MGH Guides: NIH Public Access Policy : Steps 1: Address Copyright

Address Copyright

Ensure your publishing agreement allows the paper/manuscript to be posted to PMC (PubMed Central) in accordance with the policy. Before you sign an author agreement or copyright transfer agreement, make sure the publisher allows the paper/manuscript to be submitted to PMC.

There are a few places you can check to find information regarding your publisher's stance on PMC:

PMC Journal List
- Check the Participation Level column
- The Free Access column will tell you the length of a journal’s embargo
List of publishers covered by selective deposit agreements
The "For Authors" or "Instructions to Authors" section of your publisher's website
Open Policy Finder

Harvard Addendum Letter to Amend Publisher Agreement

Harvard's open access policy "operates automatically to give the University a nonexclusive license in any scholarly articles a faculty member completes after its adoption." Harvard has a generator that will create an "author addendum" to attach to the agreement with your publisher to "avoid a conflicting transfer of copyright to the publisher and to protect yourself from breach of contract."

Addendum letter generator

Common Publisher Policies

Gold Open Access Policy

"Pay to publish"
Free universal access to the final published version of the article immediately upon publication.

Green Open Access

"Self archiving"
Final peer-reviewed manuscripts are deposited into institutional or subject (PMC) repositories.
Embargo periods* may apply and the author pays no fees to the publisher.

*Embargo period: a specific amount of time determined by the publisher before the full text of a manuscript can be accessed by the public without paying for it.