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Scholarly Publishing and Communication

Introduction

Current Policy

The NIH Public Access Policy requires authors who receive NIH funding to make their peer-reviewed manuscripts freely available in PubMed Central (PMC) within a year of publication. 

The policy applies to any manuscript that: 

  • Is peer-reviewed; 
  • And, is accepted for publication in a journal on or after April 7, 2008; 
  • And, arises from: 
    • Any direct funding from an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008 or beyond, or; 
    • Any direct funding from an NIH contract signed on or after April 7, 2008, or; 
    • Any direct funding from the NIH Intramural Program, or; 
    • An NIH employee. 

If your manuscript meets this criteria, you must deposit the postprint into PubMed Central (PMC) to make it freely available within 12 months of publication. 

Changes Coming on July 1, 2025

The new 2024 NIH Public Access Policy will remove the 12-month embargo period of the current policy, requiring authors to make their NIH-funded articles available in PMC as soon as their work is published. The effective date is now July 1, 2025 (see notice NOT-OD-25-101). Eligible manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 must comply with the new policy.

For more information on how this policy will affect your publishing agreements, potential conflicts with journal policies on embargoes, and more, see the Authors Alliance’s webpage: The NIH Public Access Policy: Q&A for Authors.

How to Comply

Read your publishing agreement carefully 

Before signing any of your author rights away to the publisher, make sure that your publishing agreement states that you can make your postprint freely available in PMC within 12 months after publication. To do this, either:

  • Tell your publisher that you have to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.
  • Select a journal that has these copyright policies already in place.
  • Modify your publishing agreement with an author addendum.

Ensure that your manuscript is deposited into PMC 

There are four different methods for depositing your manuscript into PMC. The method you follow depends on your journal or publisher. If you’re not sure which method applies to you, refer to the NIH's page Determine Submission Method.

Reporting to NIH 

My Bibliography is a tool available in My NCBI that allows you to add citations and link awards to those citations. Once you link your eRA Commons account to My NCBI, you’ll also be able to track the compliance status of your citations in My Bibliography. 

  1. Login or create a My NCBI account. 
    1. Use your eRA Commons account to login. 
    2. If you don’t have an eRA Commons account, use a different third-party login option, such as ORCID. Or click More sign up options and select University of Pittsburgh to login with your Pitt username and password. 
  2. If you have an existing My NCBI account, link your eRA commons account so that award information will appear in My Bibliography. 
  3. Add citations to My Bibliography. 
  4. Add awards to those citations and start/update compliance if necessary.

With citations and awards added to My Bibliography, you'll be able to create a Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) that shows compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.

Other Public Access Policies

For information on other public access policies: