Navigating the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy
NIH is updating its Public Access Policy to ensure free, immediate use to taxpayer-funded research to advance transparency, equity, and trust in science.
Since 2008, NIH has required researchers to submit final peer-reviewed manuscripts to PubMed Central within 12 months of publication (making over 1.5 million articles publicly available). But in response to the 2022 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Memorandum, NIH released a Public Access Plan (2023) and Draft Policy (2024) to remove the 12-month embargo. The 2024 Policy replaces the 2008 NIH Public Access Policy, and the new policy reflects public feedback and aligns with federal efforts to broaden access and collaboration.
If you’re an NIH-funded principal investigator (PI) whose manuscript is accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025, you must submit it to PubMed Central and make it publicly available without an embargo. (This date has been updated from the 2024 draft, which originally listed December 31, 2025.)
NIH applies its Public Access Policy regardless of:
- whether you are listed as an author.
- whether non-NIH funds supported the development or writing of the manuscript.
- your intention to deposit Author Accepted Manuscripts into institutional repositories. You may do that so long as you also submit your publication to PubMed Central.
Read the full policy document. Also, check out these FAQs.