Determine Eligibility
If your article meets all three of the below requirements, it must be deposited to PubMed Central for public availability at the time of publication (with no embargo):
- Your article was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) AND
- Your article was peer-reviewed AND
- Your article was accepted for publication in a journal
💡 PubMed Central is the NIH's full-text archive.
Determine Submission Method
There are two potential paths to policy compliance.
Path 1: Some journals and publishers will deposit the Final Published Article to PubMed Central immediately upon publication (with no embargo) on your behalf. This process is typically associated with an Open Access publishing agreement.
💡 The Final Published Article is the publisher's final copy of the article, sometimes referred to as the "version of record." It includes the publisher's formatting and is subject to the author agreement.
Path 2: In some cases (e.g., if a journal has a 12 month embargo period before publicly availability), authors may need to submit your Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central using the NIH Manuscript Submission System at the time of acceptance for publication.
💡 The Author Accepted Manuscript is your final peer-reviewed draft manuscript file, including images, tables, figures and supplements. These files are the draft just before the publisher's formatting, sometimes referred to as the "final peer reviewed manuscript."
💡 The NIH Manuscript Submission System receives and processes NIH-funded Author Accepted Manuscripts for inclusion in PubMed Central.
To determine your submission method
Step 1: Confirm all Public Access Policy compliance options in writing with your journal editors. You can review the PMC Journal List and publishers' Selective Deposit Programs as a starting point to check journal compliance options.
The PMC Journal List includes information about journals' deposit and embargo options.
Image credit: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/about/submission-methods/
💡 If you are publishing in a journal with a 12 month embargo, you need to either make special arrangements with the journal to have the Final Published Article deposited without embargo, or proceed to "Step 2" below.
Under the new policy, NIH-funded articles accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025, must be made available without embargo upon the official date of publication.
Additionally, NIH maintains a list of Selective Deposit Programs indicating publishers that may deposit your Final Published Article article directly to PubMed Central if Open Access arrangements were made and the article meets additional requirements. Always confirm with your publisher directly that they will use this deposit option.
Open Access Publishing
Publishers often link depositing the Final Published Article to their Open Access publishing agreements. In many cases, Author Processing Charges (APCs) or Author Processing Fees can be charged back to your grant. Additionally, the University of Michigan Library negotiates discounts and waivers on APCs with a number of publishers.
💡 See: Open Access discounts and waivers for University of Michigan authors.
The NIH has announced that it will be implementing cost caps for APC fee reimbursements starting in 2026. This guide will be updated when more information is available.
Step 2: If a publisher does not offer a feasible deposit option, you may consider pursuing publication in another journal. Alternatively, the NIH asserts NIH-funded authors' right to deposit your Author Accepted Manuscript to the NIH Manuscript Submission System.
As a reminder, the Author Accepted Manuscript is the final peer-reviewed draft manuscript including images, figures, and supplements. The Author Accepted Manuscript is distinct from the publisher's Final Published Article, which includes publisher formatting, and is subject to the terms of the author agreement.
Confirm in writing your right to deposit your Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central without embargo before signing any publisher author agreement.
The NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) processes Author Accepted Manuscripts for inclusion in PubMed Central.
For details regarding the NIHMS Author Accepted Manuscript submission process, see the "Submitting" tab on this research guide.
References
- PubMed Central, "For Authors." https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/about/submission-methods/