Intramural Directions for Submitting to PubMed Central via NIHMS

Submitting manuscripts to PubMed Central through the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system is simple and usually takes about 10 minutes. The following materials or pieces of information will be asked for during the submission process:

1. Journal name
2. Manuscript title
3. NIH funding mechanism
4. All manuscript files, including any figures, tables and supplementary materials

Step 1 (Login): Point your Web browser to the NIHMS home page. Click on the Proceed link located within the Log In box found in the upper right of the NIHMS home page; this will take you to the Login Options page. From here, click on the NIH & eRA Commons link. You will now see the standard NIH iTrust login page. To log in, use your NIH username/password pair. (This is the same username/password pair you use to access your E-mail.)

If an NIH employee or NIH contractor is submitting the manuscript on your behalf, do not share your login credentials with them – they can (and should) use their own NIH username and password to access the submission system.

Step 2 (Begin): Click on the Continue button in the lower right of the Manuscript Submission Overview page to begin the submission process.

Step 3 (Journal Name): Enter the journal name and manuscript title.

Step 4 (Project Number): Enter all sources of NIH funding that supported the research described in the manuscript. Intramural researchers typically are supported through funding associated with one or more ZIA numbers; these numbers correspond to the Intramural Research Reports that all investigators are required to file at the end of each fiscal year. All applicable project numbers and grant numbers (if collaborating with extramural researchers) should be provided. The site includes an easy search mechanism for finding project and grant numbers.

No Project Number? Researchers who do not yet have a ZIA number or who are not supported by intramural projects should instead use the 10-digit ID number on their NIH badge.

Step 5 (Upload): Upload all manuscript files. Please provide high-resolution versions of all images. Also include all supplementary materials referred to within the main manuscript.

Step 6 (Review and Approve Submission): The submission system will combine your submitted files into a single PDF file for you to review. You can also indicate whether the paper should not be made public immediately by setting a delay period.

Once the submission is complete, you will receive an E-mail asking you to log back into NIHMS to review the final PDF. If someone else has performed the submission on your behalf, you will also receive this E-mail, since it is your responsibility to provide final sign-off on all submissions.

Reviewing the PMC-Formatted Copy of your Manuscript

After you approve the submission (step 6, above), the NIHMS system will convert your files into a standard PMC format that is used for displaying all papers on the PMC Web site. The conversion process takes about two weeks, at the end of which you will receive an E-mail asking you to return to NIHMS to review the PMC-formatted manuscript.

Important: You must review and approve the PMC-formatted manuscript in order to complete the submission process and for the manuscript to be considered compliant.