Skip to Main Content

NIH Public Access Policy Compliance

Guidelines for compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy

What Is the NIH Public Access Policy?

The NIH has accelerated the deadline to make funded articles and their associated research data publicly available without embargo from December 31, 2025 to July 1, 2025. Learn more here. 

The NIH Public Access Policy requires Author Accepted Manuscripts accepted for publication in a journal, on or after July 1, 2025, to be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication, for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication.

Changes from 2008 policy:

• 2008 policy delayed public access by up to 12 months after publication.
• 2024 policy defines the Official Date of Publication as the earlier of the electronic and print publication dates. The 2008 policy defined it as the latter of the two.
 
Upon accepting NIH funding, recipients grant to NIH the right to make Author Accepted Manuscripts resulting from the funding publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication.
• Authors also agree to a license mirroring that license during the PubMed Central submission process.
• NIH encourages, but does not require, authors to indicate in their Submitted Manuscript that, if it is accepted, NIH has a license to make the Accepted Manuscript publicly available upon the Official Date of Publication.

Factsheet about the Federal Purpose License from the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship

Know your Responsibilities

“Principal Investigators and their Institutions are responsible for ensuring all terms and conditions of awards are met. This includes the submission of final peer-reviewed manuscripts that arise directly from their awards, even if they are not an author or co-author of the paper. Principal Investigators and their Institutions should ensure that authors are aware of and comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.”  - NIH