This week, the National Institutes of Health’s new Public Access Policy takes effect. The policy directs that all NIH-funded manuscripts published on or after July 1st, 2025 must be made freely available immediately upon publication. This may be the published version of the article or the author’s accepted manuscript deposited into PubMed Central (PMC).
The policy makes the most current NIH-funded research accessible to anyone using PubMed. It aims to promote broader, unmediated access, foster scientific discovery, and accelerate innovation.
So what does it mean for NIH-funded authors?
The burden is on authors to understand if their article is in compliance, and verify that their publishing agreement is appropriate for their needs. Failure to comply with the policy could result in disruptions to funding. Your article may be public in various forms:
Keep in mind:
- Don’t assume your journal of choice will facilitate publication. Some subscription-based journals may continue to use publishing agreements that do not allow for immediate deposit of any version of the article into PMC. Check with your publisher or librarian.
- Authors are typically the rights holders to “gold” open access publications so that they can distribute it as they wish. But beware, fully open access licenses usually come with a hefty author proceessing charge from the publisher.
- Paying the author processing charge (“APC”) to make the final version of your article open access may not be enough. Verify that your journal is indexed in PubMed Central or that the journal will deposit your article there. Otherwise, you will have to self-deposit.
- This mandate could be a big shake-up for publishers. Look out for new fees or directives in the author’s guidelines specific to NIH-funded authors. Remember, the NIH Policy states that grant funds may be used for reasonable publishing costs (such as publishing gold open access) but that fees associated with making the author accepted manuscript public are not considered reasonable costs.
Our Guide to the NIH Public Access Policy has practical information about journals and how to stay in compliance with this policy. Don’t hestitate to contact the Scholarly Communication Librarian if you need assistance.