What is the "PubMed Now!" ("ahead-of-print") option when I pay the APF?

We are pleased to announce a new service for our authors and readers. Fast publication times are becoming more and more important in research, which is why we have introduced a new option "PubMed Now" on the checkout page when the APF payment is made (How can I order/pay for knowledge dissemination add-ons like TrendMD or sponsored Tweets?), allowing you to index your accepted manuscript in PubMed immediately after acceptance (for journals that are indexed in PubMed).

This option is only available in journals which submit to PubMed Central / PubMed (see Is your journal in PubMed / PubMed Central?).

PubMed Now! ("Ahead-of-print", AoP) allows you to submit the accepted manuscript metadata (title, authors, abstract, from our metadata form) to PubMed immediately, so that your accepted paper will be indexed in Pubmed within 24-48 hours after APF payment (and receives stable DOI and PMID identifiers), as a so-called ahead-of-print record, which will be replaced with the final Pubmed record once the copyedited paper ("version of record", VoR) is published.

Since they are not assigned yet to a specific issue and publication date, bibliographic information, such as page ranges and issue numbers, are unknown. The articles can be cited, however, by way of their DOI (Digital Object Identifier), which will initially point to the "accepted author manuscript", and later to the published "Version of Record".

As shown below, the AoP entry in PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30148453) shows a "Preprint" logo which links to the final DOI of the paper, in this case https://doi.org/10.2196/10873. This DOI 10.2196/10873 is stable and will remain the same once the final version of record is published. But the DOI handle system ensures that while the VoR is not published yet, the DOI link https://doi.org/10.2196/10873 is resolved to redirect to the accepted manuscript of the paper on the JMIR Preprint server, in this case https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/10873/accepted. Once the VoR is published, the DOI will resolve to the final published paper, in this case https://www.jmir.org/2018/10/e10873/. In addition, the landing page of the preprint also has a link to the VoR.

Pubmed Ahead-of-Print entry (before publication of the VoR) 

Before initiating a AoP submisssion of your metadata to PubMed, please use the metadata preview link to see how your article will look like. Before paying / submitting the ahead-of-print version, make sure you update the abstract / title in the metadata form with the latest version, and check if all authors have been added. (see How do I edit/correct/enter article metadata before publication?)

To edit the metadata, click the "edit metadata" link.

Once the final version ("version of record") is published, the "ahead-of-print" abstract in Pubmed will be replaced with the final version.

Pubmed final entry (after publication of the VoR) 

At the same time, the preprint landing page will have a link to the Version of Record, and the DOI will link directly to the final Version of Record as well.

In the final published paper (VoR), there will be a note stating when the accepted paper was submitted to PubMed (and the accepted paper was made accessible as a result).

Authors can pay for this option by adding the option to the APF checkout page (How can I order/pay for knowledge dissemination add-ons like TrendMD or sponsored Tweets?)

Notes:

• It is technically possible to pay for "PubMed Now!" before the full APF is paid. Note that our system will submit the Pubmed entry only after the full APF has been paid
• There may be a slight delay of 24-48 hours on PubMed's end until the Linkout banner linking to the accepted manuscript appears. This delay is created by PubMed and there is nothing we can do to speed this up

Related:

• How do I edit/correct/enter article metadata before publication?

For JMIR staff only:

• (for staff) Ahead of Print (AoP) documentation