Method B Best Practices

You are using Submission Method B. These publishers and journals have an agreement with NIH to post individual final published articles in PubMed Central (PMC) on a case-by-case basis. These journals do not automatically post every NIH-funded paper in PMC. Rather, the author can choose to arrange with the journal to post a specific article; this usually involves choosing the journalā€™s fee-based open access option for publishing that article.

  1. Track the paper and ensure compliance

    Awardees using this submission method are responsible for ensuring that the journal posts the article to PMC to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after publication, in accordance with the NIH Public Access Policy.

    • Enter the citation into your Commons-linked My Bibliography as a ā€˜forthcomingā€™ paper.
    • To identify the paper as a Method B, click ā€˜edit statusā€™ in My Bibliography and select Method B in the popup window. (Check the My Bibliography FAQ for detailed instructions).
    • Ensure your collaborators can also track the paper by suggesting it to your co-authors and the principal investigators (PI) of any supporting awards. Each PI will have to link the paper to their award.
  2. Link the paper to the published record
    • My Bibliography will link the forthcoming paper to the published record automatically when the paper is published, provided that the forthcoming citation is similar to the published citation. See the My Bibliography FAQ if you need additional assistance.
    • Within three months of publication, your paper must appear in your My Bibliography collection or Other Citations with a PMCID to comply with the public access policy. If not, please contact your publisher and ensure they will deposit the final published paper to PMC as soon as possible.
  3. Reporting the paper to NIH

    For Type 5 progress reports, My NCBI will generate a citation in the correct format for you in a PDF report and in the publication section of the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR). To manually cite the paper on NIH applications, proposals and reports, including renewal applications (type 2s) and biosketches:

    • 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
    • For papers in press (often listed as ā€œ[epub ahead of print]ā€), or published within 3 months of when an application, proposal or report is submitted: ā€œPMC Journal - In Processā€ or the PMCID at the end of the full citation. For additional information on how and when to report papers to NIH, see Reporting Publications to NIH.
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