NIH Public Access Policy

Effective July 1, 2025, a revised version of the NIH Public Access Policy has been implemented. While most elements of the policy remain unchanged, a key update eliminates the previous 12-month embargo period. As a result, all peer-reviewed publications arising from NIH-funded research must be made immediately available to the public via PubMed Central upon publication.

Please note: The current policy, including the 12-month embargo, will continue to apply to manuscripts accepted before July 1, 2025.

For more information, please see Notice Number: NOT-OD-25-101 and the Public Access Policy website. 

We strongly encourage NIH-Funded researchers to plan now for how they will meet these requirements. Options include: 

• Publish in journals whose publishers permit zero-embargo sharing;
• Publish in journals with whose publishers KUMC has institutional agreements that eliminate or reduce article processing charge (APC) costs;
• Identify sources of funding to pay APCs during and beyond the grant period.
  • APCs are allowable expenses per current NIH guidance, though NIH is presently considering disallowing or capping these allowable expenses. 

Compliance and Submission Resources:

NIH Public Access is the home page for the NIH Public Access Policy.

NIH Submission Methods contains a table illustrating the four different methods used to comply with the NIH mandate and specific instructions for each method.

Journals that can submit articles on behalf of researchers (Method A) lists journals that can deposit the published version of articles directly to PubMed Central without the author's involvement. Pay close attention to the starting date. If the article was published before that date, contact the publisher to see if they can deposit or if you need to do so.

Publishers that Will Deposit a Specific Paper in PubMed Central on Request (Methods B and D) lists those publishers that will deposit work for an author, sometimes for a fee. See "Journal and Publisher Information" below for a resource that will help if you don't know who published a journal.

Journal and Publisher Information The Jisc Open Policy Finder (formerly SHERPA/RoMEO) database contains information about publisher policies on open sharing, including NIH compliance. It is searchable by journal title or by publisher. It is an easy way to see who publishes a particular journal, as well as links to publisher and journal websites with contact information that might be needed as you work your way through the compliance process.

Changes to Publishers Policies Provides an overview of publisher responses. 

Publisher Polices Another website providing updates on Publisher Policies.

Publishers and Journals Allowing Green OA without Embargo by Penn State provides a (likely incomplete) list of publishers/journals that are compliant with immediate public access by default. 

KUMC A.R. Dykes Library Open Access Agreements and APC Discounts lists publishers with which KUMC A.R. Dykes Library has negotiated OA opportunities that may support public access requirements. 

SPARC's overview of NIH’s Public Access Policy and Supplemental Guidance summarizes key elements of the NIH policy.

• Per NIH, the Final Published Article is the "journal's authoritative copy, including journal or publisher copyediting and stylistic edits, and formatting changes, even prior to the compilation of a volume or issue or the assignment of associated metadata." 

• Author's Accepted Manuscript version—also known as the author's final draft, author’s accepted manuscript or post-print—is the "author’s final version that has been accepted for journal publication and includes all revisions resulting from the peer review process, including all associated tables, graphics, and supplemental material."

  How does the NIH Public Access Policy impact KUMC investigators?

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.

Source: NOT-OD-13-042

This guide is based on the excellent guide from the University of Kansas.