Information for ASPET Authors Regarding
Enhanced Public Access to NIH-Funded Research

Effective May 2, 2005, the NIH is asking authors of manuscripts that come out of NIH-funded research to voluntarily deposit in PubMed Central manuscripts that have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. This policy is not mandatory.  ASPET has taken two steps in response to the NIH policy. 

First, all manuscripts accepted by JPET, Molecular Pharmacology, and Drug Metabolism and Disposition are published online upon acceptance and are freely available to all as “Fast Forward” articles.  The manuscript version remains freely available after the fully formatted and copyedited version is put online.  This applies to all articles—not just those funded by the NIH—and goes beyond the NIH’s goals. 

Second, the Authorship Responsibility, Financial Disclosure, and Copyright Transfer form has been changed to let NIH-funded authors deposit their accepted manuscripts with PubMed Central and to make them freely accessible there after 12 months.  ASPET asks NIH-funded authors to abide by this embargo period for the PubMed Central site because the articles will be freely accessible immediately at the JPET site.  All “Fast Forward” articles are indexed in PubMed and other indexing services, so they are easily found. 

The changes implemented by ASPET meet the NIH’s goals of providing greater public access to research and of allowing the NIH to better track the results of its funding.  At the same time, the changes will contribute to the continued viability of ASPET and its journals while providing free access to all research articles published in ASPET’s journals. 

Please contact info@aspet.org if you have any questions about ASPET’s response to the NIH policy. 

Brian Cox, Chair
ASPET Board of Publications Trustees

Rich Dodenhoff, Journals Director
ASPET