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NIH Public Access Policy

Directions for investigators publishing NIH-funded research

The Policy

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. 

Does this apply to your manuscript?

If you answer "yes" to questions 1 and 2, you will need to follow this policy.

  1. Is your paper peer-reviewed?
  2. Did it result from any of the following?
    • Direct funding from an NIH grant or cooperative agreement
    • Direct funding from an NIH contract
    • Direct funding from the NIH Intramural Program?
    • An NIH employee

Your Responsibilities

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:

  • All peer reviewed papers arising from NIH funds must be deposited into PubMed Central upon acceptance of publication.
  • All NIH applications, proposals and progress reports must include the PubMed Central ID (PMCID) when citing an article that arose from NIH grant(s).
  • NIH requires the use of MyNCBI for managing publications in eSNAP Progress Reports.
    • When logging into MyNCBI, you must use the NIH login option and your eRA Commons Credentials.
  • You must create a MyNCBI account that is linked to your eRA Commons account and add ALL NIH funded publications to My Bibliography.

What happens if I don't follow this policy?

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.