In response to implementation of the US NIH Public Access Policy, many US academic institutions have instructed researchers who are the authors of accepted papers subject to include an addendum to the journal's copyright assignment form (CAF). The addendum ordinarily includes wording stating that the journal acknowledges that the author retains the right to post his/her final manuscript version of the article in PubMed Central within twelve months of publication, as required by the NIH Policy. In the case of Biometrics, such an addendum is unnecessary, as the terms of our usual copyright agreement allow posting to PubMed Central of an accepted article (the final manuscript version, not the publishers pdf) as soon as it is published online in the Early View section of the Blackwell-Synergy website.

To make this explicit, we provide at the link below a version of the Biometrics CAF for use by authors of papers that are subject to the NIH Public Access Policy that contains specific wording indicating that the author retains the right to post the final manuscript version of the article in PubMed Central according to the above conditions as long a reference is included in the article to the Blackwell-Synergy website.

If your paper is subject to the NIH Policy, you and your co-authors should use this CAF; in this case, you do not need to include an addendum. If your institution requires you to include such an addendum, please inform the appropriate official that, in the case of Biometrics, it is redundant, and feel free to forward to him/her the CAF.