NIH Public Access Policy FAQ

A journal’s publishing agreement could contain provisions that are inconsistent with the Government Use License under the Public Access Policy.

For example, some publishing agreements require transfer of exclusive rights under copyright from the author to the publisher and a warranty that there are no prior licenses. The existence of the prior, non-exclusive license to the NIH would mean this warranty would not be true. If you were to sign the publishing agreement as-is, you may be in breach of the agreement.  

Even though the NIH’s prior license would still have force, you should protect yourself from breach of contract by informing journals upfront of your obligations under the NIH Public Access Policy and by appropriately amending conflicting provisions of your publishing agreement.

Contact Harvard Library’s Open Scholarship and Research Data Services or Countway Library’s Publishing and Data Services for further guidance.