By STEPHEN GABRIELSON

The NIH changed the effective date of their new 2024 Public Access Policy from Dec. 31, 2025 to July 1, 2025. Author accepted manuscripts resulting from NIH-funded research that are accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 must be made freely available in PubMed Central (PMC) immediately at the time of publication.

Author accepted manuscripts are the manuscript version that has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. This is different from the final, published article that has been copy edited, formatted, and made available on the journal’s website. The current 12-month embargo period for depositing author accepted manuscripts in PubMed Central will no longer be accepted.

Journal copyright policies

To help ensure that your NIH-funded manuscripts will be compliant, check the journal’s copyright and author rights policy before submitting to confirm that you will have the rights to upload your author accepted manuscripts into PubMed Central. If the journal’s policy includes an embargo period, let the journal know before submitting that your work is NIH-funded and must comply with 2024 NIH Public Access Policy.

It’s also good to clarify who is responsible for depositing manuscripts into PubMed Central — some journals do this on the author’s behalf. Journals that do have an agreement with PubMed Central to deposit manuscripts for authors might be doing so on a 12-month embargo period, based on the 2008 policy. Clarify with the journal to see if they will update their policy or if there are other options available to comply with the new policy.

Do I need to publish open access?

While publishing open access is one way of making your manuscript immediately available and retaining the right to deposit your work into PubMed Central, the NIH states that authors do not need to pay to publish in an open access journal to bring their manuscripts into compliance.

NIH Rights Retention Statement

The NIH recommends that authors include the following NIH Rights Statement in their manuscripts to be extra transparent with the journal that the NIH has the right to make the author accepted manuscripts available in PubMed Central without embargo:

“This manuscript is the result of funding in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy. Through acceptance of this federal funding, NIH has been given a right to make this manuscript publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication, as defined by NIH.” — Government Use License and Rights Notice Number: NOT-OD-25-049

Library support

If you have any questions about these upcoming changes, selecting journals for publication, or interpreting journal policies, contact HSLS Publishing Services.

Stephen Gabrielson is a scholarly communication librarian in Pitt’s Health Sciences Library System.