The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.
To help advance science and improve human health, the Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication.
Policy details are available.
FAQs about the NIH Public Access Policy
With this Notice, NIH informs grantees that in Spring, 2013, at the earliest, NIH will delay processing of non-competing continuation grant awards if publications arising from that award are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy. The award will not be processed until recipients have demonstrated compliance. This change will take effect in tandem with NIH requiring the use of the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPRs) for all Streamlined Non-competing Award Process (SNAP) and Fellowship awards in the Spring of 2013 (see NIH NOT-OD-12-142).
The Policy applies only to research and review manuscripts accepted by a peer-reviewed journal. The Policy does not apply to materials such as correspondence, book chapters, and editorials. In addition, the article must meet the following criteria:
NIH Public Access Policy contacts
PublicAccess@nih.gov
NIHMS
nihms-help@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
NIHMS Help Desk Report form
NCBI
info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
NCBI/PubMed Help Desk form
eRA Commons Service Desk
Toll-free: 1-866-504-9552
Phone: 301-402-7469
Feel free to make a copy or re-use this page as long as you credit UNM HSLIC.
This guide was created by a Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center staff member and is licensed by the Health Science Library and Informatics Center of the University of New Mexico under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
With credit to Rita Sieracki at the Medical College of Wisconsin Libraries and staff at the Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives for providing the bulk of the content in this guide.