NIH Public Access Policy: Policy Overview & Contacts

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) passed its Public Access Policy on April 7, 2008, in order to advance science and improve human health. The Policy requires peer-reviewed articles from NIH-funded research to be made publicly available on PubMed Central (PMC).

PMC is a free, full-text repository of biomedical and life science journal literature. PMC is different from PubMed, which contains references and abstracts only.

The policy applies to any journal manuscript that:

1. Is peer-reviewed
2. Is accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008, by a journal in the NLM Catalog
   • journals not in the NLM Catalog are covered if they meet these criteria
3. Arises from any direct funding from an NIH grant or cooperative agreement since FY2008; any direct funding from an NIH Intramural Program; or from an NIH employee

See additional applicability guidelines and details of the policy.

Exempt publications include:

• Review articles, unless the article underwent peer-review
• Books; however a book chapter published in a series in the journal section of the NLM Catalog falls under the Policy if it was peer-reviewed
• Manuscripts in non-Latin scripts (e.g. Russian or Japanese), since they cannot be processed by the NIH
• Articles accepted for publication before April 7, 2008, though authors may deposit these manuscripts if allowed by the journal

Exempt publications may still be reported in NIH progress reports via My NCBI, but listed as not applicable (N/A). Find more about reporting and citing exempt publications to the NIH.

Related NIH policies

• NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy (2023)
• NCI Cancer Moonshot Public Access and Data Sharing Policy

1. Articles must be made publicly available in PubMed Central (PMC) no more than 12 months after the publication date.*
2. There are four methods for getting papers into PMC. The method depends on the journal.
3. NIH expects articles to be made compliant with the policy by three (3) months after the official publication date. Compliance means the paper has a PMCID (PMC unique identifier).
   • The PMCID is different from the PMID (PubMed identifier) (see explanation).
   • A PMCID can be assigned before the paper is released to the public. Thus, a paper can be made compliant with the policy before it's publicly accessible.
   • After the 3-month window, articles without a PMCID will have a non-compliant status, even if the manuscript is being processed in NIHMS (see explanation).
     • Method A journals are an exception. Articles in Method A journals without a PMCID will show "in process" even after the 3-month window.
4. Principal Investigators are required to use the My Bibliography tool within My NCBI to report their papers in NIH progress reports. Papers should not be left off the report for compliance reasons. See the My Bibliography & Progress Reports section of this guide for additional details.
5. Even if an investigator is not an author on a paper, NIH holds the PI responsible for all papers resulting from their award.

*NIH will be eliminating the 12-month embargo per federal guidance on July 1, 2025. Until then, investigators and co-authors should continue to set the PMC public release date to 12 months after publication (unless the journal allows a shorter embargo period).

The answer, in short, is funding. As of 2013, NIH has a strict policy of delaying the processing of non-competing renewal awards until all applicable articles are brought into compliance.

Resolving compliance issues can take weeks to resolve. Articles may not be removed from a progress report to avoid a compliance issue. See Resolving Non-Compliant Publications for help.

Tips for hassle-free compliance

1. Make sure all researchers and trainees on your grant know about the policy.
2. Let the publisher know that your article falls under the policy during article submission and/or acceptance.
3. Become familiar with which method your preferred journals use. 
4. Pay attention to all emails from NIHMS, and follow up when any action is required.

See all notices related to the Policy.