Public access to publicly funded research contributes directly to the mission of higher education. Improved access will enable universities to maximize their own investment in research and widen the potential for discovery as the results are more readily available for others to build upon.

—David Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, "University Research Publishing or Distribution Strategies?" ARL: A Bimonthly Report, no. 252/253 (June/August 2007): 6–9.

Implementation of the NIH Public Access Policy is an opportunity to advance science as well as the research institution’s mission. However, compliance brings with it implications for various stakeholders within research institutions:

NIH-Funded Investigators

• Investigators have the option of either depositing their final peer-reviewed manuscript in PubMed Central as soon as it has been accepted for publication or publishing it in a journal that will deposit the article on their behalf. Journals that deposit on behalf of authors often impose an embargo of up to a year on public access and may charge for the service.
• When submitting an article to a journal, NIH recommends authors inform the journal that the article is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. This should not influence acceptance by any reputable journal.
• It is necessary that authors reserve rights to deposit their articles in PubMed Central in their publishing or copyright transfer agreements with journals. There are a number of means to accomplish this, as described in Retaining Rights.
• How much investigator effort will be needed to secure the necessary rights will vary among journals. Some institutions are preparing resources or creating policies to assist investigators in working with publishers to ensure they retain the rights needed to comply.
• The necessity to retain rights for PubMed Central deposit also offers an opportunity to reserve other non-commercial rights that will benefit authors, students, and other readers. Using one of the Author Addenda available via the Scholars Copyright Addendum Engine is a practical means reserving these rights.
• To help ensure compliance, NIH grant applications and reports must cite the PubMed Central reference number assigned to deposited articles.
• For further information on PubMed Central deposit, see How to Deposit.

Research Administrators

• Under terms of NIH funding, principal investigators and their institutions (as grantees) are responsible for ensuring the submission of articles stemming from their awards. Institutions should make certain that authors are aware of and comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.
• Some large research institutions have multiple offices that support grantees (for instance one for a medical campus and one for the rest of the university). NIH funding is not limited to health sciences programs making it important for all responsible offices to coordinate their activities and communications.
• Consider including a notice to NIH investigators in the local online grant management system.
• Institutions may want to offer guidance to authors on how to reserve necessary rights in their agreements with journal publishers.
• New institutional policies that address copyright management issues may be needed. Read the white paper for university administrators on options for ensuring institutions reserve the necessary rights for articles to be made available in PubMed Central. Discuss this with your institution’s legal counsel, library director, and others as appropriate. (For further information on copyright management, see Retaining Rights.)
• Consider what steps should be taken locally to monitor compliance. NIH has indicated that compliance will not be a factor in evaluation of grant applications but will be addressed administratively. Thus non-compliance could, for example, delay or prevent awarding of funds.

Legal Counsel

• Because compliance with the policy, including retention of necessary rights in author’s agreements with publishers, is a condition of funding, several steps should be considered both to ensure the institution’s obligations are fulfilled and ensure it receives the fullest benefit from the policy. For a discussion of six potential institutional compliance strategies, read the white paper for university administrators.
• Consider offering guidance to authors on how to reserve necessary rights in their agreements with journal publishers.
• Consider opportunities to retain more than the minimum rights needed for compliance, perhaps enabling local uses of published articles or extending rights management practices beyond NIH funded research. Discuss this with your institution’s research administrators, library director, and others, as appropriate.
• See Retaining Rights for more background on the copyright management issues at stake.

Librarians

• To aid the institution in meeting its compliance obligations, the library may want to work with other relevant offices on campus to offer informational workshops, advisory services, or deposit tools/services for investigators.
• Bring the white paper for university administrators to the attention of your research office, legal counsel, and others as appropriate.
• Perhaps the research office can notify the library when NIH grants are received and the library can then work with investigators to facilitate compliance.
• Many libraries are already engaged in ongoing author rights management outreach. The NIH policy offers many opportunities to broaden campus engagement with author rights management issues generally. Existing author rights management programs can be adapted to address the NIH policy. (For further information on copyright management, see Retaining Rights.)
• Consider how implementation of the NIH policy might be leveraged to further advance the university’s mission. For example, consider how investigators might be encouraged to deposit their work in your institution’s digital repository.