Resources for Faculty

 For questions or help with the PMCID process, please email publications@prc.utexas.edu.

Udates to the NIH Public Access Policy that effect manuscripts accepted on or after July 1, 2025.

Changes to the public access policy were published in NOT-OD-25-047, and the July 1 effective date is published in NOT-OD-25-101. Please review the key points below to ensure you remain in compliance and avoid potential funding delays

What’s changing?

• Immediate public access: The 12-month embargo period is eliminated. Your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) must be made publicly available in PubMed Central (PMC) immediately upon the journal’s official publication date.
• Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) required: You must submit the AAM — the peer-reviewed version of your article accepted by the journal, before publisher formatting — via the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system. 
• No reliance on embargo clauses: Any journal agreement that tries to delay your AAM’s public posting cannot override NIH policy.
• Automatic license: By accepting NIH funding, you grant NIH a license to make your AAM publicly available.

 

What you need to do:

• Deposit your AAM in the NIHMS/PubMed Central system as soon as it is accepted for publication. There is no cost to you for depositing your manuscript through NIHMS, and you do not need to pay a journal’s open access fee to meet this NIH requirement.

• Check publication agreements to be sure they do not restrict NIH’s public access requirements.

• Use My Bibliography and related tools to track manuscript status and compliance.

 

 

NIH Public Access Policy

All NIH-funded peer-reviewed research articles accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008 must comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.

When and How to Comply

• Step 1 – Preparing a Manuscript: Address Copyright.
• Step 2 – Accepted for Publication: Post it to PubMed Central and Track it in NCBI.
• Step 3 – Reporting to NIH: Include PMCID in Citations.

 

Manuscript Preparation

Ensure that the manuscript includes the required elements for compliance. These typically include:

• Acknowledgment of NIH grant support: Include appropriate funding information and grant numbers in the acknowledgments section. See: Acknowledging the PRC.
• Researcher identification: Utilize ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) to uniquely identify authors and affiliations.
• Copyright considerations: Understand any copyright agreements and ensure compliance with publishers’ policies.

 

Submission to NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) System

Submit the final accepted manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system, which facilitates the deposition of manuscripts into PubMed Central (PMC). Follow these steps:

• Log into the NIHMS System using your eRA Commons or Login.gov credentials.
• Enter manuscript details, including author information, funding sources, and embargo period if applicable.
• Upload the final accepted manuscript in an acceptable file format (e.g., PDF, Word) as well as any supplementary or appendix materials to accompany the manuscript.
• Review and confirm the manuscript details before submission.
• Once the manuscript has been processed you will receive an email to review the final PMC-ready documents.  This is the last step before the PMCID is assigned.

 

PubMed Central ID Assignment

Once the manuscript is approved, it will undergo a quality check by the NIHMS system staff. If all requirements are met, the manuscript will be assigned a PubMed Central ID (PMCID) and become publicly accessible on PMC.

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University of Texas at Austin is responsible for reviewing all research conducted under the umbrella of UT Austin. The purpose of an IRB is to ensure research involving humans applies ethical principles and complies with federal requirements for protecting the rights and welfare of human participants. Human subjects research at UT Austin is guided by the ethical principles set forth in the Belmont Report (Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research).

All new human subjects research applications will be submitted in the new electronic submission system, UT Research Management Suite – IRB Module (UTRMS-IRB).

For instructions on how to submit a new application please visit this link.

 

It is a good idea to contact the IRB _before_ you submit your application to discuss any questions you have. You can contact the IRB in multiple ways:

Email: irb@austin.utexas.edu; you can email questions or set up a time for a Zoom appointment

Phone: 512-232-1543

Chat (with a live person, not a bot): every day, 9 to 4, from their website

Virtual office hours: Wednesdays 10 to 11 am via zoom (Zoom ID: 99072854072)

Within the IRB portal in UTRMS, there is an orange “Get help” button at the top of the screen—if you click on “Create a new study”, you will be promoted through the steps to create and submit a new application for IRB review. This can be helpful if you haven’t used the new system yet, haven’t submitted in a while, or if you have a grad student who is new to IRB submissions.

Be sure to download templates from https://research.utexas.edu/ors/human-subjects/submitting-to-irb/irb-submission-forms/ or by clicking on the Library tab within the UTRMS-IRB system. Do not use forms you have saved on your computer from previous submissions as they may have changed.

Inconsistency across materials is what causes the most delays in reviews, such as the consent form language not matching the protocol language. Be sure to read through all of your documents with an eye toward consistency before submission.

 

 

Data Use Agreements

The transfer of data between institutions is common in the research community. When the data is confidential, proprietary, or otherwise considered confidential, the organization providing the data will often require that the entity receiving the data to enter into a contract to outline the terms and conditions of the data exchange. This type of contract is referred to as a Data Use Agreement (DUA). Alternatively, it may also be called a License Agreement, Confidentiality Agreement, Non-Disclosure Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, or Memorandum of Agreement.
More information about DUAs can be found on the OSP’s website.

To initiate the process via the PRC the following form will need to be completed by the requester. Once we receive the completed form a member of the PRC Grants Team will reach out and work with the requester to get institutional approval via the Office of Sponsored Projects OSP.

Data Use Agreement Request Form

 

Confidential Data Control Plans (CDCP)

Depending on the type of data and the terms of the agreement, an additional (internal) agreement called a Confidential Data Control Plan (CDCP) will also need to be created.

A CDCP is an internal agreement that helps ensure that unauthorized persons will not access confidential data shared by a third party with UT.

If your DUA requires a CDCP, a member of the PRC staff will be in touch with you to assist in completing a CDCP

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