Reporting Publications to NIH

Include PMCID in Citations

Anyone submitting an application, proposal or report to the NIH must include the PMC reference number (PMCID) when citing applicable papers that they author or that arise from their NIH-funded research.

Example: Three authors collaborate on a paper that falls under the public access policy. Author A has no NIH support, Author B worked on the paper using salary support from his mentor’s NIH award, and Author C used her NIH award to support the research reported in the paper. If any of the four scientists (the authors and Author B’s mentor) cite the paper when they apply for an NIH award, they must include the PMCID in the citation. However, when another scientist (anyone other than the three authors or Author B’s mentor) cites this paper in their NIH research application, they are not required to include the PMCID. In addition, when Author B’s mentor and Author C next report on the progress of their respective awards to NIH, they must cite the paper and include the PMCID.

How to Cite

A. For non-competing continuation awards, use My NCBI to report papers

1. Create a Commons-linked My NCBI account

   A video overview is available on YouTube.

2. Collaborate with your colleagues to associate publications with NIH awards, and track public access compliance or declare the paper as not applicable

   My NCBI will provide the current public access compliance status for your paper. A video overview is available on YouTube.

   • Papers marked “In process at NIHMS” are only provisionally compliant within 3 months of the official date of publication. My NCBI will change the status to ‘Complete’ when a PMCID is issued. If the paper does not have a PMCID after 3 months, My NCBI will change the paper’s status to ‘non-compliant’ until a PMCID is issued.
   • Papers marked “PMC Journal In Process” are also provisionally compliant. My NCBI will change the status to ‘Complete’ when a PMCID is issued.
     • Papers collected under submission Method A will stay provisionally compliant (‘PMC Journal In Process’) until a PMCID is Issued.
     • Papers collected under submission Method B are only provisionally compliant within 3 months of the official date of publication. If they do not have a PMCID after 3 months, My NCBI will change the paper’s status to ‘non-compliant’ until a PMCID is issued.
3. Report your papers via the RPPR

   The RPPR draws from every paper in the PI’s My Bibliography collection, and any paper linked to the award in the Other Citations collection. You can also generate a PDF report for the publications section of the PHS 2590.

B. Tracking and reporting papers arising from resource sharing

If an NIH award’s only contribution to a publication is a shared resource, awardees should not list the publication in section C.1 of an RPPR or in the progress report publication list of a competitive renewal application.

• Awardees are not required to track or report publications arising from the resources they share. Instead:
• Awardees submitting an RPPR can opt to list and/or summarize these publications in section B.2. Section B.2 requests a description of accomplishments and other achievements. Publications listed and/or summarized in this section will not count against the section’s two-page limit.
• Awardees submitting a renewal application can opt to list and/or summarize these publications in the appropriate sharing plan (Data Sharing Plan, Genomic Data Sharing Plan, Model Organism Sharing Plan Resource Sharing Plan, etc.).

Awardees should only use a list or summary to highlight how shared resources lead to noteworthy impact(s). Neither a list nor summary is required. If awardees provide a list, it does not have to be complete.

C. Everywhere else you wish to cite papers you author or arise from your funding, and are subject to the public access policy, including renewal applications (type 2s) and biosketches:

1. Include the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) at the end of citations.

   My NCBI will provide the current public access compliance status for your paper. A video overview is available here.
   For papers published more than 3 months before an application, proposal and report is submitted:
   List the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) at the end of the full journal citation for the paper in NIH applications, proposals and reports. A PMCID is the only way to demonstrate compliance for these papers.

   For papers in press (often listed as “[epub ahead of print]”), or published within 3 months of when an application, proposal or report is submitted:
   • When using Submission Method A or B, indicate “PMC Journal - In Process” or the PMCID at the end of the full citation.
   • When using Submission Method C or D, provide a valid NIH Manuscript Submission System reference number (NIHMSID) or PMCID at the end of the full citation.

   Note, NIH awardees are responsible for ensuring that all steps of the NIHMS submission process are complete within three months of publication. Note: no special notation is required when manually citing publications that do not fall under the public access policy.

2. Place the Literature Citations in the appropriate location.

   The appropriate locations for literature citations vary depending on the application type. See the Guide Notice NOT-OD-08-119 for details.

Additional Information

The Difference Between a PMCID and a PMID

The PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) is different from the PubMed reference number (PMID). PubMed Central is an index of full-text papers, while PubMed is an index of abstracts. The PMCID links to full-text papers in PubMed Central, while the PMID links to abstracts in PubMed. PMIDs have nothing to do with the NIH Public Access Policy.

Examples of Citations

Sala-Torra O, Gundacker HM, Stirewalt DL, Ladne PA, Pogosova-Agadjanyan EL, Slovak ML, Willman CL, Heimfeld S, Boldt DH, Radich JP. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) expression and outcome in adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood. 2007 April 1; 109(7): 3080–3083. PMCID: PMC1852221

Cerrato A, Parisi M, Santa Anna S, Missirlis F, Guru S, Agarwal S, Sturgill D, Talbot T, Spiegel A, Collins F, Chandrasekharappa S, Marx S, Oliver B. Genetic interactions between Drosophila melanogaster menin and Jun/Fos. Dev Biol. 2006 Oct 1; 298(1): 59-70. PMCID: PMC2291284

Examples, before the PMCID is available:

For Submission Methods A and B, use “PMC Journal - In Process”: Example: Sala-Torra O, Gundacker HM, Stirewalt DL, Ladne PA, Pogosova-Agadjanyan EL, Slovak ML, Willman CL, Heimfeld S, Boldt DH, Radich JP. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) expression and outcome in adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood. [a publication date within 3 months of when the application, proposal or report was submitted toNIH]. PMCID: PMC Journal - In Process

For Submission Methods C and D, use the NIHMSID: Example: Cerrato A, Parisi M, Santa Anna S, Missirlis F, Guru S, Agarwal S, Sturgill D, Talbot T, Spiegel A, Collins F, Chandrasekharappa S, Marx S, Oliver B. Genetic interactions between Drosophila melanogaster menin and Jun/Fos. Dev Biol. In press. NIHMSID: NIHMS44135

Note: NIH expects NIH applications, proposals and reports to provide the most up-to-date information available on Public Access Policy compliance. The NIH Manuscript Submission reference number (NIHMSID) or “PMC Journal - In Process” should not be used once the PMCID is available. Previously submitted applications, proposals and reports need not be updated when the PMCID becomes available.

Locating the PMCID

The PMCID is posted in PubMed as soon as an article has been successfully processed by PMC, which usually occurs around the time of publication.

• The easiest way to find and track PMCIDs is to add the paper to My NCBI (See My NCBI and My Bibliography training materials at Learning for instructions). My NCBI will automatically add the PMCID to a citation as soon as it is available.
• PMCIDs are listed in the lower right corner of the Abstract Plus view of PubMed. If the paper is successfully processed but not yet publicly available on PMC, PubMed will also list the date the paper will become available.
• NIH provides other methods of locating PMCIDs (e.g. the PMCID - PMID - Manuscript ID - DOI Converter), as do several bibliography management software packages.