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Research Guides

National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy

This guide provides NIH grantees and administrative staff information about the NIH Public Access Policy (NIH PAP), how to comply, and how to manage publications in eRA Commons using the My Bibliography portal in My NCBI.

NEW: Updated NIH Public Access Policy effective July 1, 2025

The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy (NIH PAP) has gone into effect as of July 1, 2025, replacing the existing 2008 Public Access Policy. The 2024 Policy applies to any NIH-funded Author Accepted Manuscript (final peer-reviewed manuscript) accepted for publication in a journal on or after July 1, 2025.

The updated policy requires that manuscripts be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication and made publicly available without embargo. This is a change from the prior policy which allowed for up to a 12-month embargo period before public availability.

Compliance with the policy can be achieved by either 1) a journal submitting the Final Published Article to PubMed Central on the grantee's behalf, or 2) the grantee submitting their Author Accepted Manuscript (final peer-reviewed manuscript) to PubMed Central manually.

Please explore the resources on this guide to learn more.

How to prepare:

  • Read your author agreement closely and assess compliance options before signing.
  • Confirm in writing whether a journal will submit the Final Published Article to PubMed Central with no embargo on your behalf.
  • If publisher submission is not feasible, use the NIH Manuscript Submission System to submit your Author Accepted Manuscript (final peer-reviewed manuscript) to PubMed Central when accepted for publication.

NIH Public Access Policy documentation and tools

Assistance

Contact the Taubman Health Sciences Library for policy assistance:
nihms-library-support@umich.edu

Last Updated: Aug 27, 2025 1:41 PM
Subjects: Health Sciences