be used for provisional compliance reporting) |
Gray | Not applicable and exempt from the policy |
Authors can manage the compliance status for non-compliant publications by clicking the Edit Status link in the color-coded status tag next to the citation. Follow the prompts to submit the paper to the NIHMS system, provide a NIHMS ID, confirm that compliance arrangements have been made with the journal, or identify the paper as exempt from the Policy.
My Bibliography | The PMCID appears at the end of a publication citation. A user's eRA Commons account must be linked to their My NCBI account for publications to update with a PMCID. |
PubMed Central |
The PMCID appears on an article's Abstract page near the top right side of the page. |
PubMed | The PMCID appears on a citation's Abstract page just beneath the affiliation information. |
If the paper has been published, but no PMCID is associated with it, it is likely because the paper has not been submitted to PMC (either by the journal or author) or it is stalled in the NIHMS system.
In these cases: