NIH Public Access Policy

The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.  To help advance science and improve human health, the Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication.

NIH Public Access Policy Website: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/

Background:

To advance science and improve human health, NIH publishes the peer-reviewed articles it funds on PubMed Central. The NIH Public Access Policy requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to PubMed Central immediately upon acceptance for publication.

Current Public Access Policy: The current Public Access Policy became effective for manuscripts accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008; and which arose from direct funding from an award active in FY 2008 or beyond, a contract signed on or after April 7, 2008, or from intramural research or an NIH employee.

NIH Public Access Plan: The NIH Plan indicates “NIH plans to update the NIH Public Access Policy no later than December 31, 2024, with an effective date no later than December 31, 2025,” adhering to an expectation from the 2022 OSTP Memorandum. 

Per the NIH Public Access Policy, effective October 1, 2025, NIH is requiring Manuscripts to be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication, for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication.

NIH Public Access Site.

UC and NIH Public Access:

• To NIH-funded University of Cincinnati Researchers / Authors (PDF)

Definition:

1. What is the NIH Public Access Policy?

   The Policy implements Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) which states:

   SEC. 218. The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

   The Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH-funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/). The Policy requires that these final peer-reviewed manuscripts be accessible to the public on PubMed Central to help advance science and improve human health.

In accordance with 2022 guidance from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the NIH has released the NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access to the Results of NIH-Supported Research. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) revised Public Access Policy is expected to take effect on October 1, 2025. The policy will apply to manuscripts accepted for publication on or after that date, regardless of whether the award or contract is new or ongoing. The policy will replace the 2008 Public Access Policy for publications based on NIH-funded research. The policy will follow the expectations of the 2022 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Memorandum, which states that the policy should take effect no later than the end of 2025. The NIH is committed to working with the research community to prepare for implementation of the final policy. 

1. What is PubMed Central?

   PubMed Central is an archive of full-text biomedical journal papers available online without a fee.  Papers on PubMed Central contain links to other scientific databases such as GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/) and PubChem (http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/).  Papers collected under the Public Access Policy are archived on PubMed Central.  More information about PubMed Central is available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/faq.html.

2. What are the benefits of posting peer-reviewed papers to PubMed Central?

   Once posted to PubMed Central, results of NIH-funded research become more prominent, integrated and accessible, making it easier for all scientists to pursue NIH’s research priority areas competitively. PubMed Central materials are integrated with large NIH research data bases such as Genbank and PubChem, which helps accelerate scientific discovery. Clinicians, patients, educators, and students can better reap the benefits of papers arising from NIH funding by accessing them on PubMed Central at no charge. Finally, the Policy allows NIH to monitor, mine, and develop its portfolio of taxpayer funded research more effectively, and archive its results in perpetuity.

Source: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#753 

Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/06/18/2024-13373/request-for-information-on-the-national-institutes-of-health-draft-public-access-policy

The 2008 NIH Policy applies to any manuscript that:

• Is peer-reviewed;
• Is accepted for publication in a journal on or after April 7, 2008;
• And arises from:
  • Any direct funding from an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008 or beyond, or;
  • Any direct funding from an NIH contract signed on or after April 7, 2008, or;
  • Any direct funding from the NIH Intramural Program, or;
  • An NIH employee.

Until further notice, papers written in scripts other than Latin (e.g., Russian, Japanese) cannot be processed by the NIHMS.  These papers are not required to be posted on PubMed Central and do not require evidence of compliance on applications, proposals or reports.  The NIHMS continues to process papers written in Latin (Roman) script that contain characters and fonts used in standard mathematical notation.

Authors may submit final peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted before April 7, 2008 that arise from NIH funds, if they have appropriate copyright permission.

¹ "Directly" funded means costs that can be specifically identified with a particular project or activity. See NIH Grants Policy Statement, Rev. 12/2003.

Applications, Proposals and Reports must include evidence of compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy for all applicable papers that are authored by the Principal Investigator (PI) or arose from the PI’s NIH funds.

Source: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/determine_applicability.htm

The revised NIH Public Access Policy will apply to any Manuscript accepted for publication in a journal, on or after October 1, 2025, that is the result of funding by NIH in whole or in part through:

• A grant or cooperative agreement, including training grants
• Contracts
• NIH Intramural Research
• Official Work of an NIH employee

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 Manuscript. Upon the effective date, this Policy replaces the prior 2008 NIH Public Access Policy.

See the NIH Public Access Policy FAQs and Request for Information on the National Institutes of Health Draft Public Access Policy for more information.

Who is responsible for compliance?

Institutions and Principal Investigators (PI) are responsible for compliance. The PI of the grant is also responsible even if they are not an author or co-author of a work that falls under the NIH policy.

