WIKIMEDIA, NIHFollowing input from hundreds of scientists, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has indicated that preprints are welcome in grant applications. “Interim research products can be cited anywhere other research products are cited in all NIH grant proposals,” Megan Columbus, director of communications and outreach and program manager for the electronic submission of grant applications within the NIH’s Office of Extramural Research, wrote in an email to The Scientist. In a March 24 announcement, the agency noted that this newly outlined policy would be in effect for applications submitted for the May 25, 2017 deadline and thereafter.
“It’s hard to overstate the significance of the NIH’s new policy,” Jessica Polka, director of ASAPbio, a group that advocates for the use of preprints, wrote in an email. “It will incentivize tens of thousands of applicants and awardees to not only list interim research products on their applications and reports, but also to create them in the first place.”
In its announcement, the NIH noted that it “has never restricted the materials that can be cited in the reference section of a research plan.” But this latest statement—which includes definitions of preprints and registered protocols (so-called interim research products), guidance on where to deposit them, and rules for how to cite such materials—signaled the agency’s willingness to consider non-peer-reviewed works in grant-making decisions.
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