The updated National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy (NOT-OD-25-047) officially went into effect on July 1, 2025 (NOT-OD-25-101), for all applicable manuscripts, reflecting NIH's commitment to advancing public access to its funded research. This open access mandate requires that peer-reviewed journal articles or author accepted manuscripts reporting NIH-funded research, and accepted for publication on or after this date, must be immediately deposited into the National Library of Medicine’s digital archive, PubMed Central (PMC). Most significantly, the policy now eliminates the embargo period, ensuring public access from the manuscript's official date of publication. The policy applies to all research funded in whole or in part by NIH. It is important to note that the separate 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy remain in effect and is unchanged by this new timeline.
The NIH Public Access Policy applies to any paper that:
- Is peer reviewed
- Is accepted for publication in a journal on or after July 1, 2025
- And comes from
- Any direct funding from an NIH grant, NIH cooperative agreement, or NIH Intramural Program, or
- An NIH employee
For more information on the policy and the process for submitting papers to PubMed Central, please sign up for the CHSS Pre-Award Listserv where more information will be shared soon.
Other helpful resources include:
NIH Public Access Policy Website
GMU Library Guides 2024
NIH Public Access Policy Slides
October 13, 2025