NIH Public Access Policy: Policy Overview & Contacts

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) passed its initial Public Access Policy on April 7, 2008, in order to advance science and improve human health. The 2008 Policy was replaced by the 2024 Policy, effective July 1, 2025. The Policy requires peer-reviewed articles from NIH-funded research to be made publicly available on PubMed Central (PMC) upon the Official Date of Publication.

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 July 1, 2025 by a journal
3. Arises in whole or in part from any direct funding from an NIH grant or cooperative agreement

See Scope and Applicability in the Policy FAQs. See NIH's definition of a journal in the Policy document.

Exempt publications include:

• Non peer-reviewed journal articles
• Books and book chapters, unless the chapter was peer-reviewed and published in a series in the journal section of the NLM Catalog
• Articles authored by a Principal Investigator which are not the result of NIH funding
• Articles resulting from research that only used NIH data, resources, or infrastructure generated or supported by NIH funds
• Articles accepted for publication before April 7, 2008, though authors may deposit these manuscripts according to their publication agreement

Exempt publications can be reported in NIH progress reports via My NCBI, but listed as not applicable (N/A).

Related NIH policies

• NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy (2023)
• AHRQ Public Access Policy (2024)

1. The full text of an applicable article must be made publicly available in PubMed Central (PMC) upon the Official Date of Publication in a journal. A 12-month embargo is no longer allowed, except for manuscripts accepted before July 1, 2025 or associated with grants closed before this date.
2. Compliance can be achieved by depositing either the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) into PMC via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) or the Final Published Article directly to PMC.
   • Use PMC's guide to determine the submission method for your paper.
3. 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.
   • Once a publication has a PMCID (PMC unique identifier), the policy compliance status will show "complete".
4. Even if an investigator is not an author on a paper, NIH holds the PI responsible for all papers resulting from their award.

As of 2013, NIH enforces compliance with its Public Access Policy by delaying the processing of non-competing continuation grant awards until all applicable articles are brought into compliance. Non-compliant papers from a previous award will be considered before a new award is granted.

Resolving compliance issues can take over two weeks to resolve. NIH expects Principal Investigators to report all publications arising from their award during the reporting period in My Bibliography, regardless of the public access status. 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 NIH funding applies to your manuscript during submission and acceptance.
3. Know which submission method your journal uses and whether you will need to deposit the AAM yourself.
4. Pay attention to all emails from the NIH Manuscript Submission system (NIHMS), and follow up when any action is required.