Penalty for Non-Compliance

For non-competing continuation grant awards with a start date of July 1, 2013 or beyond:

1) NIH will delay processing of an award if publications arising from it are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy.

2) Investigators will need to use My NCBI to enter papers onto progress reports.  Papers can be associated electronically using the RPPR, or       included in the PHS 2590 using the My NCBI generated PDF report.

Please see NOT-OD-12-160 for more details.

Source: Changes to Public Access Policy Compliance Efforts Apply to All Awards with Anticipated Start Dates on or after July 1, 2013 -- http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-13-042.html

Copyright

Make sure that any copyright transfer or other publication agreements allow the final peer-reviewed manuscripts to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the Policy.

PubMed Central Manuscript Submission

• Some publishers make the final published version of every NIH-funded article publicly available in PubMed Central within 12 months of publication, without author involvement. See http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm for a list of these journals.
• For any journal other than one of those in this list, the author must:

1. • Inform the journal that the final peer-reviewed manuscript is subject to the Public Access Policy when submitting it for publication.
   • Make sure that any copyright transfer or other publication agreement allows the final peer-reviewed manuscript to be submitted to NIH in accordance with the Policy. For more information, see the FAQ Whose approval do I need to submit my article to PubMed Central? and consult with your Institution.
   • Submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript to NIH, upon acceptance for publication. See the Submission Process for more information.
     • Submission process made easier by enhancements to My NCBI

• There are four methods in which an article can be deposited into PMC (Source: List and table from NYU's PA page)

• Method A: The journal deposits the final published articles in PMC without author involvement (see list of Method A journals).
• Method B: The author asks the journal publisher to deposit specific final published article in PMC, usually for a fee (see list of Method B publishers).
• Method C: The author deposits the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PMC via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). For a video of the process, see submitting an article to PMC (WMV file, approx. 7 min).
• Method D: The author completes the submission of the final peer-reviewed manuscript deposited by publisher in the NIHMS. This is a list of Method D publishers, but the awardee should check their author agreements to confirm that a publisher on this list will submit, and be aware that they are ultimately responsible for ensuring that the manuscript is submitted.

  (Source: List and table from NYU's PA page)

Demonstrate NIH Compliance - How to Cite

When your manuscript is submitted to NIH, you will receive a NIHMS ID number. The NIHMSID is a preliminary article identifier that applies only to manuscripts deposited through the NIHMS system. Once the paper appears in PubMed Central (PMC), it will also be assigned a PMCID. NIHMS ID numbers can also be found in PubMed Central and in PubMed in the MID (Manuscript ID) field when viewing the citation in the MEDLINE display format.

1. Include the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) at the end of citations.

• For papers published more than 3 months before an application, proposal and report is submitted:

List the PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) at the end of the full journal citation for the paper in NIH applications, proposals and reports.  A PMCID is the only way to demonstrate compliance for these papers.  

(PMC ID numbers can be found in PubMed and in PubMed Central. The PMC ID number begins with PMC and appears in the lower left of the PubMed citation in the Abstract display option.)

• For papers in press, or published within 3 months of when an application, proposal or report is submitted:

When using Submission Method A or B, indicate “PMC Journal - In Process” or the PMCID at the end of the full citation.

When using Submission Method C or D, provide a validNIH Manuscript Submission System reference number (NIHMSID) or PMCID at the end of the full citation. Note, NIH awardees are responsible for ensuring that all steps of the NIHMS submission process are complete within three months of publication.

2. Place the Literature Citations in the appropriate location.

The appropriate locations for literature citations vary depending on the application type.  See the Guide Notice NOT-OD-08-119 for details.

(Source: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/citation_methods.htm)

Find a PMCID, NIHMSID, and PMID

• Examples of how to find PMCID, NIHMSID, and PMID numbers.

• The Health Sciences Library can help you find these numbers, if you need assistance.If you publish through a journal in the list of Journals That Submit Articles To PubMed Central, you may indicate "PMC Journal - In Process" until the PMCID is available. There might be a slight delay in assignment of a PMCID even for those publishers working with NIH. By using this phrase, you are letting the NIH program officer know that your article will be in compliance with the new policy.

Finding PubMed Central (PMC) ID Numbers

• National Library of Medicine: Technical Bulletin
• Difference Between a PMCID and a PMID
• Locating the PMCID
• PMCID Converter: translates PMIDs to PMCIDs and vice versa

Latest News NIH Public Access Policy

For non-competing continuation grant awards with a start date of July 1, 2013 or beyond:

1) NIH will delay processing of an award if publications arising from it are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy.

2) Investigators will need to use My NCBI to enter papers onto progress reports.  Papers can be associated electronically using the RPPR, or included in the PHS 2590 using the My NCBI generated PDF report.

For an overview of policy changes, see this video, excerpted from our January 2013 webinar.