NIH Public Access Policy

The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy requires Author Accepted Manuscripts accepted for publication in a journal, on or after December 31, 2025, to be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication, for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication.

UPDATE: The NIH Public Access Policy will go into effect on July 1, 2025 at which time it will replace the 2008 Public Access Policy. The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy applies to all articles accepted for publication in a journal, on or after July 1, 2025.

• Immediate Submission to PubMed Central: Researchers must submit their Author Accepted Manuscripts to PubMed Central without delay. This ensures that research is accessible to the public as soon as possible.
• No Embargo Period: There will no longer be an embargo period for journals. Full-text must be made publicly available in PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.
• Impact on Funding: Non-compliance with these new requirements could affect current and future funding opportunities, including grant renewals.
• No Additional Costs to Authors: Authors can submit their manuscript files to PubMed Central at no cost, regardless of whether they have published open access or not.  Compliance with the Policy should not require the payment of an open access fee to a journal. (Please note this is evolving and some publishers are trying to levy fees.  At this time, NIH is saying that Authors may not use NIH funds to pay for right or a license to submit their Author Accepted Manuscripts to comply with the policy (See NIH PAP FAQs;  See unallowable costs. )  
  • Note: Fully OA journals: if you are publishing in a true open access journal that charges an APC (article processing charge), you will still pay the APC as that is required to publish in the journal.  Grant funding can be used for this.
  • Some publishers are levying "Development Fees".  However, per the policy, grant funding cannot be used in this case. See unallowable costs.
• Inform the journal your Author Accepted Manuscript is subject to the policy:   
  • Suggested language to share with Publisher:  This manuscript is the result of funding in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. Through acceptance of this federal funding, NIH has been given a right to make this manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication, as defined by NIH.

Note: The policy does not prevent authors from depositing their Author Accepted Manuscripts into institutional repositories, as long as Author Accepted Manuscripts are also deposited in PubMed Central per the Policy.   Feel free to also deposit your author manuscript in INDIGO (UIC's institutional repository).

Disclaimer:   This page is provided to summarize the NIH Public Access policy to provide guidance on compliance.   It does not take the place of the policy itself.  View the policy: 2024 NIH Public Access Policy

The NIH Public Access Policy applies regardless of whether the NIH-funded principal investigator or project director is an author and regardless of whether non-NIH funds contributed to developing or writing the Author Accepted Manuscript. Upon the Effective Date, this Policy replaces the 2008 NIH Public Access Policy.

Requirements

The NIH Public Access Policy requires:

• Submission of an electronic version of the Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central upon its acceptance for publication for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication;
• An acknowledgment in the Author Accepted Manuscript and Final Published Article that satisfies the requirements in the NIH Grants Policy Statement (GPS) regarding communicating and acknowledging federal funding (GPS 4.2.1 and GPS 8.2.1), as well as analogous requirements for acknowledging federal funding as incorporated into the terms of Other Transaction agreements and applicable contracts; and
• When an Author Accepted Manuscript is submitted to NIH, agreeing to a standard license that mirrors that of the Government Use License at 2 CFR 200.315, or its successor regulation, explicitly granting NIH the right to make the Author Accepted Manuscript publicly available through PubMed Central without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication. 

Government Use License and Rights

• By accepting NIH funding, the recipient grants to NIH, as the funding agency, a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use the work for federal purposes and to authorize others to do so, which includes making Author Accepted Manuscripts publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication. A statement that conveys this point is incorporated into Notices of Award, the terms of Other Transaction agreements, and applicable contracts.
• NIH encourages authors to include a statement that indicates the Author Accepted Manuscript is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy and that this means that NIH, as the funding agency, has the right to make the Author Accepted Manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication. NIH provides sample language in the Guidance on Government Use License and Rights that authors may choose to include in Author Accepted Manuscripts. Such a statement ensures transparency and ensures awareness that NIH has the right to make the Author Accepted Manuscript available in PubMed Central without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication.
• Authors are not expected to provide rights to NIH to the Final Published Article, and the rights that accrue to NIH upon the acceptance of funding are to the Author Accepted Manuscript. However, as noted in the section on Compliance and Enforcement, NIH will accept submission of the Final Published Article to PubMed Central from journals or publishers with formal agreements with NLM as compliant with the Policy when it may be made publicly available without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication.