Copyright law gives the creator of copyrighted works exclusive rights, including:

It is the author’s responsibility to make sure you have the right to deposit your manuscript with PubMed Central. If you submit your article without first securing this right you would be in violation of NIH policy.

There are several approaches to addressing the copyright issue for PMC submissions:

1. Read your copyright transfer agreement carefully. It may specify what is allowed. If the policy does not allow deposit into PMC, do not sign the agreement as is. See Options for Managing your Rights below.
2. Check the SHERPA/RoMEO site for information on the copyright policies for the journal where your article is to be published.

There are several approaches to addressing the copyright issue for PMC submissions:

1. Add the following language to the copyright transfer agreement to retain your right to submit to PMC. "Journal acknowledges that Author retains the right to provide a copy of the final manuscript to the NIH up on acceptance for Journal publication, for public archiving in PubMed Central as soon as possible but no later than 12 months after publication by Journal."
2. Add stronger language to the agreement to retain additional rights, including the right to use your article in your own teaching and research. Use the Scholar’s Copyright Delayed Access Addendum developed by Science Commons.