Frequently Asked Questions

PASS streamlines your ability to comply with the conditions of your grant and can help you avoid costly fees while opening up your research to readers worldwide—for free! Many funders require articles to comply with public access mandates, and all JHU researchers are subject to the JHU Open Access Policy [pdf], which requires scholarly articles to be made Open Access in some form.

You should log in to PASS when you complete the publishing process. PASS can help confirm what actions you are required to take to deposit your article, and it can help you comply with policies in some situations.

PASS also helps you make your articles more discoverable and may boost readership and citations—while complying with funder and publisher policies.

PASS can help JHU researchers determine whether their article is subject to funder-mandated public access policies, identify which actions are required, and streamline the completion of those tasks.

Sometimes, using PASS will help you confirm that you need take no additional action (for example, if your journal will automatically deposit your article in PubMed Central, as required by your grant). In other cases, PASS will identify and assist you in completing the additional steps required by the public access and Open Access policies that apply to your work.

PASS can help you confirm the requirements of your grant, based on your funder and your publisher. PASS can also legally deposit a version of your article into JHU’s institutional repository, JScholarship.

By sharing a version of your article that’s open for everyone to read, you can potentially boost discovery, readership, and citations of your work. Many publishers allow this kind of deposit, and only ask the author to link the Open Access version to the publisher’s version. Depositing a version of your article in a repository is a way to avoid costly Article Processing Charges (APCs) some publishers charge to make your article Open Access on their website.

All JHU authors are required by JHU’s Open Access Policy to make a version of their article Open Access if possible. Using PASS to deposit your article in JScholarship is a way to comply with the policy without paying publisher Open Access fees.

For more information about using other repositories, and to find out how to choose a journal that allows deposit of a version of your article in a repository, please see our Repository Guide.

After logging into PASS using your JHED ID, you will see a menu of the grants with which you are associated (if applicable). If your article is associated with a grant, select the grant to confirm your understanding of the public access and Open Access policies which apply to your article. If your article is not associated with a grant, simply leave this page blank and go to the next step.

Refer to the User Guide for step-by-step instructions

For more information on the PubMed Central Methods A, B, C and D, see https://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process.htm.

PASS only supports Method C.

PASS evaluates and helps the researcher confirm which public access and Open Access policies apply to their work. PASS also assists researchers completing the steps to comply with those policies. In most cases, PASS completes the initial submission to the repository; whether PASS can communicate about post-submission steps depends on the funding agency.

• NIH-funded researchers—PASS will complete the initial deposit and send users status updates from NIHMS after the initial submission. Users must complete the next steps required.
• Researchers with funding from ACL, AHRQ, ASPR, CDC, EPA , FDA, Gates Foundation , HHMI, HRA , NIH, and VA—PASS will complete the initial deposit but will not send users status updates from NIHMS after the initial submission. Users will have to check on the status of their submission themselves and complete the next steps required.

Whether articles are automatically submitted to PubMed Central by a publisher varies depending on the journal. Each journal falls into one of the following categories:

1. The publisher can automatically submit the manuscript to PubMed Central on your behalf. A list of journals that provide this service can be found here. In this instance, nothing needs to be done through PASS. (Methods A & D)
2. The publisher offers a service to submit the manuscript, but you need to make a special arrangement for them to do this and they may charge a processing fee (Method B). In this case, you can use PASS instead to avoid paying a fee and streamline the process (Method C).
3. The publisher does not offer any service, and you must make your own arrangements to deposit the article. This would previously be done through the NIH Manuscript Submission system (NIHMS). In this case, you can use PASS to streamline the process. (Method C). Note: authors should review publisher policy before using PASS to ensure they are adhering to the terms of their author agreement and/or the publisher’s policy.

Using PASS helps you identify whether your journal will deposit your work into PubMed Central automatically. For more information on the various submission paths used by journals, visit the NIH public access website.

We suggest submitting your information to PASS after publication.

Login to PASS using your JHED ID and password, and click the Submissions button. See step-by-step instructions on the User Guide.

Email PASS-help@jh.edu for assistance.

If you need additional help, please email PASS-help@jh.edu.

PASS currently supports the Johns Hopkins University Open Access policy and any U.S. federal funders that require submission to PubMed Central. PASS allows deposit into JHU’s institutional repository, JScholarship. PASS will also submit manuscripts to PubMed Central through NIHMS if required by your funder.

