In July 2008, Nature Publishing Group (NPG) launched the first phase of its Manuscript Deposition Service. The free service helps authors fulfil funder and institutional mandates. As of January 2009, 43 journals published by NPG are included in the service.

Several funding bodies and institutions have introduced mandates that require authors to self-archive articles in publicly accessible archives. While these mandates apply to authors, not publishers, NPG is committed to providing an excellent service to our authors at every stage of their publishing experience. It seemed a natural extension of NPG’s self-archiving policy to offer a service to authors to do this on their behalf.

NPG's Manuscript Deposition Service is currently available to authors publishing original research articles in Nature and the Nature research titles and many of the society and academic journals published by NPG. NPG continues to work to make the service available to authors publishing original research articles in the remainder of its society and academic journals.

NPG’s Manuscript Deposition Service enables authors to meet the open access or public access policies of all of the participating funders, making it simple and free for researchers to comply.

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• Authors can opt-in to the service during the submission process, and provide all the necessary information as part of their online submission to an NPG journal.
• NPG uploads the authors’ final version of the accepted manuscript on acceptance.
• These manuscripts are made publicly accessible 6 months after publication, and link back to the journal's website.
• The service applies only to original research articles, not to reviews or other article types.
• Only authors whose funders have agreements with PubMed Central or UK PubMed Central may use the service at this time.

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Authors are able to opt-in to the service as part of the journal’s online submission process. If authors opt-in:
• they are asked to complete a simple web form to:
    - select a funder from a list 
    - provide further information needed by PMC and UKPMC
• On acceptance, NPG deposits the accepted version of the author’s manuscript, setting a public release date of 6-months post-publication
• PMC or UKPMC then asks the author to confirm the deposition and check the manuscript
• Six months after the article is published, it is freely accessible

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NPG offers manuscript deposition as a free service. There is no charge to authors, funders or their institutions.

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PubMed Central (PMC)
UK PubMed Central (UKPMC)

NPG hopes to extend the service to other archives and repositories, including institutional repositories, in the future, to help more of its authors comply with institutional and funder mandates. NPG is proud to be the first commercial subscription publisher to announce a commitment to deposit in institutional repositories, and is in the early stages of this phase of the project.

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PubMed Central
Howard Hughes Medical Institutes (HHMI)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

UK PubMed Central
Arthritis Research Campaign (ARC)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
British Heart Foundation (BHF)
Cancer Research UK (CRUK)
Chief Scientist Office (Scotland)
Department of Health (DoH)
Medical Research Council (MRC)
The Wellcome Trust

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Nature
Nature Biotechnology
Nature Cell Biology
Nature Chemical Biology
Nature Chemistry
Nature Geoscience
Nature Genetics
Nature Immunology
Nature Materials
Nature Medicine
Nature Methods
Nature Nanotechnology
Nature Neuroscience
Nature Photonics
Nature Physics
Nature Structural and Molecular Biology

Bone Marrow Transplantation
Cancer Gene Therapy
Cell Death and Differentiation
Cell Research
EMBO Reports (UK PMC only*)
The EMBO Journal (UK PMC only*)
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
European Journal of Human Genetics
Eye
Genes and Immunity
Gene Therapy
Heredity
Immunology & Cell Biology
International Journal of Impotence Research 
The ISME Journal
Journal of Human Genetics
Journal of Human Hypertension
Journal of Perinatology
Laboratory Investigation
Leukemia
Modern Pathology
Molecular Psychiatry
Neuropsychopharmacology
The Pharmacogenomics Journal
Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases 
Oncogene
Spinal Cord

*This journal deposits all articles in PubMed Central for public release 12 months after publication. This deposit is in accordance with the National Insitutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy.

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NPG has long been a supporter of self-archiving, having actively encouraged authors to do so since 2005 when the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) first requested authors to make a voluntary deposit in PubMed Central.

NPG's License to Publish encourages authors of original research articles to self-archive the accepted version of their manuscript in PubMed Central or other appropriate funding body's archive; their institution's repositories; and, if they wish, on their personal websites. In all cases, the manuscript can be made publicly accessible six months after publication.

NPG has not required authors of original research articles to transfer copyright since 2002. NPG’s policies are explained in detail on NPG’s License to Publish page.

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Expanded green and gold routes to open access at Nature Publishing Group (22 January 2009)

Nature Publishing Group launches Manuscript Deposition Service (30 July 2008).

Nature Publishing Group to archive on behalf of authors (8 July 2008).

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If you have questions about NPG's Manuscript Deposition service, please contact Tara Packer or Grace Baynes.

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