Some funding organizations require that authors of manuscripts reporting research deposit those manuscripts with an approved public repository, such as PubMed Central. Authors have the journal’s permission to deposit such papers on the following conditions:
- Permission is granted only for manuscripts reporting research funded by not-for-profit organizations to be deposited in not-for-profit, publicly available repositories.
- Permission is granted to post only the manuscript reporting research that was submitted and accepted for publication but not the final, edited, formatted, and published article.
- Authors must ensure that the posted manuscript links back to the published article on the journal web site to provide readers with access to the final edited version plus any corrections.
- Authors who submit their manuscripts to an approved public repository, such as PubMed Central, must indicate that the manuscript may not be made available to the public sooner than 12 months after publication in the journal (6 months for research funded by the Wellcome Trust).
If authors adhere to these requirements, they may submit the final accepted version of the manuscript to the repository, if and only if the repository ensures that the deposited manuscript will not be made available to the public during the 12 month embargo following publication in the journal (6 months for research funded by the Wellcome Trust). The published article is protected by copyright at the time of publication and thereafter.