The 2008 NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH-funded research. It requires scientists to submit the 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.
The 2024 Public Access Policy is effective for manuscripts accepted for publication on or after December 31, 2025.
If you answer "yes" to questions 1 and 2, you will need to follow this policy.
Principal Investigators are responsible for the following for any peer-reviewed paper that arises directly from their awards, even if they are not an author or co-author of the manuscript:
The NIH will hold processing of non-competing continuation awards if publications arising from grant awards are not in compliance with the public access policy.