Peter Suber just published an excellent article in Open Medicine on the revised NIH Public Access Policy. As part of the article Peter included a chart of misconceptions about the revised NIH Policy – see below:
(Click the thumbnail to view the full image)
Peter suggested one more fact/fiction misconception be added:
Fiction: The policy requires deposit at the end of the embargo period.
Fact: The policy requires deposit immediately upon acceptance of publication.
Another common misconception is that the policy is somehow retroactive.
Fiction: Authors must submit all NIH funded articles to PMC.
Fact: Submission is required by this new public access policy only for articles submitted on or after April 7, 2008 – if work was funded by current NIH funds…see chart. I think it’s great for authors to consider submission to PMC when they have kept the rights to do that but it isn’t required.