For Authors

PubMed Central (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature managed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  PMC also serves as the designated repository for papers submitted in accordance with the NIH Public Access Policy and for those that fall under similar policies from other funding agencies. This webpage aims to help authors determine whether their paper is eligible for submission to PMC, how it may be deposited, and by whom.

Determining Eligibility

Your paper may be included in PMC if

• You published in a journal that is fully archived in PMC;
• You made open access arrangements with a PMC selective deposit journal or publisher program; or
• Your article was
  • supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), another PMC designated funder, or a member of the Europe PMC Funders Group;
  • peer reviewed; and
  • accepted for publication in a journal.

Determining Submission Method

Publisher versions of journal articles are deposited directly by the journal or publisher to PMC; no author action is required to do so.

Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs) are generally deposited through the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system. Note that AAMs supported by members of the Europe PMC Funders Group are submitted through Europe PMC Plus. Author review and approval is required for all AAM submissions.

Note that in select cases, an author may need to deposit the AAM to NIHMS to comply with funder requirements. For example, if a journal deposits the final published article with an embargo, an author may need to submit an AAM to be made immediately available upon publication.

To determine which way your paper will be submitted, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Check the Journal List

To find out if the final published article is submitted directly to PMC, see the Journal List. Journals for which complete contents are submitted to PMC are listed as "Agreement to Deposit: All articles". Journals for which only NIH-supported articles are submitted to PMC are listed as "Agreement to Deposit: NIH funded articles". Default embargoes for journals are displayed on the Journal List as well. See the figure below where this information is highlighted.

Tips for Funded Authors

• If a journal is listed as "Agreement to Deposit: NIH funded articles" and your paper was not supported by NIH, proceed to Step 2.
• If your funder requires immediate availability of your funded paper in PMC and it is published in a journal on the Journal List with a default embargo, you need to either make special arrangements with the journal or publisher to have the final published article deposited without embargo or proceed to Step 3.
• Note that under the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy, NIH funded articles accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025, must be made available without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication.
  

Step 2: Review the Selective Deposit Programs

Even if a journal does not participate in PMC, the publisher may deposit an article directly to PMC without author involvement if open access arrangements were made and one of these additional submission criteria are met:

• The article is published in a MEDLINE-indexed journal; or
• The article acknowledges support of a PMC designated funder or a member of the Europe PMC Funders Group.

A list of Selective Deposit Programs can be found on the Selective Deposit Collections page. Always confirm with your publisher directly that they will use this deposit option for your paper if you make such arrangements.

Step 3. Deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript

If neither of the above deposit options apply, you may deposit your author accepted manuscript to one of two manuscript submission systems to comply with a designated funder policy:

Tips for Funded Authors

• Start your deposit at the time of acceptance for publication. This ensures you have the files readily accessible and allows for manuscript processing times, which may take up to 4 weeks during periods of high volume submissions.
• If your research was supported by a NIHMS funder and a Europe PMC funder:
  • You only need to deposit the manuscript once. All manuscripts are made discoverable in both PMC and Europe PMC.
  • Submit to the manuscript system that partners with the funder who has stricter embargo and license requirements.

Obtaining a PMCID

Funders or institutions may request a PMCID as evidence of compliance with any public or open access policies. A PMCID is assigned once a submission has been received by PMC and loaded to the database. A PMCID will be assigned even if an article is under embargo.

Tips for Funded Authors

• Upon deposit to NIHMS or Europe PMC Plus a manuscript identifier will be assigned. NIH-funded researchers can use the NIHMSID as evidence of compliance for up to 3 months after the publication of a paper. After that, a PMCID is required.
• Not sure if your article has a PMCID? Enter the DOI for your article into the PMC ID Converter. If the article is in PMC, the PMC ID Converter will return the PMCID and other related identifiers.