PubMed Central (PMC) is a “free archive [repository] of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM)” (PMC, accessed 20 June 2016; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/intro/). There are two PMC International centres: Europe PMC and PMC Canada. PMC International “is a collaborative effort between NIH and NLM, the publishers whose journal content makes up the PMC archive, and organizations in other countries that share NIH's and NLM's interest in archiving life sciences literature” (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/pmci/).

Cochrane Reviews and Protocols may be submitted and included in one or more than one of the PMC archives through one of the following routes:

  1. Gold open access
  2. Green open access
  3. USA National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research
  4. UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded research

Articles published with standard licence (green open access)

Cochrane Reviews published on or after 21 September 2016: Cochrane Reviews (including updates) published on or after 21 September 2016 will be automatically submitted to PMC via the steps described in section (1) for inclusion 12 months after publication.

Cochrane Reviews published on or after 1 February 2013 and before 21 September 2016: Cochrane Reviews (excluding Protocols) published on or after 1 February 2013 and before 21 September 2016 may be submitted to PMC by the author, for inclusion 12 months after publication. Authors who wish to submit a copy of their Cochrane Review to PMC need to follow the instructions on the PMC website: “Method C: Deposit the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PubMed Central yourself via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS)”.

Protocols for Cochrane Reviews published on or after 1 February 2013: Protocols for Cochrane Reviews published on or after 1 February 2013 may be submitted to PMC by the author, for inclusion 12 months after publication. Authors who wish to submit a copy of their Cochrane Protocol to PMC need to follow the instructions on the PMC website: “Method C: Deposit the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PubMed Central yourself via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS)”.

Articles published with a Creative Commons licence (gold open access)

If an author selects gold open access (by paying the article publishing charge or is eligible for a waiver), then Wiley will arrange for the Cochrane Review or Protocol to be submitted to PMC. The following steps occur:

Please note that it is the contact author’s responsibility to provide authorization to the NIH to include the article in the PMC. If the contact author does not provide authorization then the NIH will not submit the article to PMC.  

USA National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research

Cochrane Reviews that are prepared by one or more authors with USA National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding must be submitted to PMC as part of the funding requirements. Wiley assists with the submission of NIH-funded reviews to PMC. The following steps occur:

Please note that it is the contact author’s responsibility to provide approval to the NIH to include the article in the PMC. If the contact author does not provide authorization then the NIH will not submit the article to PMC.  

UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants

Cochrane Protocols and Reviews prepared as part of the 2007 and 2010 National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants, and published by 31 January 2013, must be submitted to Europe PMC as part of the NIHR open access policy. The Cochrane Editorial and Methods Department will approve the submission of each individual article to Europe PMC against the list of protocols and reviews provided by the NIHR. 

Cochrane Protocols and Reviews prepared as part of the NIHR Programme Grants from 2013 onwards, in addition to Cochrane Protocols and Reviews published after 1 February 2014 from the 2007 and 2010 NIHR Programme Grants, will follow the usual green open access policy. This allows the author team to deposit the protocol or review into Europe PMC 12 months after publication in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR).

All Cochrane Protocols and Reviews prepared as part of a NIHR Programme Grant must include an entry in the ‘External Sources of Support’ section with the following as a minimum: