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NIH Public Access Policy Toolkit

Provides information on the National institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy mandate and how researchers can be in compliance.

About the NIH Public Access Policy

The NIH Public Access Policy requires that all researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central (PMC) an electronic version of the Author Accepted Manuscript (final, peer-reviewed manuscript) upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available with no embargo starting July 1, 2025.

  • If the Author Accepted Manuscript was accepted prior to July 1, 2025, the 2008 Public Access Policy, which allows for an embargo in PubMed Central of up to 12 months on the Author Accepted Manuscript, continues to apply, regardless of the Official Date of Publication. 
  • For awards that were closed prior to July 1, 2025, authors with any subsequent Author Accepted Manuscripts resulting from and citing the closed NIH award are expected to continue to comply with the 2008 Public Access Policy, which allows for an up-to 12-month embargo. 

NIH Public Access Policy -- does it apply to me?

The NIH public access policy applies to any manuscript that:

  • Is peer-reviewed, and;
  • Is accepted for publication in a journal on or after  July 1, 2025, and;
  • Arises from:
    • funding by NIH in whole or in part 
  • 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.
  • The Policy also applies regardless of NIH funding mechanism. Author Accepted Manuscripts reporting on projects that may not be considered research are within scope (e.g., describing an NIH-supported repository).

The policy does not apply to:

  • book chapters,
  • dissertations,
  • preprints, or
  • other interim research products that are not peer-reviewed or accepted for publication in a journal.

More information is available through the links below.