NIH Public Access Policy (2024)

NIH Public Access Policy (2024)

"On December 17, 2024, NIH released its updated 2024 Public Access Policy.  The Public Access Policy was informed by public feedback, including comments received in response to the NIH Draft Public Access Policy.  The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy is in keeping with the White House OSTP memo “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research”."

The policy states that NIH funding recipients grant NIH the right to make Author Accepted Manuscripts, or Final Published Articles if possible, of peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 resulting from those funds publicly available upon the Official Date of Publication in PubMed Central (PMC) under a Government Use license. No embargoes are granted.  Funding by NIH may be whole or in part, based on work grant or cooperative agreement, including training grants, a contract, an Other Transaction, NIH intramural research, or the official work of an NIH employee. 

What is PMC?
PMC is a free full-text online archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).  It is a repository for journal literature deposited by participating publishers, as well as for author manuscripts that have been submitted in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy and similar policies of other research funding agencies.  Access to the material in PMC is free, but use of the material is still subject to the copyright and/or related license terms of the respective authors or publishers.

What's changed from the original policy (2008)?
The most substantive change is that a 1-year embargo on public access is no longer allowed.  The 2024 policy also utilizes a standard license based on the Government Use License, which reserves a royalty-free, nonexclusive and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use the work for Federal purposes, and to authorize others to do so.  Additionally, the updated policy redefines Official Date of Publication as the date when the article is first made available in final, edited form, whether print or electronic, as opposed to the later of the electronic or print publication dates.