If you would like to suggest additional Open Access or public access policies to support, please email PASS-help@jh.edu.

All JHU researchers are subject to the JHU Open Access Policy [pdf]. Any type of Open Access publication model or deposit in a freely-accessible repository fulfills the requirements of this policy, including our institutional repository, JScholarship.

Additionally, your funder may have a public access policy that applies to your research. Using PASS helps you identify what requirements apply to your work, and, in some cases, can help you complete the required steps.

Many researchers want to make their work Open Access even if they’re not required to do so by a funder.

It’s important to remember that paying Article Processing Charges (APCs) to a publisher so they will publish your article Open Access on their site is only one way to do Open Access—and it’s a fairly expensive method. Paying APCs often does not meet funder requirements. Another way to make your work open and compliant—for free!—is to deposit a version of your article in an Open Access repository. By helping you deposit in a repository, PASS is one way to gain the benefits of Open Access.

See our Guide to Open Access to find out about other ways you can participate in and support Open Access.

PASS currently deposits into the university’s institutional repository, JScholarship, and into PubMed Central—or both! We hope to add more repositories soon.

If you would like to suggest additional Open Access repositories, please email PASS-help@jh.edu.

Grants with end dates after January 1, 2011 have been loaded into PASS from the Johns Hopkins grant management system, COEUS. You can expect to see grants for which you are listed as a PI, or Co-PI, or CO-I.

If you find any issue with these grant records, please email PASS-help@jh.edu.

Many governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations require articles based on research they funded to be freely available to the public. Some of these funding bodies dictate a specific place or method of making an article Open Access, and some do not. You can use the Sherpa Juliet tool to review your funder’s policies, and you can also check your grant agreement to see what’s required.

PASS currently supports compliance with U.S. federal funders that require submission to PubMed Central. See the full list on Why Use Pass?

PASS also supports compliance with grants which allow deposit in an institutional repository to fulfill public access requirements.

Yes! You can use PASS to deposit a copy of your work—whether it is funded by another agency or if it is unfunded—into JScholarship, JHU’s institutional repository.

The journal you are publishing your manuscript in may have specific requirements about which version(s) of your manuscript that you can deposit into an Open Access repository; this is governed by your author agreement and/or the publisher’s policy. Using PASS can help you determine which version you are allowed to deposit and where. PASS can also find an acceptable version of your article you’ve already posted elsewhere, in order to help you comply with your grant mandate.

For more information about Authors Accepted Manuscript, post-print, preprint, and other version terms, see our Repository guide.

You will need to confirm your funder’s public access policy; whether your author agreement and/or the publisher’s policy allows deposit; which version(s) of your manuscript you can deposit; and whether there is an embargo period. PASS can help you make these determinations, but you should also familiarize yourself with your grant requirements and your publisher your author agreement and/or the publisher’s policy. You can also use the Sherpa Juliet tool to review your funder’s policies.

If the journal requires an embargo, you can still deposit using PASS and indicate the embargo period.

If the journal you are publishing in requires an embargo, you may be able to deposit a version of your manuscript using PASS to make it available sooner. Check with your author agreement and/or the publisher’s policy.

The rights retained by the author and the publisher, including the right to deposit and how, are governed by the agreement between the author and the publisher. Using PASS does not affect those rights in any way.

For more information how to determine your rights as an author and what you can do to protect your rights, see our Repository Guide here.

No! You do not have to pay a fee of any kind to use PASS or deposit in JScholarship or in PubMed Central.

Some publishers charge fees to make your article Open Access on their own platform (an APC or Article Processing Charge). Some publishers charge fees for the service of depositing an Open Access version of your article into your funder-mandated repository. Paying these fees is not required to fulfill public access or Open Access policies. PASS can help you meet your requirements without paying any fees.

If you have paid an APC, you can still use PASS to help you comply with your funding mandate and deposit a version of your article to boost discovery of your work.

At this time, PASS cannot be used to publish data or code associated with your article. The Johns Hopkins Research Data Repository provides a place for researchers to make the data and code behind their research Open Access, enabling future discovery and reuse of your data and compliance with data sharing policies such as the NIH Data Management & Sharing Policy.

To learn more about JHRDR or for assistance sharing your data or code, please contact dataservices@jhu.edu.